[Larry Bird] If it weren't
for Bill Russell
winning all them championships,
would anybody be talking
about the Boston Celtics? No.
Are you kidding? It's no conversation.
He was the greatest
and most dominant winner
we've ever seen
in the history of basketball.
And you know what's on his hands?
More rings than fingers.
Eleven rings, that's… [laughs]
Who else can live up to that?
We're never gonna see
a winner like that again.
He would beat God. He's the Big Bangspan style="style2".
[Corey Stoll]span style="style2" He won 11 championships,
span style="style2"two as a player-coach.
Five times, he was voted
the Most Valuable Player in the NBA.
Bill Russell's legacy,
pioneer of the game.
He created
the most awesome American sports dynasty
that's ever existed.
Everybody in the league,
when they think of Bill Russell,
they think about winning.
He could win a game without scoring.
Nobody else could do that.
He's the smartest player
that ever played the game.
Bill terrorized anybody
that tried to come in the lane and sh**t.
[Walt Frazier] Because of Russell,
I don't like green, Boston clam chowder…
[laughs] …I don't like anything Boston.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Every team
span style="style2"and every player in the league
tried to bring down the dynasty.
Only one ever came close.
It was a great duel and a great matchup.
These were two mythical beasts,
like big titans fighting for the ring.
[Chris Paul] They were epic battles,
and that's what we came to see.
Chamberlain towers over him,
Chamberlain dominates every single player
he comes across, anywhere.
But he didn't have the numbers that count,
and that was winning championships.
[crowd applauding]
[Barack Obama] This year's
Medal of Freedom recipients
reveal the best of who we are
and who we aspire to be.
More than any athlete of his era,
Bill Russell came to define
the word "winner."
Bill Russell, the man,
is someone who stood up
for the rights and dignity of all men.
He marched with King.
He stood by Ali.
He made possible the success
of so many who would follow.
A good thing about leaders
is they lead by example.
He changed a lot of rules,
and it broke a lot of barriers.
Bill was fighting
for something much bigger,
and that was to belong
on an equal playing field
as white America.
[rousing music playing]
[soft music playing]
Earlier today, it was announced
that Boston Celtics basketball legend
Bill Russell died at the age of 88.
[reporter 2]span style="style2" Tonight,
span style="style2"he is being remembered
as an athlete and activist.
[reporter 3]span style="style2" Bill's actions
span style="style2"on and off the court
through the course of his life
helped to shape
generations of players for the better,
and for that, we are forever grateful.
[reporter 4] span style="style2"We're at the statue
span style="style2"which was unveiled in 2013.
People have been stopping
by here today, sharing stories,
really helping paint a picture
of Russell's impact.
[Oscar Robertson] When Bill passed,
I couldn't believe it.
But I thought back on all
the great things he's done in his life
and the contributions
he's made to mankind.
That's what it was all about.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Seven months before his passing,
Russell auctioned off
his collection of memorabilia.
[auctioneer chattering faintly]
[reporter]span style="style2" They're all part
span style="style2"of the 87-year-old's personal collection,
including championship rings,
MVP trophies, and game-worn jerseys.
[reporter 2]span style="style2" A portion of the proceeds
span style="style2"will go to Russell's charity MENTOR,
an organization dedicated
to his lifelong commitment
to ensuring opportunity
for all young people.
I'd like some of that collection.
He's been great to me all these years.
He's a--
What he's done for civil rights
in this country is unmatched.
To be able to have all 11 of his rings,
nobody's outbidding me on that one.
I'd probably actually want a manuscript
of one of his books, though,
like an original rough draft
Second Wind.
That'd be something special too.
950,000, online buyer.
Third and last call.
-[gavel bangs]
-Sold, $950,000, online buyer.
[chuckling]
[Jeffrey Wright] span style="style2"A basketball game starts
and ends with a clock,
and so does a basketball career.
[intriguing music playing]
[Wright] span style="style2"Outside of games, however,
you don't often find
handy reference points
to tell you where events begin and end.
Usually, it depends
on where you started from
and your point of view.
[music fades]
["Little Bitty Pretty One"
by Thurston Harris playing]
[Stoll] span style="style2"In December 1956,
Bill and Rose Russell
landed at Boston's Logan Airport.
They'd been married less than two weeks.
[Bill Russell] When I joined the Celtics,
I'd never been to Boston,
ever, until I arrived there
to sign with them.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Bill was
span style="style2"a national champion in college
and an Olympic gold medal winner.
Now, Celtics fans hoped Bill
could bring a championship to their city.
["Little Bitty Pretty One" continues]
Little bitty pretty one
Come on and talk-a to me ♪
Lovey dovey lovey one
Come sit down on my knee… ♪
[Russell] I was 22 years old,
and I had not started to shave,
so I had this little goatee, we called it.
And so the first thing they asked me
at the first press conference,
"When you gonna shave the beard?"
I'd never thought about it.
Finally, I said, "Okay, tell you what."
"After the Celtics win
their first championship,
then I'll shave the beard."
[expectant music playing]
[Auerbach] People thought,
from the Olympics,
he would be in great shape,
but he was in miserable shape.
He said, "I never knew this pro ball
would be like that. It's really rough."
[Russell] I'd missed
the first third of the season,
and I was basically out of shape
because it had been a month
since I'd touched a basketball.
[Wright]span style="style2" I came into the league
without much confidence as a sh**ter.
