Bill Russell anchored a Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 championships in 13 years and marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr.
Basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Russell waves as he is introduced at a game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Las Vegas Aces at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on July 21, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bill Russell, the NBA great who anchored a Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 championships in 13 years — the last two as the first Black head coach in any major U.S. sport — and marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., died Sunday. He was 88.
"Bill stood for something much bigger than sports: the values of equality, respect and inclusion that he stamped into the DNA of our league. At the height of his athletic career, Bill advocated vigorously for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he passed down to generations of NBA players who followed in his footsteps," Silver said.
Russell said that when he was growing up in the segregated South and later California his parents instilled in him the calm confidence that allowed him to brush off racist taunts. "She hung the phone up and I asked myself, ‘How do you get to be a hero to Jackie Robinson?’" Russell said. "I was so flattered."Jackie Robinson was far from the first Black man to play in the major leagues. Here are the four Black men who preceded him.On Jackie Robinson Day, remember the Black men who played in the majors before he broke the color barrier
The Celtics also picked up Tommy Heinsohn and K.C. Jones, Russell’s college teammate, in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late because he was leading the U.S. to the Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the league’s best record. Russell led the Celtics back to titles in 1968 and ’69, each time winning seven-game playoff series against Chamberlain. Russell retired after the ’69 finals, returning for a relatively successful — but unfulfilling —- four-year stint as coach and GM of the Seattle SuperSonics and a less fruitful half season as coach of the Sacramento Kings.
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