Image via Complex Original
Bill Russell turns 80 today. And while it’s been a while since the 11-time NBA champion has graced the hardwood with his play, his influence on the game is still felt today. You know about the 11 rings in 13 seasons, though the grandeur of that number only continues to grow, and you know about Red Auerbach and the Celtics dynasty. However, like any athlete that embodied the game, and still holds sway over current proceedings, there’s way more to Bill Russell than just being the face of the Boston Celtics. Russell is an ambassador for the game, he’s made TV appearances, and he had one of the greatest college careers in NCAA history. To go past the surface of the NBA’s most winningest player, check out, 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Bill Russell in GIFs.
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"It's Bill Russell" became a way of saying "the truth" in a small island off the coast of Chile.
How awesome is this? Forget the rings, forget the awards, and forget the statue, this anecdote proves that Russell was bigger than the game of basketball. He was, well, everything in a way.
Russell was mistaken for Morgan Freeman at Barack Obama's second presidential inauguration.
Thank you, George Stephanopoulos, for breaking up the seriousness of the presidential inauguration with your identity faux pas. Do they really look that much alike? You be the judge.
He never shot better than 50 percent from the field for a single season in his career.
If you can believe it, there was something Russell didn't excel at on the basketball court. Obviously the Celtics put enough scoring talent around him that Russell's sub-par shooting numbers never really hurt the team.
The former SF Don holds the NBA Finals single-game record for most rebounds with 40.
40 boards in a NBA Finals game? You can't even do that on XBox or PlayStation.
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In his first NBA season (1957-58), Russell became the first player in NBA history to average more than 20 rpg for an entire season.
It was just as much, welcome to the NBA, Bill, as it was, NBA, meet Bill Russell. The dude just couldn't be kept off the boards, as he would prove throughout his career.
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Russell became the first black head coach in a major U.S. professional sport.
Often hailed as a pioneer for African Americans in sports, Russell never could've imagined that he'd one day get the opportunity to be in that position.
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He was the first of just four players to win an NCAA and NBA Championship back-to-back.
The winning didn't stop when Russell traded San Francisco for Boston, in fact, the rings and trophies were just beginning. The other dudes to accomplish this feat are Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson, and Billy Thompson.
Russell is 11-0 in series deciding games (10-0 in Game 7's and 1-0 in a Game 5).
Talk about clutch performers. It's one thing to win 11 rings in 13 seasons, it's another to collect 10 of those in Game 7 situations.
He hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1979.
Russell hosted and Chicago was the musical guest during season five, episode three of Saturday Night Live. You can catch the entire episode on Hulu, if you want to see how the show was producing laughs decades ago.
Russell finished with 21,620 career rebounds, second in NBA history to Wilt Chamberlain's 23,924.
Wilt and Bill had legendary battles on the court, and while Russell clearly has the edge as far as rings go, Wilt did manage to one up the former Celtic in a few categories. Just to put it into perspective, the next closest active player on the list is Kevin Garnett with 14,138 boards.
In 1980, Russell was voted Greatest Player in the History of the NBA by the PBWAA.
Sure, there was no LeBron or MJ yet, but it's still one hell of an accolade to receive from the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America. To be named the greatest at something you do as a professional during any period in time speaks volumes. The case can still be made today, too.
Russell averaged 20.7 ppg and 20.3 rpg in his three years at the University of San Francisco.
Those are some staggering numbers at any level. It's not hard to see why Red was confident enough to give up the cornerstone of the franchise in Ed Macauley for an unproven rookie. With those numbers it's no wonder the Dons won the chip twice with Russell.
Russell once pulled down 51 boards in a single game.
Damn, that's a hell of a lot of rebounds. The former Celtics center also had 49 boards in two other games, and boasts a dozen consecutive seasons of at least 1,000 rebounds.
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He was arrested for carrying a loaded .38 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
So nobody told Russell it wasn't cool to carry a loaded firearm in your carry-on, can't we give the Hall of Famer a pass? It's not like he was going to go crazy up there, unless they were late with the drink cart, or something. Russell was detained and later released, without the gun.
He is the only player-coach to win multiple championships (1967-69).
At the end of Bill Russell's career with the Celtics, he led the green both on and off the court. Acting as player and head coach for Boston in his last two seasons, he led them to Finals victories in six and seven games, respectively, against the Lakers.
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Bill Russell won back-to-back NCAA titles with the San Francisco Dons (1955-56).
Russell didn't just lead the Dons to back-to-back titles, he also helped USF rattle off 50 consecutive victories during that span. Bay Area big boy doing big things.
Russell considered competing in the high jump at the 1956 Olympics.
In addition to being a basketball star, Russell also did his thing in track and field at the University of San Francisco. He considered competing in the high jump in Australia, but he must've remembered how filthy he was at ball.
He was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks with the 2nd overall pick in 1956.
Yup, the Hawks might have been, you know, relevant, had Russell stayed with St. Louis. Red Auerbach wasn't having any of that, though. He knew he wanted Russell from the start, and parted ways with Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley to get his man.
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Bill Russell coached the Sacramento Kings during the 1987-88 season.
Russell gave coaching one final roll of the dice with Sacramento during the 1987-88 season. The champ went 17-41, and only lasted 58 games.