Many of my detractors said
I could never make it in pro ball
because I was a bad shot
from more than three feet out.
So naturally, the one thing I wanted to do
was to stand outside and sh**t.
I missed almost all of them, of course.
When I did, people shook their heads
and said, "See what I mean?
He can't play."
[spectators] Aw!
[Stoll] span style="style2"The Boston press questioned
span style="style2"Russell's value to the team,
comparing his early production
to another rookie,
the all-time leading scorer
at Holy Cross, Tommy Heinsohn.
[Tom Heinsohn] The press didn't know
what Russell was about.
People didn't think Bill Russell
was gonna be a factor in the NBA.
He'd sh**t a layup over the backboard.
He was so inept offensively
that you could never picture
what Russell could bring to a ball club.
[Stoll] span style="style2"There would be no respite
span style="style2"for Russell on road games.
[Wright]span style="style2" There was
a full house in Kiel Auditorium
on that night in December 1956.
The ball went up, and Bob Pettit
of the Hawks and I jumped for it.
"co*n!" "Go back to Africa, you baboon!"
"Watch out, Pettit,
you'll get covered with chocolate."
There was no doubt
who the fans were yelling at.
I was the only n*gro athlete
on either team.
[unsettling music playing]
[Russell] After about five games,
I really and seriously doubted my ability.
And I came home, and I told Rose,
"I think we better get our bags ready,
'cause we won't be here very long."
[music fades]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Russell had moved to Boston
from the Bay Area.
He went to high school in West Oakland
and attended
the University of San Francisco,
the only college to offer him
a basketball scholarship.
[rhythmic music playing]
To those of us in West Oakland,
San Francisco was an exotic land.
The Bay Bridge spanned
a cultural gap so wide
that the two sides had a language barrier.
I joked that I never knew
the word "mother" could be used by itself
until I got to San Francisco.
And instantly, I found myself
in a sea of white people.
[Russell] I walked into the rec hall.
One of the freshmen walks up and says,
"Hey, boy, what do they call you?"
I said, "My name is William Russell."
He said, "I'll give you a nickname."
I said, "If you do,
I'll knock the hell out of you."
When I went to USF,
you got maybe five Black students,
period.
And my roommate
was a guy named K.C. Jones.
[music fades]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Bill and K.C.
span style="style2"bonded over basketball
and helped each other
make ends meet off the court.
[K.C. Jones] We didn't have that much
to wear in college, the two of us.
You know, I was making $30 a month, right?
For cutting the grass or whatever it was.
And Russell had nothing.
Now, we would use--
We would wear each other's underwear.
Right? That was the only thing
that could fit both of us.
[funk music playing]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Russell decided
span style="style2"to test his athleticism
in another sport as a walk-on.
[Wright] span style="style2"During the summer,
I decided to go out for track.
Actually, I decided for a dual reason.
Only varsity lettermen
received a button-down sweater.
I needed a button-down sweater.
Second reason was
that I like to run and jump.
He decided to go for track
almost as a lark,
and he just started high-jumping.
He had awkward form,
jumping face-first over the bar.
[K.C. Jones] He did it
different than anyone else.
He'd go back 50 yards.
And he'd take off slow and build up speed.
Now he's doing 100 miles an hour
and make the jump.
[Goudsouzian] He found himself
jumping 6'7", 6'8".
Turns out he was almost
a world-class high jumper from the get-go.
[Stoll] span style="style2"When he tried to bring
span style="style2"that high-jumping prowess
to the basketball court,
his coaches were not having it.
[music fades]
[Russell] We would play at Cal Berkeley.
Their center was a preseason All-American.
The first five shots he took, I blocked.
Nobody in the building
had ever seen anything like that.
So they called time-out,
so we get into our huddle,
and span style="style2"my coach says,
"You can't play defense like that."
"A good defensive player
never leaves his feet."
"You're jumping to block shots."
I can't play that way.
So I go back out, and I try it,
and the guy shoots layups
three times in a row.
So I went back
to playing the way I knew how.
[exciting music playing]
[commentator]span style="style2" Russell, 6'10",
span style="style2"bats it away just like that.
[Bob Ryan] Bill Russell literally invented
modern defensive basketball.
He changed the game
from a horizontal game,
played by mostly landlocked Caucasians,
into the game that we know today.
The thing that Bill did,
and you see a lot on tape,
is he didn't just swat it
to embarrass the guy out of bounds.
He tried to keep it in play
because it's just like a rebound.
The offense is on the outside,
defense is on in.
If he could get his hand on it,
one of his teammates
could get to the ball faster.
That's what led to fast breaks.
[Earvin Johnson] His anticipation
was off the charts.
He would go up to block it,
and either he's going to block the shot,
or he's gonna make you sh**t a crazy shot
or an off-balance shot
or a shot that you can't make.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Russell's defensive play
span style="style2"made the USF Dons unbeatable.
[commentator]span style="style2" He's up for a shot.
span style="style2"Brother, it's good.
The Dons take it away.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Bill Russell's Dons
span style="style2"won 55 games in a row
and back-to-back NCAA championships.
[commentator]span style="style2" Bill Russell is cited
span style="style2"as the Most Valuable Player.
-[people cheering and whistling]
-[music fades]
Just watching him play
and watching him intimidate
whole teams of guys in college,
it was so special.
And he was the only reason why… [laughing]
…why that team won.
But the kinds of awards and things
that should have gone his way
did not.
[Russell] My junior year in college,
I averaged over 20 points
and 20 rebounds a game.
