Perspective: Bill Russell was a fully dimensional Black athlete more than a half century before it was okay to be one
In the 1960s, vandals broke into his house in the Boston suburbs, scrawled hatred on the walls and left feces in his bed. But there was no intimidating Russell. On the court, he went head to head with Wilt Chamberlain, a towering rival who, at 7-foot-1 and 275 pounds, was four inches taller and 60 pounds heavier than Russell. Still, Russell’s Celtics dominated the postseason matchups against Chamberlain’s teams.
Silver liked to refer to Russell as “basketball’s Babe Ruth for how he transcended time.” Russell and Chamberlain were among the pioneers in transforming the game into a more vertical show, one in which tall men with astounding leaping ability did unimaginable things in the air. Russell reserved most of his athleticism for practical purposes: rebounding and blocking shots.
There was artistry and calculation in everything Russell did. Sometimes, early in games, he would seemingly come from nowhere and reject shots well into the crowd to terrify opponents. Mostly, though, he was a master at self-control while blocking shots, preferring to tap the ball to himself or a teammate so that the Celtics could gain possession. He knew that keeping the ball inbounds was more beneficial than the thrill of swatting it as far as he could.
He was a defining sports figure during a defining time in American history, speaking up during the same era in which Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Jim Brown and Abdul-Jabbar refused to stay silent. Russell was 13 when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, and he used Robinson’s example as a blueprint for his career. When Robinson died, Russell was a pallbearer at his funeral.
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