US basketball legend Bill Russell’s number 6 jersey is being retired across the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Key points:
The NBA will permanently retire the jersey number for all teams
Players like LeBron James, who currently wears the number, can continue to wear it until their careers end
Russell, an 11-time NBA champion, died on July 31 at age 88
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association made the announcement on Thursday, permanently retiring the number worn by the 11-time champion and civil rights activist, who was good enough to have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
Russell is the first player to have his number retired league-wide.
The Boston Celtics star died at age 88 on July 31.
“Bill Russell’s unparalleled success on the court and pioneering civil rights activism deserve to be honored in a unique and historic way,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
“Permanently retiring his number 6 across every NBA team ensures that Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognised.”
Players who currently wear number 6 — including the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James — may continue doing so.
But the number cannot be issued again, the league said.
Bill Russell was the most prolific winner in the NBA’s history. (AP Photo: Michael Dwyer)
All NBA players will wear a patch on the right shoulder of their jerseys this season, the league said, and every NBA court will display a clover-shaped logo with the number 6 on the sideline near the scorer’s table.
The Celtics have “separate and unique recognition for him on their uniforms” planned, the NBA said.
Russell was the most prolific winner in NBA history, an 11-time champion during a 13-year career — winning the last two of those titles as a player-coach — and the first Black coach in any of the major US pro sports to win to championship.
He marched with Martin Luther King Jr, stood with Muhammad Ali and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
And having his number retired league-wide puts him in a very exclusive club.
Major League Baseball (MLB) retired civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s number 42 jersey across the league in 1997.
Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired by Major League Baseball.(Supplied)
Robinson broke professional baseball’s color barrier 50 years earlier by becoming the first Black player to play in the major leagues in the modern era.
On April 15 each year, every MLB player wears the number 42 in honor of Robinson.
The NHL, upon Wayne Gretzky’s retirement in 1999, said his number 99 would be retired league-wide in honor of that sport’s all-time scoring leader.
And now, Russell gets the same treatment.
Russell called Robinson a hero, once saying that “he showed me the way to be a man in professional sports.”
Robinson held Russell in high esteem as well.
Rachel Robinson, her widow, asked Russell to be a pallbearer at her husband’s funeral in 1972.
The NBA will honor Celtics great and civil rights activist Bill Russell by retiring his No. 6 jersey throughout the league, making him the first player to receive the honor.
A patch commemorating the 11-time champion will be worn on the right shoulder of player jerseys and a shamrock-shaped logo with the No. 6 on courts will be used across the league as well for the 2022-23 season, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association said on Thursday.
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“Bill Russell’s unparalleled success on the court and pioneering civil rights activism deserve to be honored in a unique and historic way,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
“Permanently retiring his No. 6 across every NBA team ensures that Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognised.”
Russell, the cornerstone of a Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA titles and a powerful voice for social justice during and after his career, died on July 31 at the age of 88.
US President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama — who awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 — were among those who paid tribute to Russell’s contributions on and off the court.
NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio said the union was proud to support the “momentous honor” of retiring Russell’s jersey.
“Bill’s actions on and off the court throughout the course of his life helped to shape generations of players for the better and for that, we are forever grateful,” Tremaglio said.
Russell wore the No. 6 for his entire 13-season career from 1956-69. It will not be issued again by any NBA team to any player, although players who currently wear No. 6 — a group that includes Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and the Washington Wizards’ Kristaps Porzingis — can retain it.
The NBA said the Celtics plan to “separate and unique recognition” for Russell on their uniforms, which will be revealed at a later date.
While the league-wide jersey retirement is a first for the NBA, it has happened in other North American leagues.
Major-league Baseball permanently retired No. 42 in 1997 in honor of Jackie Robinson, who broke the big leagues’ color barrier.
The NHL said upon Wayne Gretzky’s retirement in 1999 that his No. 99 would be retired league-wide.
The basketball community lost an all-time legend on Sunday as Bill Russell died at age 88, his family announced.