I was blocking at least 15 shots a game.
I was the MVP at the championships.
I went home,
to the Northern California banquet,
and they picked another player
as player of the year.
As far as I could see,
his only qualification was he was blond.
They knew how shaky it was.
So they told my coach to tell me,
"Get up and say a couple of remarks
about 'Congratulations to this kid.
I hope I can win it next year.'"
I said, "I'm not doing
anything like that."
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around"
by The Roots playing]
[William Rhoden] To win
the National Championship back-to-back
was phenomenal.
But I think that people
did not like the fact
that there were three Black folks
starting at San Francisco.
They'd go places and would not be allowed
to check into hotels
and eat in restaurants.
What actually happened was,
I left the hotel,
and I went to a restaurant
down the street.
I said, "Let me get something to eat."
He said I could,
but I'd have to eat in the kitchen.
So I refused, and I went
back to the hotel and went to sleep.
[Wright] span style="style2"In 1955, two events occurred
span style="style2"that made a lifelong impression on me.
A 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till
was m*rder*d by two white men
for a supposed affront to a white woman.
His mother insisted
that his casket be open at the funeral,
so the world could see the brutality
of what had been done to her son.
That same year,
Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress,
was arrested for refusing
to give up her seat to a white rider
on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
The time had come to not take it anymore.
I had had enough,
and this was truly the end.
[Isiah Thomas] Being a Black teenager
in the '50s,
you know, those times had to be
extremely, extremely difficult.
But yet,
you put all that aside,
and you still go out on the floor
and perform at a very, very high level.
[Wright]span style="style2" I decided that I was going
span style="style2"to be a great basketball player.
Everything inside me
poured itself into that decision.
All the anger and wonder
joined together with one purpose.
[blues music playing]
[Goudsouzian] Bill Russell grew up
in the Jim Crow South.
He was a child in the 1930s
in Monroe, Louisiana.
The patterns of the Jim Crow South
included disenfranchising Black people,
stripping them of the right to vote,
the physical segregation of spaces.
It included violence, including lynching.
Jim Crow was constantly trying
to reinforce to African Americans
that they were second-class citizens.
[Russell] I was aware that I lived
in a totally, completely segregated place.
I think of my life,
especially when I was young,
as a very sheltered life.
My folks always made sure
they kept me out of harm's way.
My father knew firsthand about sl*very.
I mean, he's one generation removed.
People in his family were sl*ves.
sl*very is the ultimate form
of disrespect,
and so my father made sure
that he was never treated
in any way like a sl*ve.
One of the things
that was vitally important to him
was to live a life of dignity
so that his kids would be proud of him.
My father was working in this factory,
and he asked for a raise.
The boss said,
"We can't give you a raise, Charlie."
"If I give you a raise, you'd make
as much as the white fellows,
and I can't pay you boys
as much as I pay the white guys."
And he used the *-word to my father.
Just like it was… nothing.
So my father was at home that night,
and he was talking out loud, he says,
"You know, I'm gonna have to leave here
because if I stay here…
either I'll k*ll one of them,
or one of them will k*ll me."
[car engine starts]
[horn toots]
["Hill Stomp" by Robert Belfour playing]
[Russell] We migrated
when I was nine years old.
We moved to California.
Remember, this is a nine-year-old kid.
This is the greatest adventure
he could ever imagine.
Getting on a train.
Going someplace that
you have no idea what it's gonna be like.
["Hill Stomp" continues playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" The whole idea of moving
span style="style2"was a shock to my brother and me.
We weren't well-traveled.
I sat next to my mother
in the colored section of the train
all the way to St. Louis.
And then, for the first time in our lives,
we could sit anywhere.
["Nitpickin'" by John Williams playing]
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Russells' move
span style="style2"was part of a Great Migration
of Black Americans
who left the Jim Crow South
to seek better opportunities
during World w*r II.
[music fades]
[Lawrence O'Donnell] You know, Bill talks
about arriving in California as immigrants
'cause they were coming
from a different country,
and they had to learn the customs
of this new country,
where you could drink
out of the same water fountain,
you could sit anywhere
you wanted to on the bus.
[Russell] My father and mother
both worked in the shipyards.
The schools were integrated,
and that was a real change.
I'd never seen a basketball or heard--
I didn't even know it existed.
The kids had gotten a backboard
and hoop from somewhere.
I don't know where.
I'm sure they didn't buy it. [chuckles]
So, I saw these guys playing basketball.
So I joined in.
I was really, really not good.
When Bill got to Oakland,
his mom took him by this building.
Um, Bill said
it was a funny-looking building.
She said, "You're gonna spend
a lot of time in there."
Bill said, "What are you talking about?"
And she was pointing at a library.
They'd never had access
to a library in Louisiana.
Black people weren't supposed
to be reading.
[Russell] I'd go to the library and read.
And I'd read this history book.
And this one passage said,
"The sl*ves in America were better off
than they were as free people
where they came from."
And I found that astounding.
I was ten years old,
and I said, "That cannot be."
Because every person
on this planet wants to be free.
[gentle music playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" I had my own private world,
and my most prized possession
was my library card
from the Oakland Public Library.
I went there almost every day.
I'd check out reproductions of paintings
and take them home with me.
Prints of da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Those paintings held me spellbound.
I would study a Michelangelo for hours,
trying to memorize each little detail.
It took me weeks before I was satisfied
that I could close my eyes
and recreate anything resembling
what I saw in the reproduction.
