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Red Auerbach had nothing but respect for Michael Jordan. The NBA coaching icon was often asked if Jordan was the greatest of all time, and he quickly agreed.
“Jordan is the best player of all time – no question about it,” Auerbach replied. “But if I were starting a team and the idea was to win championships, I would take Russell first.”
That’s because Bill Russell, who died Sunday at the age of 88, was the biggest winner of all time – in all major sports. Jordan won six NBA championships, one NCAA title and two Olympic gold medals. Russell won 11 NBA titles, two NCAA championships and an Olympic gold medal.
Russell played 21 winner-take-all games and went 21-0. Jordan lost his last game in North Carolina against Indiana in the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament.
That’s not supposed to blow Jordan’s mind, but to underpin Auerbach’s argument: It went beyond numbers. Russell has done something few centers have ever done: He made everyone around him better. He was a defensive genius who was the first to understand why blocking a shot by keeping it in play was so much better than hammering the ball into the third row. His teammates knew they could bet on defense because Russell backed them in colour.
He wasn’t a great scorer – he averaged 15.1 points over his 13-year NBA career – but he didn’t have to be because he had great scorers around him with the Boston Celtics. He was an exceptional rebounder, grabbing 22.5 per game. Only Wilt Chamberlain finished with more rebounds than Russell’s 21,620. He also averaged 4.3 assists. Many big centers never gave up the ball – Russell did so willingly. The NBA didn’t start tracking blocked shots until Russell retired, so there’s no way of knowing how many he denied. This much is almost certain: his blocks certainly resulted in more points than anyone else who played the game.
“It was almost like he was going to initiate a quick break as he blocked a shot,” Sam Jones, his longtime teammate, once said. “There were times when I would see someone running his way and I went to the other end because I knew the ball was going to come that way.”
There was a lot more to Russell than his remarkable stats. He became the first black man to coach a major professional sports franchise when he took over the Celtics from Auerbach in 1966 and won two NBA titles within three years – no doubt helped by the fact that his center was Bill Russell. A lifelong civil rights advocate, he faced racism from his youth in Louisiana to his playing days in Boston.
He was named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 and has been an inspiration throughout his life, speaking out on political issues long before it was considered acceptable for athletes — especially black athletes — to do so.
Auerbach played a pivotal role in Russell’s career, getting him out of the University of San Francisco in 1956 after leading the Dons to back-to-back national titles and 55 straight victories. There were no scouts then, but Bill Reinhart, Auerbach’s college coach at George Washington, had faced Russell’s team in a 1954 tournament.
“He called me and said, ‘When he graduates from college next year, you have to find a way to get him,'” Auerbach recalled. “‘This is the center that will make you a championship team.’ ”
At this point, the Celtics were doing well but hadn’t won the NBA title. In 1956 they had the sixth draft pick, and Russell was considered the first pick for a castle. Auerbach traded two future Hall of Famers – Ed Macauley and the rights to Cliff Hagan – to the St. Louis Hawks to move up to No. 2 but couldn’t trade because he was accused in local media of trying to save money .
“He told me, ‘They’re going to chase me out of town if I trade that pickaxe,'” Auerbach said years later.
Auerbach found a solution. He convinced Celtics owner Walter Brown, who happened to own the Ice Capades, to promise Harrison that the Ice Capades would play Rochester for a week next year if Harrison didn’t pick Russell with the number 1. Harrison won Duquesne’s Sihugo Green, Russell finished second, the Ice Capades played to a sold-out crowd in Rochester, and a year later the Royals moved to Cincinnati.
The Celtics won their first title in 1957 and 11 of 13 championships before Russell retired in 1969. In those years they won 10 games 7.
After retiring, Russell coached in Seattle and briefly for Sacramento, but always remained close to the Celtics and Auerbach. When Auerbach died in 2006, Russell flew from Seattle to Washington for his wake, although there would be no speakers or formal program on Auerbach’s orders. In 2009, Russell wrote a book called Red and Me. The caption summed up their relationship: “My Coach, My Lifelong Friend.”
Auerbach loved telling Russell stories. Often, he said, Russell would get tired of the drills and “ruin the workout” by blocking any shot that got too close. Sometimes Auerbach told Russell to go home early; on other days he canceled the training completely. “It really wouldn’t have made much sense to practice,” said Auerbach, “if he wasn’t there.”
But what Auerbach loved most was sitting back and listening to people arguing about whether Russell would be as dominant in the 21st century as he was in the 1950s and ’60s.
“How would he guard Shaq?” People would ask and wonder how the 6-foot-10-inch, 215-pound Russell would do against the 7-1, 325-pound Shaquille O’Neal.
Auerbach puffed on his cigar and smiled. “Firstly, he did well guarding Wilt Chamberlain, who was the same height as Shaq and was better offensively,” he said. He paused to let that sink in – and then, if necessary, reminded people that Russell won 11 titles against Chamberlain’s two.
Then he would deliver the coup de grace: “How on earth was Shaq supposed to guard Russell? He would run him straight into the ground. And when all was said and done, do you know whose team would win the game? Russells – because Russell’s team has always won when it mattered.”
Nobody won more games that mattered than Bill Russell. And 53 years after he played his last game, he still mattered — and always will.
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