Bill Russell: From Martin Luther King to Kobe- Basketball's First Black Superstar

While not a household name in the UK like more recent basketball players such as Michael Jordan or Lebron James, Bill Russell's greatness as a player is evident from the sheer numbers that make up his extraordinary career, most notably the longstanding record of 11 career NBA titles spanning across the late 1950s and 1960s. This absurd achievement makes him the joint most successful athlete in American sports history (along with ice hockey player Henri Richard) and included a monstrous stretch of eight consecutive titles. Russell's legendary appetite for winning and his equally important hatred of defeat made him one of the fiercest competitors in sporting history and it is testament to his overwhelming talent that the modern day NBA Finals MVP is named after him, and he presents the award at the end of every season.

Bill Russell wearing his 11 Championship Rings.

However, considering Russell as just an athlete would be a grave disservice to him, as his legacy and achievements off the court carry just as much weight as those on the hardwood. In times such as today where we see more athletes rightly contributing to discussions around a plethora of social issues, it is important to highlight and respect the work of pioneers who fought inequality in harsher times than we live in now and faced much more severe consequences for doing so. Russell certainly did that, and his greatness extends so far beyond the game of basketball that I thought it only right to shed some light on the distinction of the man.

Even during his college basketball days at the University of San Francisco (USF), it was clear Russell was bound to be a different calibre of player than the league had ever seen before. Despite not being the overly skilled offensively, his defensive instincts were so remarkable that the NCAA had to change the rules and widen the lane around the basket to make guarding that area considerably harder. Suffice to say the attempts to limit Russell's dominance in the paint didn't work, and his USF team won consecutive national championships in 1955 and 1956 including a stretch of 55 wins in a row.

Issues of race reared their head even at this early stage in Russell's career in a multitude of ways. According to journalist John Taylor, the offer of a scholarship at USF was the moment that Russell realised basketball could provide a unique opportunity for him and his family to escape poverty. However whilst at the university it was clear that escaping racism would not be so simple- fixtures played at other universities were often hugely difficult for Russell and his teammates (this USF team were the first major college team to have three black players in their starting five) as they faced jeers, abuse and on some occasions refusal to host them. One particularly grim moment came during a tournament in Oklahoma in 1954, Russell and his black teammates were refused from all hotels in the town. In solidarity, the entire team stayed together in a closed college dorm room, and Russell pledged to himself to never feel like a victim or be humiliated by the racist actions of ignorant others, as he revealed in an interview with USA today in 2006. Russell had one of the greatest college seasons of all time in his junior year, winning the championship and averaging over 20 points and 20 rebounds. Despite these outrageous achievements, he wasn't even selected as the best college player in Northern California, let alone the country- in his own words, "at that time, it was never acceptable that a black player could be the best". The complete absurdity of that sentiment couldn't be more plain given that in the years since 1956 and the creation of the NBA MVP award, it has been won just 11 times by white players.

A young Russell in his USF days, 1954.

Russell's winning habits and mentality continued to develop as he embarked upon his professional career. Legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach made various trade deals in order to secure Russell in the 1956 NBA draft as he saw his potential to improve their defensive potential as a unit. Immediate success came for the team, as they prevailed in the 1957 NBA finals and Boston earned their first championship in his first season. Injury prevented victory in the next year's finals, before a run of eight straight championships between 1959 and 1966, a stretch that we can confidently say will never be rivalled. This winning streak came in spite of the emergence of Wilt Chamberlain for the Philadelphia 76ers, possibly the most destructive scorer in NBA history, and the rivalry between Russell and Chamberlain really ignited the fire of the NBA in terms of its growth- the period is often referred to as the golden era for basketball.

Russell and coach Red Auerbach enjoy the celebrations after the legendary coach's final championship in 1966. Fred Keenan 1966.