Russell, who won a record 11 NBA titles with the Celtics, was a trailblazer as a black superstar in the 1950s and ’60s, and became the first black head coach of any North American professional team when the Celtics hired him in 1966 as a player -coach.
In a statement announcing his death, his family called Russell “the most prolific winner in American sports history.” By any measure, that is correct.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 as a player and in 2021 as a coach, Russell won two NCAA titles at San Francisco, an Olympic gold medalist and two NBA titles as a coach, in addition to his 11 as a player.
Comprised of a core that included Russell at center along with fellow Hall of Famers Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinsohn, KC Jones, Bill Sharman and Sam Jones, the Celtics won a stunning 11 of 13 championships from 1956-1969.
In 10 Game 7’s, Russell was undefeated in his career. Extended to any winner-take-all game — in NCAAs, Olympics and best-of-five playoff rounds — he was 21-0. The Finals MVP Award is named after him, and Russell was often on hand to give it out.
In addition to his basketball credentials, Russell was also a leader in the area of civil rights, enduring racist abuse throughout his career in Boston, where his home was once broken into and graffitied.
“From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask too-long tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp in the fuel wake of Medgar Evans’ assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candour that he intended would disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful change,” his family said in a statement.
Bill Russell celebrates a championship with coach Red Auerbach.Source: Getty Images
“Bill’s wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you’ll relive one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh at him as he delighted in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded. And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6.”
Russell’s relationship with the city was complex — he didn’t attend his jersey retirement in 1972 and once described himself as “playing for the Celtics, not for Boston.” Eventually, in 1999, the team re-retired his number from him in a ceremony at which he attended.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that Russell was “the greatest champion in all of team sports.”
“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 vigorously advocated for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he passed down to generations of NBA players who followed him in his footsteps, ”Silver said. “Through the taunts, threats and unthinkable adversity, Bill rose above it all and remained true to his belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.”
Bill Russell drives past his great rival Wilt Chamberlain.Source: SuppliedKobe Bryant and Bill Russell in 2019. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)Source: Getty
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Russell’s family moved to San Francisco, where he parlayed a spot on the McClymonds High School basketball team into a scholarship at San Francisco. Though Russell never averaged over 20 points in an NBA season, he is considered one of the greatest defensive players of all-time, with a 6-foot-9 frame that made him one of the greatest shot blockers ever, and a career average of 22.5 rebounds per game.
In 2011, then US President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Medal of Freedom.
“Bill Russell, the man, is someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men,” Obama said at the ceremony. “I have marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the Black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players and made possible the success of so many who would follow.”
Arrangements for his memorial service have yet to be announced.
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
Bill Russell redefined how basketball is played, and then he changed the way sports are viewed in a racially divided country.
Key points:
Bill Russell was a 12-time All-Star and was voted the greatest player in history in 1980
He won 11 championships as the centerpiece of the dominant Boston Celtics team
The MVP award for the best player of the NBA finals series is named after him
The most prolific winner in NBA history, Russell marched with Martin Luther King Jr, supported Muhammad Ali and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
The centerpiece of the Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 championships in 13 years, Russell earned his last two NBA titles as a player-coach — the first black coach in any major US sport.
Russell died on Sunday at the age of 88. His family posted the news on social media, saying his wife Jeannine was by his side. The statement did not give the cause of death, but Russell was not well enough to present the NBA Finals MVP trophy in June due to a long illness.
“Bill’s wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you’ll relive one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh as he delighted in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded,” the family statement said.
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“And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle.
“That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that Russell was “the greatest champion in all of team sports.”
“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 vigorously advocated for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he passed down to generations of NBA players who followed in his footsteps,” Silver said.
“Through the taunts, threats and unthinkable adversity, Bill rose above it all and remained true to his belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.”
A Hall of Famer, five-time Most Valuable Player and 12-time All-Star, Russell in 1980 was voted the greatest player in the NBA history by basketball writers.