Then I would psych myself up
for an acid test,
drawing the painting from memory.
-The result always frustrated me.
span style="style1"-[music fades]
[Wright]span style="style2" School was just beginning
span style="style2"in the fall of 1946
when I came home one day to find
that my mother had gone into the hospital.
It was the flu, they said,
nothing serious.
For the next two weeks
whenever we went to visit her, she'd laugh
and talk about how
she'd had the doctors all confused.
After one of those visits,
Mr. Charlie woke us out of a sound sleep
and said, "Your mother died tonight."
I was 12, and she was gone.
[melancholy music playing]
[Jeannine Russell] When his mother passed,
back in those days,
the natural thing was that their aunts
would take and raise the children.
His father said, "No,
I'm taking them with me."
"I promised their mom," number one.
And number two,
he was not going to let
anyone else raise his children.
But for Bill, it was a hard time.
[Wright]span style="style2" I wasn't quite the same person.
I became a loner and an introvert.
I was held back by serious doubts
that I could ever become anything
without my mother.
Everybody I encountered felt
that there was something wrong with me.
Worse, I agreed with them.
I was clumsy at everything.
[music fades]
[Russell] When I got
to junior high school,
we used to have a homeroom league,
where each homeroom would play
a 15-minute game at lunchtime,
and I was a substitute
on the homeroom team.
[Russell laughs]
[Stephen Curry] I don't think anybody knew
what type of player he was gonna be.
I don't even think he knew
what type of player he was gonna be.
He was blessed with physical attributes
that he didn't understand what he had
and how to harness it all.
[Russell] I got cut
from the junior varsity in the 11th grade.
The varsity coach,
who had been my homeroom teacher
in junior high school,
says, "I'm glad you got cut,
'cause today,
you can come out for the varsity."
[Stoll]span style="style2" Coach George Powles
span style="style2"saw promise in Bill's playing,
even before Bill did.
I can remember telling Bill
to try to play all the ball he could
during the summer,
because he was going to be
first-string center the following season,
starting in October.
[expectant music playing]
He said, "Maybe I could play
at the Boys Club."
And I… I gave him a silver dollar,
and it had to be
the best dollar a guy ever spent
because he got in that Boys Club
for the summer for a dollar
and played basketball all the time.
[Russell] The game turned serious,
I guess, my senior year in high school.
About halfway through the season,
I started to see things and notice things.
[Wright]span style="style2" I suddenly knew I could do
span style="style2"on the basketball court
what I had not been able
to do with paintings.
[intriguing music playing]
I was sitting with my eyes closed
watching plays in my head.
I was in
my own private basketball laboratory,
making blueprints for myself.
I blocked a lot of shots.
It was fun to carry out
some of the designs I had made up.
Occasionally, I'd get it right
on the first go.
To me, that was like being able to slap
a Michelangelo right on the canvas.
I'd say to myself, "I've got it!"
[Curry] It's such a cool concept
to think about
because he could just see a play one time
and visualize it in his head
over and over and over again
before he actually went out and tried it,
and it became second nature
before he put the work in.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Russell turned
span style="style2"those defensive designs
into blueprints for college championships
and then rolled them out
on the world stage
with the 1956 US men's Olympic team.
[presenter] Here is
everybody's All-American.
You went through the season undefeated,
and now you've been
picked for the Olympic squad.
Are you looking forward
to the Olympic trip if you make the team?
[Russell] I've been looking forward to it
as long as I can remember.
[exciting music playing]
[Russell] At that time,
the Olympic movement was about competing.
And it didn't make a difference
where the athlete was from.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Russell's dynamic defense
span style="style2"led the Americans to a gold medal victory
over the Soviet team.
One of the really big thrills
of winning a gold medal,
for that one brief moment,
you know that you're the best
on the planet.
And that's… that's something
that you can… can really be proud of.
[Stoll]span style="style2" With two college championships
span style="style2"and a gold medal,
Bill was ready to go pro.
[Rhoden] People don't realize that now,
man, but the NBA was virtually lily-white.
If you look at those early pictures,
it was a predominantly white league.
[Bill McSweeny] The unwritten quota system
was you could have one Black player.
Then as the league went on,
you could have two Black players.
One, because they had
to room together anyway, but no more.
[Russell] The first Black player
drafted in the NBA
was a guy named Chuck Cooper
from Duquesne,
and that decision came from the coach
of the Boston Celtics, Red Auerbach.
[Sanders] Auerbach did not care
about the color situation.
He knew that the name
of the game is to win,
and he had to make the necessary moves
in order to win the games.
That means putting together
the right team with the best players.
[upbeat music playing]
[Ryan] The Boston Celtics in the '50s
were a perennial bridesmaids team.
They were a good offensive team
with the likes of Bill Sharman
and Bob Cousy,
the preeminent backcourt of the '50s,
but still it didn't translate
into winning a championship.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Bob Cousy was one
span style="style2"of the first NBA superstars.
[Ryan] If you stopped the average man
on the street in America in the '50s,
and you said, "Okay, here's a spot quiz.
Name a basketball player,"
more people would say Bob Cousy
than anybody else.
[commentator]span style="style2" Cousy moves off the screen.
span style="style2"The shot is sensational.
[Bob Cousy] I was able
to do some unorthodox things,
and I guess I had the imagination
to complement that,
to do stuff that wasn't being done
by anyone else.