Russell became the player-coach of the team after the 1966 title, becoming the first ever black coach in American Major League sports, and proceeded to win two of the next three championships (in his first year the Celtics were comprehensively beaten by Chamberlain's 76ers). In his final playing season, the 1968-69 campaign, Russell was clearly in the twilight of his playing days. An overtly political thinker, he was disillusioned by the Vietnam War, shocked by RFK's assassination and generally worn out by the hardships of overt racism in America during the 1960s to the extent that he was medically diagnosed with acute exhaustion- it was hard to focus on basketball when wider social issues seemed so much more important to Russell. His Boston team had their worst record since the 1955 season however still reached the playoffs, where Russell's indomitable winning gene kicked in again. They reached the finals where they faced the Lakers as huge underdogs given the likes of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and recurring nemesis Wilt Chamberlain had teamed up in an attempt to end the Celtics' dominance. The teams split the first six games three each, meaning that whoever took home the decisive game seven would be champions. Russell was irked and fired up by the fact that the pre-match programme at The Forum had included timetabling of the assumed Lakers victory parade, and that yellow and purple balloons were held in the ceiling- a naive move when competing against such a monster of mentality. Boston won by two points in what would be Russell's final game which he had stamped with his mark- a monstrous 21 rebounds and a whole host of defensive stops demonstrative of his timeless and unique talents.

Russell working as a player-coach, 1968.

You would think someone who had a long and storied history with a sporting city would have had a loving relationship with the fans, however this was rightly not the case for Russell. The hardships of the 1960s mentioned earlier were unimaginable and he was abused and discriminated against in almost every sense by the people in the city he had given so much to. Russell was totally committed to the organisation, his teammates and coach, but owed nothing to the city in general or the fans. He has previously said that he struggled immensely with hypocrisy of being treated as a hero on the court, but as a second class citizen off of it. In a recent op-ed for Slam Magazine in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Russell details just a few of the harrowing incidents which demonstrate this problem. He was frequently taunted with hateful slurs by his own fans such as "go back to Africa", and when the organisation ran a poll asking how best to improve attendance amongst fans, the predominant answer was to 'have fewer black players'- this was the horrifying reality of playing professional sport during Jim Crow. When he was looking to move house in the 1960s, no-one in the area of Wilmington, Massachusetts would sell him a property because of the colour of his skin, and when he did find a place in Reading, just north of Boston, it was brutally vandalised by disapproving locals. Bigots broke into his house, spray painted a whole host of racist insults on his walls and defecated in Russell's bed. This kind of hate crime was far from irregular in those terrifying times. The most poignant line (and there are many) of this op-ed comes when Russell admits the toll that his experiences of inequality had on him- he remembers driving through the night with his children crying in the car as no hotel or restaurant would accept their blackness: "None of my medals or championships could shield my children from White Supremacy". Russell was often criticised in the Boston media for his surliness and outward unfriendliness to people he didn't know- however it is hardly surprising that he had little desire to placate the people who had treated him so miserably for his entire career, and he moved to Mercer Island near Seattle in 1973- almost as far away from Boston as one can get. Relations between Russell and the city have thawed somewhat more recently- he attended the event of the unveiling of an 8 foot bronze statue in his likeness at Boston's City Hall in 2013. However this doesn't mean that he has forgiven the people of Boston for their wrongdoings, as it took convincing from the Mayor, the Celtics organisation and his own daughter to persuade him to attend even that, and who can blame him for his wariness.

Barack Obama greets Bill Russell during a stop to view the statue at Boston's City Hall the day before it was publicly unveiled, October 30, 2013.

As much as these injustices took a toll on Russell, he never let them deter him from his activism. His list of achievements as an activist is literally never-ending and he continues even now well into his old age to speak out as prominently as ever. He was just feet away from Martin Luther King during the March On Washington and it's culmination with the iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech, and was even invited by King himself to be on stage for the speech having met the evening before- although in typical Russell fashion he declined as he felt he hadn't earned the right to be there. On the March's 50th Anniversary, Russell stated that "He [King] invited me to be up there, and I respectfully declined because the organisers had worked for years to get this together, and I hadn’t done anything.". He famously stood with Muhammad Ali in his determined opposition to the Vietnam War along with Kareem Abdul Jabbar (then called Lew Alcindor), Jim Brown and a whole host of prominent black athletes at the Cleveland Summit in June 1967. Ali's unpopularity in the USA for his apparently unpatriotic anti-war stance was widespread, and yet it was utterly unsurprising that Russell and the others were willing to risk their own favour for such a meaningful cause and man. Another instance where Russell displayed his character and commitment to the cause came after tragedy- specifically, the assassination of prominent civil rights activist and NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers by the KKK in June 1963. At the request of Evers' older brother Charles, Russell rushed down to Mississippi where he held the first ever integrated basketball camps at a time of immense trauma and fear for black children in the state. To have such a legend of American sport come and coach basketball must have been of genuine reassurance to the children in the area. Russell did so at great personal risk to himself- the KKK were reportedly following his every move, and Charles Evers stayed outside his room at night with a shotgun for a protection. The threat of racially aggravated violence was very real, and yet Russell acted as he did without flinching.