He remains the sport’s most decorated champion — he also won two college titles and an Olympic gold medal — and an archetype of selflessness who won with defense and rebounding while others racked up gaudy scoring totals.
Often, that meant Wilt Chamberlain — the only worthy rival of Russell’s era and his prime competition for rebounds, MVP trophies and bar room arguments about who was better. Chamberlain, who died in 1999 at 63, had twice as many points, four MVP trophies of his own and is the only person in league history to grab more rebounds than Russell — 23,924 to 21,620.
But Russell dominated in the only stat he cared about: 11 championships to two.
The native of Louisiana also left a lasting mark as a black athlete in a city — and country — where race is often a flash point.
He was at the March on Washington in 1963, when King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, and he backed Muhammad Ali when the boxer was pilloried for refusing induction into the military draft.
Bill Russell stands court side during a tribute in his honor during a game in 2013. (AP Photo: Michael Dwyer)
“To be the greatest champion in your sport, to revolutionize the way the game is played, and to be a societal leader all at once seems unthinkable, but that is who Bill Russell was,” the Boston Celtics said in a statement.
In 2011, Mr Obama awarded Russell the Medal of Freedom alongside Congressman John Lewis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and baseball great Stan Musial.
“Bill Russell, the man, is someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men,” Obama said at the ceremony.
“He marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the Black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players and made possible the success of so many who would follow.”
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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.
“Years later, people asked me what I had to go through,” Russell said in 2008.
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’ve never been through anything. From my first moment of being alive was the notion that my mother and father loved me.”
It was Russell’s mother who would tell him to disregard comments from those who might see him playing in the yard.
“Whatever they say, good or bad, they don’t know you,” he recalled her saying.
“They’re wrestling with their own demons.”
But it was Jackie Robinson who gave Russell a road map for dealing with racism in his sport: “Jackie was a hero to us. He always conducted himself as a man. He showed me the way to be a man in professional sports.”
The feeling was mutual, Russell learned, when Robinson’s widow, Rachel, called and asked him to be a pallbearer at her husband’s funeral in 1972.
Bill Russell (left), with Muhammad Ali (centre) and college basketballer Lew Alcindor. The photo was taken during a meeting of a group of the nation’s top athletes to hear Ali’s views of him on rejecting Army induction. (Getty Images)
“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.”
William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana.
He was a child when his family moved to the West Coast, and he went to high school in Oakland, California, and then the University of San Francisco. He led the Dons to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 and won a gold medal in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics.
Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach so coveted Russell that he worked out a trade with the St Louis Hawks for the second pick in the draft. He promised the Rochester Royals, who owned the number one pick, a lucrative visit by the Ice Capades, which were also run by Celtics owner Walter Brown.
Still, Russell arrived in Boston to complain that he wasn’t that good.
Bill Russell, back left, joins his US teammates in posing for a photo with Soviet Union basketballers during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics at the Royal Exhibition Building.(Getty Images)
“People said it was a wasted draft choice, wasted money,” he recalled.
“They said, ‘He’s no good. All he can do is block shots and rebound.’ And Red said, ‘That’s enough.'”
The Celtics also picked up Tommy Heinsohn and KC Jones, Russell’s college teammate, in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late because he was leading the US to the Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the league’s best record.
The Celtics won the NBA championship — their first of 17 — in a double-overtime seventh game against Bob Pettit’s St Louis Hawks. Russell won his first MVP award the next season, but the Hawks won the title in a finals rematch. The Celtics won it all again in 1959, starting an unprecedented string of eight consecutive NBA crowns.
At 6-foot-10 centre, Russell never averaged more than 18.9 points during his 13 seasons, each year averaging more rebounds per game than points. For 10 seasons I have averaged more than 20 rebounds. He eleven had 51 rebounds in a game; Chamberlain holds the record with 55.
Auerbach retired after winning the 1966 title, and Russell became the player-coach — the first Black head coach in NBA history, and almost a decade before Frank Robinson took over baseball’s Cleveland Indians. Boston finished with the second-best regular-season record in the NBA, and its title streak ended with a loss to Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division finals.