They called me "Mr. Basketball,"
"the Houdini of the Hardwood."
[Stoll] span style="style2"The Celtics
span style="style2"had an electrifying offense,
but the team played weak defense
and struggled on the glass.
[Sanders] Possession was the key.
If you could get the rebounds,
you could run just about anything
out there on the court.
[Cousy] Arnold had come to me
a year before, the only time he did that,
and said, "There's a guy
out in California. If we can get him,
-he's the answer to all our problems."
-[music fades]
There was no question in my mind
that we needed Bill Russell.
He had this quick reaction,
this great reflex,
and the long arms. It was awesome.
-[intriguing music playing]
-[Stoll]span style="style2" Getting Russell wasn't easy.
The first draft pick
belonged to the Rochester Royals.
The Celtics had the seventh draft pick,
so Red used some trades
to move up to the second spot.
But he wasn't done.
Red Auerbach, always finding an angle,
a way to get what he wanted,
he went to the owner of the Celtics,
Walter Brown,
who was a major stockholder
in the Ice Capades,
which was an incredibly successful form
of entertainment
that could sell out an arena anywhere.
Walter Brown, nudged by Red Auerbach,
went to the owner of the Rochester Royals
and said, "I tell you
what I'm gonna do for you."
"We'll send you the Ice Capades
for as many shows as you want.
All you have to do
is agree not to draft Bill Russell
with the number one pick."
And Bill Russell was traded
for the Ice Capades.
And that was all Red Auerbach's doing.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Red had managed
span style="style2"to acquire Russell,
but as the rookie struggled
to meet expectations,
Russell himself started
to question his fit with the team,
until one pregame meeting with Red.
[Russell] He says to me,
"Come to the game early."
"I want to talk to you about something."
So, we're sitting in Boston Garden,
and the guys are out putting the floor up
and the baskets up and all that,
and he says,
"I want to tell you something."
"I don't have any idea and don't care
how many points you make."
"I just want you
to help us win ball games."
"Well," I said, "Your salary is going
to be determined by these two eyes."
Not that you should give up a shot
or anything like that,
but don't worry about any stats.
Just worry, "Did we win, or did we lose?"
That's where it's at.
[Russell] Now, that relieved
a lot of pressure
off of he and I, and after that,
Red began to see
what kind of impact I could have
with rebounding and defense.
[exciting music playing]
In the transition game, you need
someone to control your defensive board,
to rebound effectively,
and that's what Russ did.
[Russell] See, the key to fast break,
is defensive rebounding and outlet pass.
[Cousy] When the ball would go up,
I'd position myself off to one side,
the closest side, waiting to get his pass,
so I could get my a*s downcourt
and start the fast break
because I knew
he was gonna get every rebound.
[Russell] The other team would sh**t.
By the time the jump sh**ter landed,
we were sh**ting a layup
going the other way.
[exciting music continues]
[Bill Walton] His job was,
get the rebound,
block the shots, deflect the passes,
and then turning it right around
in the other direction
and letting the rest of the guys
rush up the court
like the oncoming tide.
[spectators cheering]
Well, Bob, it must feel good,
being the greatest ballplayer
in the game today,
to have a guy you know can get the ball.
How does that feel to you?
Well, of course,
most of the basketball fans
that have watched the Celtics play
know our offense
has always been predicated
on the fast break,
and we've never had
a really big man to get that.
Even at this point, I think
as far as rebounding, passing, defense,
there's no question
as to the superiority of Russell.
[gentle music playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" I owe it all to my wife.
There were times I wondered, but not Rose.
She never stopped talking to me.
After practice
and even during practice breaks,
she'd encourage me.
She'd do the same thing
after games at home.
The only time she couldn't
was when we were on the road.
I really missed her pep talks then.
[church bells ringing]
[Wright]span style="style2" When I married Rose in 1956,
span style="style2"I was 22, fresh from the Olympics,
and didn't have
the slightest idea what I was doing.
I knew only that Rose accepted
and cared about me,
apart from the basketball,
which was a great breakthrough for me.
[Stoll] span style="style2"The Celtics finished on top
span style="style2"in the Eastern Division
for the first time in team history.
[crowd cheering]
Now they would face the St. Louis Hawks
for the championship.
[music fades]
[commentator]span style="style2" In Boston, a capacity crowd
sees the NBA championship struggle
between the St. Louis Hawks
and the Boston Celtics.
[exciting music playing]
Russell in the pivot.
It was a great series.
Bill Russell… the tougher the game,
the better he played.
I went in for four layups.
He blocked the first two,
and I missed the next two looking for him.
[music fades]
[Stoll] span style="style2"The series,
span style="style2"and Russell's rookie year,
came down to the final minutes
of game seven.
[Johnny Most] span style="style2"Late in the fourth quarter,
game is tied up.
Russell drives right to left, lays it in.
That breaks the tie!
Now Macauley with the ball,
top of the circle.
Down low to Pettit, he drives,
gets fouled by Russell.
He'll go to the line
with a chance to tie up the ball game.
He's ready. He dips, he shoots.
It's around the rim and in!
In that game, there were two
of the greatest plays I've ever seen.
The first one, Russell made.
[Most]span style="style2" The game is tied,
span style="style2"time is running out,
and downcourt come the Celtics.
On the left, Cousy.
[Heinsohn] Cousy threw him
a long court pass.
He had to catch it and stuff it
all at the same motion.
He wasn't able to make the basket.
