How do you measure greatness?
There are a lot of ways in life and in basketball and for our money, Bill Russell is the greatest player in the history of team sports.
Why?
Because his team always won the last game.
From his junior year at San Francisco until his last day in the NBA, Russell’s teams won championships: two NBA, one Olympics and 11 in the league. There were just two exceptions: 1958, when he was injured, and 1967, when Philly was just better.
He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1975 but refused the honor, saying at the time that “for my own personal reasons, which I don’t want to discuss, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m not going. They know that. I’ve felt this way for many years.”
Now we know why: he refused to be the first African-American player inducted. Honestly we didn’t realize that and he’s right, there were others who should have gone in before him. He mentioned Chuck Cooper, but he could have named several former teammates as well.
Now, 44 years later, he has accepted the honor.
Being Russell, he did this in private, at home, with a few of his closest friends: Bill Walton, Ann Meyers Drysdale and Elgin Baylor among them.
Here’s an HBO documentary on Russell’s life and career. What it can’t fully capture is his refusal to be anything but a proud free man. He’s 85 now and we’ve seen him using a cane recently. He won’t be with us much longer. We should treasure and honor him while he still is. He is in many ways the very embodiment of being an American.