Our culture is based on a debate, which is inherently narrowing to the best, most, or least. Social media, television and online are all part of a culture that is decibels. This means people don’t learn much as an entertainment element. Listening is not the purpose of ears. They are used to see.
In this fighting culture, argument and volume are substituted for understanding and knowledge, the death of Boston Celtics Great Bill Russell This comes at an age when professionals — or even, Particularly Professionals — are paid for their ability to imitate fan partisans. In the last few weeks, former NBA sharpshooter has been an ESPN analyst. J.J. Redick said Bob CousyIn his time, he was protected by “plumbers” and “firemen.” Golden State Move forward Draymond Green He stated that he couldn’t see how Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls could have been a threat to him. his 2017 Warriors. Bob Cousy (age 93) and Jerry West (84), protected their time by firing back. Cousy made a joke about how the NBA must have had the truth, best plumbers and firemen around, West more acerbically reminding Redick He was a one-dimensional player and never became a star.
Redick dunk on the old-timers. The old-timers retorted. This is how we communicate.
This special kind of noise can lead to a loss of professional respect. This is more than a performative act for attention. It is a deliberate conviction. Russell’s death will bring an end to the war, and rhetoric will be replaced with a temporary reverence. This quiet admiration for Russell’s dignity and his towering achievements, as well as the bittersweet passing away of time, will replace Russell’s words. Cousy is the last player from the Celtics’ 1957 championship team. Bill Sharman is gone. Tommy Heinsohn is also gone. Only a few — Don Chaney and Don Nelson, Emmette Bryant — are left. His last act was in 1969.
The Black community in Boston will be mourning its champion. A player and community who were grateful for each others in hostile territory. Russell was the point of entry for Blacks in Boston to embrace the Celtics. This legacy was tarnished by racism in schools in the 1970s and the polarizing Larry Bird era in the 1980s when the Celtics were a symbol of whiteness. Russell’s 1977 draftee Dennis Johnson was killed in 2007. Jo Jo White died in 2018. K.C. Jones died in 2020. Sam Jones was killed in 2021.
While reverence, understanding, and respect should be a part of our discourse, it won’t take long before professional and amateur alike return to their lists and fight over them. Russell’s career average of 15.1 points per game, 44% from the floor and so many missed shots will all be cited as reasons for the resumption of the debates. Russell’s most remarkable on-court accomplishment of winning 11 NBA titles in his 13-year-long career is continually under threat by criticisms that there were only eight NBA teams at the time Russell won them all. They were therefore less legitimate than the others. Real The championships of today are possible because the postseason didn’t take as long as it does today.
Russell is what makes these reductions ineffective. When the noise dims, the listening starts, it is Russell who is what is reducing the numbers and metrics. It is embarrassing to assess Bill Russell without recognizing the fundamental fact of Russell’s life: He was born in 1934 as a Black American in the United States. It’s a simple, basic characteristic shared by millions, thousands of professionals and dozens upon legends. However, Russell was still different for his refusal to separate his athletic achievements from his daily life. America wanted Russell to feel how winning made him feel about his city, his team, and their moments. They wanted to celebrate his achievements. Their Terms, but refusing to appreciate his. He wouldn’t let them.
His family was part of an incredible heritage of Oakland, California athletes. However, he left his home in Monroe, Louisiana to escape the familiarity and opportunities that came with being a great athlete. Frank Robinson, a baseball Hall of Famer, was his classmate at McClymonds High School, West Oakland. This school is known as the “School of Champions”, and it was home to Curt Flood, Vada Pinson and other baseball All-Stars.
Russell was widely considered to be the most influential person in Boston when he arrived. racist city He did it in America because neither the St. Louis Hawks’ ownership nor their white fan base wanted a star Black athlete as their face. Even Bill Russell, who had just won Gold for Team USA at the 1956 Olympic Games, Melbourne, Australia. Russell, who was a national treasure, was traded to Boston by the Hawks for Cliff Hagan (and Ed Macauley) and Cliff Hagan (both white).
Russell was the dominant figure in the NBA and created a new NBA, as well as a new Boston Celtics team. Before Russell, the Celtics had never made it to the NBA Finals. Red Auerbach was the coach and Cousy was the star. Cousy loved being the leader, the hero of the Holy Cross college, but couldn’t accept that he was being overshadowed by a better player. Cousy won six titles alongside Russell, but none with him. Auerbach won nine titles in his role as coach, but none without him.
The city responded to the Celtics’ brilliance by failing to attract attendance and humiliating Russell. Russell, who was not happy with America’s racist order, won two college titles at the University of San Francisco. He was awarded a gold medal in honor of a country where Black children were required to be protected by the national guard to attend school in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957, Russell would win the NBA title for a city where racial inequalities had been so severe that, by 1974, Boston would look a lot like Little Rock 16 years before. Every stage of his professional career was defined. American racismRussell’s reaction was bitter and unable to accept the indignities Black people suffer every day. He was not defined by what he suffered from his homeland but rather by why he couldn’t accept it better.
Sports is filled full of empty cliches that give an air of superhero to the daily lives gifted athletes. Iron sharpensiron They’re right. Russell’s reaction was to his callouses, and he won at an incredible rate. He refused to take part in the pomp, while turning slights and dominance into favoritism. Therefore, there are no superlatives or metrics, no numbers, nor generational or age comparisons that can account an entire life, particularly one as independent and furiously assertive as Bill Russell’s. There is no way to measure the value of winning. It doesn’t matter if you are 21-0 in winner-take all games during college, the Olympics or NBA. But, it is hard to see how your Massachusetts home was burglarized and covered with feces, as Russell’s house once was. His greatest accomplishment was not only his many victories but also the impossible separation of man and athletic act. It also made it impossible to view him without seeing America. Russell won eight consecutive titles and beat the Lakers. He also carried Selma, MLK, and Birmingham with him. This was his deal, and it was unchanging. You couldn’t celebrate the Celtics beating 76ers without acknowledging his unequal treatment. Russell ensured that neither could be assessed without other — he was not there for entertainment purposes and appraising him in good conscience would not occur without the public looking at himself. Russell’s most popular story was that he was trapped by the bitterness of his times. However, that wasn’t true at all. His refusal to follow the rules liberated him. He didn’t attend the 1969 Celtics final championship parade, even though he was the coach. He was far away from the city that gave him his fame, yet he was present all the time.
When he wanted his name to be known, he did. For 15 years, he stood out as a formidable specter. The NBA named the MVP trophy for him. He was surrounded by the 2008 Celtics like a small child. He was both the living link to the birthing of the game and the conscience for activism. Jackie Robinson To Colin KaepernickFor more than 50 years. He didn’t want his face to be seen when he didn’t want it. Since 2013, there has been a Bill Russell statue.
We will continue to be filled with Russell tributes, and reductive discussions. He was, in the end. Eleven titles. Eight straight titles. In spite of the historically high cost, he stood firm to his principles and decided it was worth the risk of escaping the expectation of performing without respect. His former surroundings, his nation, and city were the ones who were trapped. This forced him to examine his behavior and attitudes to discover why his greatest champion would not have anything to do. Cousy was able to come to terms with his treatment of Russell in the Boston days, decades later. He wrote Russell a letter. Russell never replied. Russell was well past that. It was yesterday. Cousy might still be haunted today by the things he didn’t say or do. But Bill Russell was already free.