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How do you compare Jordan, your teammate, to LeBron James, who entered the league the year you retired? Steve Kerr: LeBron’s brilliance doesn’t lie in the same skill set that Michael’s did. It lies in more of a holistic game where he dominates with his pace and his athleticism and his passing. I’ve always felt scoring is secondary for LeBron, but he’s the greatest scorer in the history of the N.B.A.! Almost incidentally. Steve Kerr: Yeah, incidentally. Some of that is longevity: he’s a machine. I mean, I think he’s literally the greatest athlete on the face of the planet and in the course of human history. Playing with Michael, I saw the killer instinct, the emotional dominance he had over not only the other team but the officials, the entire arena. I don’t see that with LeBron. So they’re different, as far as the emotional part of it. Everybody came into a series against Michael knowing they were going to lose. There’s never been anybody like that. Maybe Bill Russell. But I’ve never felt the same way on a basketball floor as I did with Michael.
Q. You're an amazing player, man. One of the best ever to do it. But then you have this conversation, just lazy people I guess, when they talk about ring culture, and ring culture doesn't necessarily validate someone who as elite as you. Do you think people have become more lazy in that conversation when it comes to judging people's careers? Patrick Ewing: Well I'm not going to say people have become lazy. I think that you know all of us who I don't care which sport you play everybody when you at the beginning of the year that have a goal. My goal is to win a championship. And growing up in Boston where all you they talk about is Bill Russell and his 11 rings. So I'm like sh*t I'm going to get me 11 rings like Bill! And then in college I got to the finals three years. So, I'm like in the NBA, yeah, I'm gonna get me a ring. But then you get there and you realize how difficult it is to get a ring or to even get there. I was fortunate to get there twice. The second time we got there, I was hurt. I tore my Achilles and I couldn't play. But I don't see the fact that I don't have a ring or Charles Barkley don't have a ring or all the other great players who play this game that don't have a ring. I don't see that diminishing what they have accomplished. I think that all of us have done something special to to be able to get to where we've gotten, but it just wasn't in the cards for us to get that that elusive championship.
Bill Russell, on the other hand, is the antithesis of James in this overall respect, as the Boston Celtics legend reached 12 NBA Finals in his career, and he had to come out of the stronger conference for all of them. That's why so many herald Russell as the greatest winner in league history; not only did he win 11 rings, but he had pretty much the most difficult path possible to even attain all of those Finals appearances.
The NBA's global expansion happened decades after Chamberlain retired. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo had little knowledge of Chamberlain growing up in Greece, but he has heard his name plenty en route to winning two MVPs and a title. "Whenever you look at a stat, he's always up there," Antetokounmpo said. "Not just up there, but way, way up there. You kind of ask yourself, was he like really, really that dominant?" Most of what Antetokounmpo knows about Chamberlain he learned from watching "Bill Russell: Legend," the Netflix documentary about the all-time great Boston Celtics center who was Chamberlain's primary rival. "They were going back and forth, and you saw how dominant he was and what Bill was saying. How he was trying to limit him as much as possible, but it was almost impossible," Antetokounmpo said. "Now, we are talking about Bill Russell saying that -- one of the best defenders ever to play his game. So, you understand kind of how dominant he was."
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Tim Reynolds: Scottie Barnes is the 9th player in NBA history (including playoffs) with a 23-point, 25-rebound, 10-assist game. Wilt did it 18 times. Elgin Baylor twice. Maurice Stokes, Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Billy Cunningham, Maurice Lucas and Nikola Jokic did it once. And now, Scottie.
Marc J. Spears: The inaugural ‘Bill Russell Impact Classic’ basketball game will take place Feb. 12, with host U of San Francisco vs Oregon State on what would have been the late Celtics’ legend’a 92nd birthday. A posthumous honorary doctorate will be presented to Russell’s widow, Jeannine.
The simple fact of being a player-coach alone made Lenny Wilkens an outlier from another age. According to Wikipedia, there have been 40 NBA players who also simultaneously served as their team’s coach, with Richie Guerin being the leader in wins under that arrangement (199) and the great Bill Russell leading in championships with 2 (in 1968 and ‘69). But by the time Wilkens did it, it was already an antiquated strategy — he was the third-to-last person ever to fill both roles at once, with Kevin Loughery and Dave Cowens being the only other player-coaches to serve after Wilkens stopped:
This season, an NBA record-tying 135 international players represent 43 different countries and territories, but the game’s globalization is traced with consistent contributions from Black pioneers across the early 19th century — trailblazers who, by their own hoops-centric spearheading, helped paved the way for Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton to do their parts. “We’re always looking for ways to continue to educate our players on the history of the game,” NBPA executive director Erika Swilley told The Athletic. “These guys, at 18-19 (years old), weren’t born. They have a context. You know, if you were to ask them who the pioneers are of the game, a lot of them say, like, Bill Russell or, you know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and I don’t think they can even fathom that there was a time that the NBA (and basketball) wasn’t integrated.”
The recently completed Charlestown Bridge now has an official name. The structure has been renamed the William Felton “Bill” Russell Bridge, honoring the legendary Boston Celtics player and his profound impact on the city of Boston. In an October 2024 article, the Boston Globe noted that the bridge's renaming concludes a longstanding debate over the bridge's name. Questions surrounded whether the span should be known as the “Charlestown Bridge” or the “North End Bridge,” the name traditionally used by Charlestown residents.
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Karen Kenyatta Russell: Bill Russell is a bridge. The renaming of the recently completed Charlestown Bridge to the William Felton “Bill” Russell Bridge honors not only my father, but also the City of Boston. This is more than a symbolic gesture. It is a recognition of the ways in which place, history, and legacy intertwine.
Karen Kenyatta Russell: Naming this bridge for Bill Russell reminds us of the enduring connection between a man and a city, a connection defined by triumph and tension, resilience and hope. It calls on Boston to remember both the banners that hang in the rafters of TD Garden and the principles for which he stood. In honoring Bill Russell, Boston honors itself.
Brandon Rahbar: Sam Presti doesn't see the point in comparing players from different eras: "If you took Oscar Robertson and gave him a personal trainer at 12, think of how good that guy would be. If Bill Russell had access to the shoes we have today..."
Wilt Chamberlain’s Los Angeles Lakers uniform from the 1969 NBA Finals, when he faced off against arch-rival Bill Russell and the Celtics for the last time, will sell next week at Sotheby’s, and bidding could potentially stretch into the millions at Sotheby’s. The last time a Chamberlain jersey from the NBA Finals crossed the auction block (from the 1972 Finals), it sold for $4.9 million in 2023.