Bill Russell passed away over the weekend at age 88. As many kids growing up inside the United States in my era, we played a lot of basketball and looked up to the legends of the National Basketball Association of the late 1960s and 1970s. No one had a bigger presence than Bill Russell, and even though I only remember the end of his career, he was one of my personal all-time favorite basketball players. About 15 years ago while working as the Publisher & Editor for our magazine, I had the opportunity to interview him over the phone which was truly a thrill. If you have an interest, below is a link to that interview where talks about the first time he met Dr. J, how his Celtic teams had the Lakers number, and his friendship with NBA icon Jerry West.
There have been very few athletes in the history of sport as synonymous with winning as him. A truly legendary man and basketball player. As a college player, he averaged 20 points and 20 boards in three seasons winning two NCAA Championships – at that time freshmen were not allowed to play varsity sport. He then captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics. As a Celtic, he became the most dominate defensive center of all-time, once grabbing 51 rebounds in a single game. In total, he won the 11 NBA championships in 13 years with the Boston Celtics and became the first African American Head Coach in any major US sport.
Personally, I will remember Bill as a gentleman who could not have been nicer to me during our brief encounter. BTW – he would insist that you call him Bill and not Mr. Russell which he politely corrected me from doing. RIP Bill.
