Bill Russell: The Most Great Athletes

“If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?”, Vince Lombardi, a legendary football coach. He also quoted that “Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing”. Athletes always wants to improve to win and nothing else, they put so much work on what they do to win it all because in sports nothing is more satisfying than winning. Some great athletes who won it all are Michael Phelps; he won 22 Olympic medals including 18 golds, 26 world championships, and 39 world records. Heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano who retired with an undefeated record of 49-0. But the one athlete that was the “winningest” was Bill Russell.

William Felton “Bill” Russell was born to Charles Russell and Katie Russell on February 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana.

Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell 2nd overall, and was traded to coach Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics’ coach who already had his eyes on Russell because of his defensive toughness and rebounding ability which was the missing piece of the Boston Celtics team. Coach Red Auerbach, in his franchise’s early days had no assistants, ran all practices, did all the scouting of enemy teams and college prospects and scheduled all road trips. The Boston Celtics was on a very bad situation when Auerbach took over and turned the basketball program around and won them a couple of championships and was the foundation of the greatest dynasty in NBA history. Bob Cousy played point guard for the Boston Celtics for 1950-1963. In his early years, Cousy established himself as one of the best point guards in the league but was not that successful team-wise. But in the 1956-57 season things started to turn around when the Celtics’ acquired Tom Heinson and Bill Russell. After a few bad seasons things started to turn around for Cousy, he averaged over 20 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists and won 6 NBA champions, and a MVP

He played all of his 12 seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics. He was known as a “clutch shooter” – a shooter that shoots really well under pressure and that makes the game winner shoot with only a few seconds left in the game. He scored more than 15,000 points in his career, participated in 5 All-Star games. He is also considered as one of the best shooting guards in his generation. K.C Jones, a college and Celtics’ of Russell teammate. He and Bill Russell led the University of San Francisco in 2 NCAA championships and also won the Gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. He also won 8 championships.

Boston Celtics during Russell’s era did not have an easy ride to the top; they also faced strong teams that would test them. Celtics’ best rival was the Los Angeles Lakers – this rivalry is also considered the best rivalry of the NBA. They faced each other 7 times in the NBA finals but the Celtics won all of them. Next Celtic rival was the Philadelphia 76ers – also considered the 2nd best rivalry of the NBA. The rivalry was highlighted when Russell faced Wilt Chamberlain from 1965 to 1968; Celtics won most of their battles but lost the 1967 season