[Most]span style="style2" No good! Rebound to Martin.
span style="style2"Martin up the middle of the court.
Now, they've got the ball, St. Louis,
and in one pass, got it to a guy
who, in one dribble,
was gonna go for a layup
and win the ball game.
And this guy Coleman
was out in front of everybody.
[Most] span style="style2"Jack Coleman
span style="style2"bruising down the lane,
and it's gonna be a breakaway.
I put my head down,
and I was digging as hard as I could.
[commentator 1] span style="style2"Bill Russell
span style="style2"coming down the floor.
[Heinsohn] And Russell went by me
like a blur.
[Most] span style="style2"He lays it up.
span style="style2"It's blocked by Russell!
What a play by Bill Russell!
[Russell] That would have
given them the lead
with three or four seconds to go.
[Most]span style="style2" All right, it's 113-113
span style="style2"after one overtime of play…
The next great play was Alex Hannum.
With one second left,
they called time-out.
[commentator 2]span style="style2" Jim Loscutoff
span style="style2"sinks a foul.
The Celts lead by two,
but the Hawks have time for one shot.
[Most]span style="style2" The Hawks huddle
around player-coach Alex Hannum.
[Pettit] Hannum said, "I'll throw the ball
the length of the court."
"I'll hit the backboard."
"Pettit, you go up and catch it
and put it in. Make the…"
Well, he threw a perfect pass.
[Pettit] I went up and never came down.
Just caught it and shot it in the air.
Son of a g*n worked.
Except I missed the shot.
[Most] span style="style2"And the ball game
span style="style2"ends on that note!
And the Celtics win
their first World Championship.
And for yours truly,
the first one I've ever announced.
-[cheering]
-[thrilling music playing]
[Russell] We were happy,
our first championship.
The Red Sox hadn't won in years and years.
The Bruins hadn't won.
The Patriots did not exist then.
And so after the game,
Red says, "Let's say
we shave the beard off."
I'd forgotten about it
till we got in the locker room,
and the trainer brought out
the razor and shaving cream.
That night, I really became
part of the team.
[music fades]
[cars honking]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Coming off
span style="style2"a triumphant rookie year,
Bill and Rose decided it might be safe
to put down roots in the Boston area.
They bought a house
in the town of Reading.
Reading is a suburb of the city,
relatively working-class, conservative.
Russell lived in Reading
throughout his Celtics career,
but he never felt
entirely settled and welcome there.
Sometimes he would complain
about harassment from some locals.
They might be followed around town.
Vandals would tip trash cans
around his home.
[tense music playing]
[Karen Russell] When I first moved
to Reading, Massachusetts,
we were the first Black family in town.
Every time my dad would leave town,
the "raccoons" would come
and knock over the garbage.
My mom would wake up in the morning,
and there'd be garbage all over the yard.
My dad went to the police station
and said, "When I'm out of town,
somebody's messing with my wife,
knocking our garbage cans over."
They're like, "Well, we can't do anything
about the 'raccoons.'"
[Russell] So, I went
to the state government
and got a g*n permit.
[Karen] And suddenly,
the raccoons never came back.
[Goudsouzian] Boston was supposed to be
a racially liberal city.
It had the reputation
dating back to the 19th century
as the "Athens of America."
But what Russell found
was this provincial culture,
where many working-class whites
resented any Black presence.
Boston was
the least
liberal city in the NBA when I got there.
Not that he needed to go to Boston
to experience racism.
This was the '50s in America.
[all chanting] …four, six, eight,
we don't want to integrate!
Two, four, six, eight,
we don't want to integrate!
Two, four, six, eight,
we don't want to integrate!
[Stoll]span style="style2" Russell tried to find solace
span style="style2"from the nation's violent racial fissures,
not simply in playing the game,
but in ritualizing winning.
[triumphant music playing]
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Celtics marched
span style="style2"through the 1957-'58 season,
turning Russell's 22 rebounds
per game into easy points.
They seemed poised
to land another NBA title.
[music fades]
[spectators cheering]
Hi, basketball fans.
It's Johnny Most high above courtside,
and welcome to the 1958
World Championship series
between the Hawks and the Celtics.
[Stoll]span style="style2" In the second half
span style="style2"of game three, with the series tied,
Russell jumped to block a shot
and fell wrong,
tearing tendons
and chipping a bone in his ankle.
[tense music playing]
We didn't wish Bill any bad luck,
but I'm certain that we were not unhappy
that he'd sprained his ankle. [laughs]
[Russell] I got a severe sprain,
and I couldn't play in a couple of games.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Russell made it back
span style="style2"for game six in St. Louis,
with the Celtics trailing
three games to two,
but he was still hobbled
by that bad ankle.
[commentator]span style="style2" Pettit in low.
Over Tom Heinsohn, good for two.
Pettit on a drive,
and even Bill Russell can't stop him.
Macauley with the basketball.
And it's all over!
The championship belongs
to the St. Louis Hawks
behind Bob Pettit's 50 points.
[Russell] We lost in six games.
But we knew that was the difference
between being poor and being broke.
See, being poor is a state of mind.
Being broke is a temporary situation.
And we knew
that was a very temporary situation.
So the next year, we've just got to go out
and try to win as many games as possible.
We were all competitors,
starting with Arnold.
[yelling] …carry the ball, Mendy!
One time, huh?
[groans]
[Russell] Red was pretty intense.
[Cousy] He didn't want us to shake hands
with the opponent before the game.
