OT: Extraordinary article on ESPN/Grantland by . . .

[RockyMTblue2]

Bill's game was a thing to behold and he carried himself with dignity. A deep thinking and mostly quiet guy. If he was occasionally snarky, he had plenty of reason. An All-Timer.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

More about Russell...

http://nesn.com/2013/11/bill-russel...-location-befitting-his-impact-beyond-sports/

 

[ctfjr]

Relying heavily on the article by Bill Simmons, which I consider to be a thoughtful and accurate review of the Boston sports environment, consider theseconditions:

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The Boston community resented Russ in the '60's, even as he rang up an unparalleled series of championships (11 in 13 years).​

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The current Boston community embraced Big Papi when he took the microphone and claimed that "This is our city!"​

That's a helluva contrast. In Russell's day, had some big black guy from the Dominican Republic ever done what Ortiz did, all hell would have broken loose.

Having spent 5 college years in boston from '64 to '69 I can easily say that absolute statements like this are not true. Certainly the city was paralyzed to some extent with outdated racial issues by some. Russell was a great basketball player appreciated by a whole lot of people there at that time. I may have spent most of my life here in Connecticut but in my heart I'll always be from Back Bay.

 

[Waquoit]

Bill's game was a thing to behold and he carried himself with dignity. A deep thinking and mostly quiet guy. If he was occasionally snarky, he had plenty of reason. An All-Timer.

I think folks forget that Russ was a big deal in the 70's after he retired. He was the main color commentator for the national TV games. His Long Distance commercial was a phenomenon.

 

[Waquoit]

"He may have, but Boston has not."

I would't be so sure of that. Just this morning a theoretical Mt Rushmore of Boston sports was being discussed on EEI. Russell, Bird, Orr, Williams, Brady were the top guys and most of the argueing was who do you drop to get to 4? Russell is a legend, and as awful as he may have been treated back then, it is a different story now.

You are right, of course. It was just a guy projecting his personal disdain on an entire city.

 

[UcMiami]

Read a few of the stories around the unveiling of the statue and two things stand out:
1. He won more professional championships (11) than any other team player before or since - more than Jordan, more than any Yankee, more than any Canadian more than any NFLer. I had never thought about that, but that is stunning to me - more than the combined titles won by all the other mount rushmore candidates in Boston combined by a wide margin.
2. I had remembered that he broke the Boston color barrier as coach of a pro team, had forgotten that he broke the national color barrier as well in 1966 - the Robinson of upper management at a time when a percentage of the country and his city openly questioned whether whites could be managed by blacks not just in sports but in any work place. It took another nine years for baseball to have its first manager/HC, and 23 years for the NFL. And as far as the country acknowledging black excellence - 1962 Jackie Robinson became the first black HOFer, NFL - 1967, 1975 - NBA first HOFer as a player (Russell) (1972 first owner from the barnstorming early years.) That kind of ground breaking is never easy on the ground breaker and we as a nation and Boston in particular had not advanced a whole lot since the Robinson's era - I like to think we have in the 40+ years since.

While basketball fans in general acknowledge Russell as one of the greats, there is still a segment of Boston that would name Cousy and Havlicek and Bird and then Auerbach before they would mention Russell - the only one that matches his achievements is Auerbach and their legacies are intertwined as well as their lifelong friendship.
Another story - a suburb of Boston circulating a petition to keep Russell from buying a house in their town. A very very different era in US history and one where the civil rights laws were still being fought on the streets of many cities. Someone above used the term 'smarty pants' but the more frequent term at the time was 'uppity' followed by a very bad word.
(Ozzie - that was not a dig at you, I didn't have a problem with your post but your word was a useful lead-in.)

 

[Kibitzer]

There was a time when a segment of the Boston population took some satisfaction in the Celtics becoming a "white" team (starring Bird, McHale, Havlicek, Ainge, Siegfried, etc.). Russ was asked about this on a TV interview. He laughed in that unique cackle that was his trademark and said: "Red Auerbach would put five gorillas on the court if they could win him a championship."

He knew Red was a color-blind practical guy. Thus he was not only the first GM to hire a black coach, he was the first to fire one. He was impervious to any suggestion from anybody that he was discriminatory in any way. He was the model for fairness.