Bill Russell, the all-time NBA great whose athleticism on the court made him legendary and whose outspokenness on social issues made him an icon, has died ay 88.
Bill Russell, left, and Celtics coach Red Auerbach celebrate the team's victory over the L.A. Lakers for the 1966 NBA title.
and won 11 championships. Yet Russell, an outspoken advocate for civil rights, had a tortured relationship with Boston, which he once said was a"traumatizing" place to live. "My father was my hero," Russell said in"Mr. Russell's House," a documentary for NBA TV."I was never afraid because I knew that he loved me."
And whether he was walking through San Francisco, or traveling with the team, Russell often encountered racist attitudes and policies. Often during road games, Russell and his Black teammates would hear racial slurs from opposing fans, and they would not be allowed to stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as white teammates.
By the end of his rookie season, Russell helped the Celtics to win an NBA title. In the seasons that followed, Russell would lead the team to championship after championship. When he took on the role of player-coach in 1966, he was the first Black head coach in the NBA. When reporters questioned whether he would have problems coaching white players, Russell brushed it off.
"He turned the blocked shot into a weapon, and once he did that, he erased the easy layup from the game," Goudsouzian said. To adjust, opponents started shooting from further away, leaping in the air and taking the now-familiar jump shot, rather than watching as Russell swatted away their layups. Because of Russell, the game became more airborne.A Legacy On Civil Rights
"This is a guy who went and conducted basketball clinics that were racially integrated in 1964 in Mississippi," Goudsouzian said."This is the same summer as Freedom Summer, when activists were being murdered and harassed." "Not a lot of people came to Russell's support, in the ultra-conservative world of American sports," Edwards said."He had to figure it out on his own."Though Russell had close bonds with all his Boston teammates, white and black, that closeness did not extend to the city of Boston.
Unlike some of his teammates, Russell made little effort to cultivate a friendly relationship with the media.
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