[laughs] We hated them!
Arnold maybe took it to the next level,
but he didn't want us to coexist,
other than to beat their a*s.
[Stoll] span style="style2"That next year,
span style="style2"in the 1958-'59 season,
the Celtics finished
with the league's best record.
[Russell] We could play
any style of basketball.
We could run with anybody.
We could pound it down
in the half-court with anybody,
all with equal facility.
[music fades]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Red filled out the squad
span style="style2"with a young team
that he hoped would build together.
["Money (That's What I Want)"
by Barrett Strong playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" After the '57 draft,
Red called me up and announced,
"I drafted Sam Jones
out of North Carolina Central University."
"How about this guy, Russ?
You think he can he do good for us?"
I said, "Who the hell is Sam Jones?"
"He's a Schvartze."
That was colloquial Yiddish
for a Black person.
"I thought you'd know about him."
I said, "Listen, Red,
I don't know all of them."
Know him or not, though,
there was no doubt that Sam Jones
was going to be
a big-league basketball player.
[laughs] Sam just always seemed
like an old man to me.
Sam Jones doesn't get the recognition
that he deserves as a player.
Guys who understand the game
know Sam was just clutch.
You don't know where he's going to go,
but you know
he's gonna find a bank shot for you.
You didn't want
to go up against him at all. [laughs]
[Russell] He'd never hesitate
to take the shot, and he'd never miss.
[music fades]
[spectators cheering]
[Stoll] span style="style2"Red also made a move
to reunite Bill
with his college roommate, K.C. Jones.
["Melting Pot" by The Roots playing]
[Walton] Reporters were always
on Red's case about playing K.C.
They'd say, "What do you put him in for?
He doesn't do anything for the team."
Red would hit on his cigar,
blow the green smoke out,
and say, "Hey, K.C. Jones,
the only thing I know
is that every time I put him in,
our team goes ahead."
[commentator]span style="style2" Interception by K.C. Jones,
span style="style2"and here come the Celtics.
[Russell] K.C., I think, was
the best defensive guard I've ever seen.
["Melting Pot" continues]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Red fostered a team culture
span style="style2"around players' quirks,
allowing them to be themselves.
He was building
more than a winning franchise.
This was a band of brothers.
We were family,
and we were fortunate enough
to keep that nucleus together.
[Russell] We rooted for each other,
and we pulled for each other,
and we did everything we could
to make each other successful.
He loved his teammates,
and in a lot of ways,
they were a second family.
[Russell] We were affectionate
towards each other.
The best way to be affectionate
is to be humorous.
[Ryan] If you talk to people
who know Bill Russell,
the first thing you think about
is the cackle. It's a cackle.
[cackling]
[comical music playing]
[Monroe] You know,
he's arrogant as can be.
You know, he's Bill Russell!
But he could also be that crazy guy
who laughs and jokes with you
and has fun.
You could hear him cackling
with that famous laugh of his.
His laugh was infectious, unique.
Genuine.
[all laughing]
It was like a… [mimics Russell cackling]
When I first heard that cackle, I said,
"Wha… Is he laughing at me or…"
"What's he doing?"
[cackling]
When you get him to laugh,
you know you're in good shape.
[cackling]
[Russell] Between my laugh
and my throwing up, Red used to say
I was gonna drive him out of basketball.
[music fades]
[Russell] Sometimes, I got to the game,
and I just threw up.
For me, it was essential
that I get nervous.
Certain people are so intense
that they have to find a way
to release that intensity
in order for them to relax and perform.
After I did it, I was okay,
and it looked worse than it sounded.
[cackling]
[funk music playing]
I remember one game we were warming up.
I said, "Gee, you know,
Russell forgot to vomit."
So I called the team off the court.
I said, "Everyone back
in the locker room."
I turned around,
I said, "Russell, go vomit."
He went and vomited,
and we went out, and we won.
We'd hear him go in, and we thought,
"Thank God he went and threw up!"
Because we knew he was ready.
He was going to have a giant game.
[music fades]
[Stoll] span style="style2"At the end of the '58-'59 season,
the Celtics had another shot
at the championship.
[Springer] The first confrontation
between the Celtics and Lakers
occurred in 1959
when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis,
so that one's kind of forgotten,
but that was the beginning
of the Celtic reign over the Lakers.
[commentator]span style="style2" Boston has won
span style="style2"three in a row,
so this is do-or-die for the Lakers.
[Stoll]span style="style2" In game four, Russell kept
span style="style2"everyone else off the glass,
securing 30 rebounds.
[commentator]span style="style2" Bob Cousy
span style="style2"is off for the basket
as Boston puts on more pressure.
Celtics win 118 to 113.
Auerbach's team first
to clean sweep the title playoffs.
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Celtics domination
span style="style2"in the 1959 Finals
proved the team had truly arrived
and put Bill back on top as a champion.
[triumphant music playing]
[Russell] At that time,
I was in love with my career.
I just loved it,
absolutely every minute of it.
["I Love the Way You Love Me"
by Marv Johnson playing]
The sweet things you do to me
Like holding my handspan style="style1"… ♪
[Russell] That was
a marvelous, wonderful time for me.