The Cleveland Summit, June 4th 1967. Russell is sat on the left of Ali as we look at the image. Tony Tomsic, Getty Images.

One of the crowning glories of Russell's life came in 2011 when he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. Russell had long preached about his dream of the USA having a black president, and to have an award bestowed upon him by Obama was the true realisation of a lifelong dream. The images of the ceremony are joyous and genuinely heartwarming, with the wide smiles of both men clear to see. Russell was awarded this prestigious honour for both his incredible on court achievements as well as those with the Civil Rights Movement- further proof of his multifaceted greatness. Obama described Russell as "someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men", and Russell equally idolised Barack. He was hugely proud of being invited to Obama's inauguration in 2009, and in a New York Times article before the award of his Medal noted that he has told Obama how proud of him he is- not only for being the first black President, but for being an intelligent, competent politician who had arrived at the top of his profession.

Russell receives his Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. Pete Souza, 2011.

His activism has continued into modern conversations and is just as relevant as ever. Notably, he has been a vocal supporter of Colin Kaepernick in his battles with the NFL. He only began to use twitter more often when the controversy surrounding the taking of a knee during the national anthem began, and posted the photo below along with the caption "Proud to take a knee and stand tall against social injustice". Another story Russell tells in his Slam article is that of being arrested as a black man driving a Lamborghini in LA, where the police tried to bait him into fractious actions in order to justify their own violence before realising who their victim was. A lifetime of experiencing such institutional biases has given Russell (like many other black men) a wisdom and understanding of the deep-set racial biases which dictate so many American establishments- a relevant note given the recent abhorrent events in the US and beyond.

Russell takes a knee in support of Colin Kaepernick while wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What can we learn from Bill Russell? Most pointedly, he has taught us that on issues of race and equality there can be no compromise, and that you can never be scared to speak out against the wrongs and injustices of the world regardless of the consequences. We can also learn not to judge a character for being seemingly prickly- bitterness can be justified, just as Russell was rightly crabby and cautious with media and fans having been mistreated for so long. From a sporting perspective, Russell was the ultimate teammate- he wrote in his own book 'Second Wind' that he used to scout his own team for weaknesses, so that he could adjust his own game to be as helpful as possible to his side. It was an approach which the late great Kobe Bryant adopted in the latter stages of his career, and let Russell know as much with a unannounced phone call in 2011- a moment the great man cherishes. With 11 titles in 13 years, it is fair to call him the greatest winner in American sporting history.

What's noticeable is that when Russell does open up (as he has done more often in his elderly years), it is a beautiful thing- he is incredibly self aware and doesn't take himself too seriously, and I would implore anyone with time on their hands to watch recent interviews with the great man if only to hear his infectious laugh. Above all, Russell is a fiercely proud African American who never shied away from discussing issues of social justice even in truly terrifying times. It is telling that in Russell's own Twitter bio, he notes himself as a civil rights activist before listing any of his sporting achievements. Modern day sportspeople are praised for speaking out against inequality and injustices, but they owe their ability to do so to their predecessors who were contemporarily berated for doing the same thing- the Russells, Abdul-Jabbars and Alis of history.

Useful Links:

Slam Magazine op-ed- https://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/bill-russells-lifelong-fight-against-racism/

The Cleveland Summit information: https://theundefeated.com/features/the-cleveland-summit-muhammad-ali/

Mr Russell's House, NBA TV interview with Bill Simmons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc5wizzVVC8#t=11m24s

Matt Foster, @fostermdf1