Russell led the Celtics back to titles in 1968 and ’69, each time winning a seven-game play-off 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.
Russell’s number six jersey was retired by the Celtics in 1972. He earned spots on the NBA’s 25th anniversary all-time team in 1970, 35th anniversary team in 1980 and 75th anniversary team. In 1996, he was hailed as one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players.
In 2009, the MVP trophy of the NBA Finals was named in his honor — even though Russell never won himself, because it wasn’t awarded for the first time until 1969. Russell, however, traditionally presented the trophy for many years, the last time in 2019 to Kawhi Leonard; Russell was not there in 2020 because of the NBA bubble nor in 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.
In 2013, a statue was unveiled on Boston’s City Hall Plaza of Russell surrounded by blocks of granite with quotes on leadership and character. Russell was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 but did not attend the ceremony, saying he should not have been the first African American elected. (Chuck Cooper, the NBA’s first Black player, was his choice.)
In 2019, Russell accepted his Hall of Fame ring in a private gathering.
“I felt others before me should have had that honor,” he tweeted. “Good to see progress.”
Silver said he “often called (Russell) basketball’s Babe Ruth for how he transcended time.”
“Bill was the ultimate winner and consummate teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever,” Silver added. “We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Jeannine, his family, and his many friends.”
Russell’s family said arrangements for the memorial service will be announced in the coming days.
The basketball community lost an all-time legend on Sunday as Bill Russell died at age 88, his family announced.
Russell, who won a record 11 NBA titles with the Celtics, was a trailblazer as a black superstar in the 1950s and ’60s, and became the first black head coach of any North American professional team when the Celtics hired him in 1966 as a player -coach.
In a statement announcing his death, his family called Russell “the most prolific winner in American sports history.” By any measure, that is correct.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975 as a player and in 2021 as a coach, Russell won two NCAA titles at San Francisco, an Olympic gold medalist and two NBA titles as a coach, in addition to his 11 as a player.
Comprised of a core that included Russell at center along with fellow Hall of Famers Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinsohn, KC Jones, Bill Sharman and Sam Jones, the Celtics won a stunning 11 of 13 championships from 1956-1969.
In 10 Game 7’s, Russell was undefeated in his career. Extended to any winner-take-all game — in NCAAs, Olympics and best-of-five playoff rounds — he was 21-0. The Finals MVP Award is named after him, and Russell was often on hand to give it out.
In addition to his basketball credentials, Russell was also a leader in the area of civil rights, enduring racist abuse throughout his career in Boston, where his home was once broken into and graffitied.
“From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask too-long tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp in the fuel wake of Medgar Evans’ assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candour that he intended would disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful change,” his family said in a statement.
“Bill’s wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you’ll relive one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh at him as he delighted in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded. And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6.”
Russell’s relationship with the city was complex — he didn’t attend his jersey retirement in 1972 and once described himself as “playing for the Celtics, not for Boston.” Eventually, in 1999, the team re-tired his number from him in a ceremony at which he attended.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that Russell was “the greatest champion in all of team sports.”
“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 vigorously advocated for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he passed down to generations of NBA players who followed him in his footsteps, ”Silver said. “Through the taunts, threats and unthinkable adversity, Bill rose above it all and remained true to his belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.”
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Russell’s family moved to San Francisco, where he parlayed a spot on the McClymonds High School basketball team into a scholarship at San Francisco. Though Russell never averaged over 20 points in an NBA season, he is considered one of the greatest defensive players of all-time, with a 6-foot-9 frame that made him one of the greatest shot blockers ever, and a career average of 22.5 rebounds per game.
In 2011, then US President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Medal of Freedom.
“Bill Russell, the man, is someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men,” Obama said at the ceremony. “I have marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the Black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players and made possible the success of so many who would follow.”
Arrangements for his memorial service have yet to be announced.
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