You always understand ♪
-And I love the way you love ♪
-I love the way you love ♪
It makes me feel so fine ♪
I love the way you love ♪
Because I know you're mine, all mine ♪
I'll never do you wrong
I'll never make you cry ♪
If you stop loving me
I know that I'll just die ♪
Because I love ♪
-I love the way you love ♪
-Yeah, it makes me feel ♪
-span style="style2"It makes me feel so fine ♪
span style="style2"-So fine ♪
-And I love the way you love ♪
-I love the way you love ♪
Because I know you're mine, all mine ♪
Folks tell me now and then… ♪
[Stoll] span style="style2"That year,
span style="style2"the NBA's MVP award went not to Russell
but to Bob Pettit of the Hawks.
But in Boston,
it was becoming clear that Bill Russell
was the most valuable Celtic.
[pensive music playing]
I always knew he was a good rebounder.
I knew he was a good passer,
but I didn't know he was a leader.
A lot of people didn't know this,
but he was so dedicated to winning
and to the team structure.
The bottom line was he was a winner.
And so, he felt that he should get
a certain amount of respect
just based on what they were able
to accomplish as a team.
Bob Cousy had been a leader, but there's
no question who became the leader.
[Russell] Bob came there,
you know, he was the star of the team.
He could have said,
"Hey, listen, I'm the star."
But what he said was, "Let's do it."
-[interviewer] Together?
-[Russell] Yeah.
[Cousy] I was the man
when he got to Boston,
and then he became the man,
but the media didn't really give him
the credit for being the man.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Before a road trip,
span style="style2"Bob Cousy suffered a sprained ankle.
We go on a road trip.
We play five games in a row.
Russell wanted to show
he could do it without Cousy.
He must've blocked 9,000 shots.
It was unbelievable.
[commentator]span style="style2" LaRusso goes up,
span style="style2"and Russell blocked it!
[Auerbach] We win all five.
We come back into Boston.
The headlines, "Will Cousy play tonight?"
["Dirty Water" by The Standells playing]
I'm gonna tell you a story ♪
I'm gonna tell you about my town ♪
[O'Donnell] Growing up in Boston,
this Russell-Cousy team
was the only winning professional sports
in my neighborhood.
'Cause I love that dirty water ♪
Oh, Boston, you're my home… ♪
[Stoll]span style="style2" Celtic fandom grew,
span style="style2"but appreciation of Bill did not.
[Ryan] Bill Russell did not get
the full… uh, total approbation
he deserved in this town
for the simple reason that he was Black.
It was just that simple.
[Russell] The writers were
totally and completely disrespectful.
[Rhoden] When you had
this all-white press,
with all its biases,
dealing with, particularly, this first
and second wave of Black men,
it was… it was awful.
[Leigh Montville] There were
some hardcore all-white guys
who used a lot those words in private.
And I'm sure that affected their writing
in public. And it was nasty.
[Rhoden] "Black athletes were ignorant.
Only thing they could do was play."
"They weren't intellectual.
They could run and jump."
[tense music playing]
They referred to the balcony,
for instance, in Boston Garden
as "*-word heaven."
You'd hear these things in the press box.
[Ryan] There aren't many Black players
in the league yet.
It was a game of white guys
and white writers and white audiences.
And this town was not "ready" for Bill.
His car broke down in a rainstorm,
and people drove by.
Obviously, they knew who he was.
He's Bill Russell, for goodness' sakes.
People were driving by and heckling him
rather than stop to help him.
Imagine if Larry Bird's car broke down.
There would be a parking lot
of people begging to help Larry.
[music fades]
[Stoll]span style="style2" If Russell encountered
span style="style2"headwinds in the streets of Boston,
he was about to face
a tempest on the court.
[reporter]span style="style2" Last season, the Celts won
span style="style2"their second NBA championship,
but trouble is brewing for them.
[spectators cheering]
[reporter]span style="style2" Trouble in the form
span style="style2"of Wilt Chamberlain,
who makes even Russell look short.
Wilt the Stilt is 7'2".
[tense music playing]
Well, I was fortunate.
I started playing against
those guys you call pros
back when I was in late junior high school
and early high school.
So I used to try to beat them to death.
So I knew that I could
probably do fairly well in the pros,
even at that early age.
[Dominique Wilkins] Wilt Chamberlain,
probably one of the greatest athletes
that ever lived, in any sport.
This man was a super athlete
in a 7'2" body and 270 pounds.
[Zirin] Wilt Chamberlain
was basically Shaq before Shaq,
if Shaq was also an Olympic-level athlete.
When you're seven foot, over 250 pounds,
I expect to see you
in the post dominating.
[Paul] If there's no Wilt,
there's no Magic, no Bird, no MJ.
There's none of that.
[music fades]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Wilt's first basketball job offer,
span style="style2"though, wasn't with the NBA.
-["Sweet Georgia Brown" playing]
-[man]span style="style2" With their new attraction,
the Harlem Globetrotters
draw 20% more fans in 1958.
[man 2]span style="style2" The colorful famous troupe,
span style="style2"founded by Abe Saperstein,
claims countless fans all over the earth.
[Chamberlain] When you're a kid,
I mean a Black kid at that,
the Harlem Globetrotters are like heaven.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Wilt accepted his role as
span style="style2"straight man to the Globetrotters antics.
[Chamberlain] They sent me
a photostat copy of a check for $100,000.
They were offering me $100,000
to play with them on tour for six months.
Guys like yourself make that
all the time, but me? Hey.
$100,000, I would have jumped off
the Empire State Building.
["Sweet Georgia Brown" continues]
For my grandfather and his generation,
the Harlem Globetrotters
were something to be proud of.
They came around. They toured the country.
They always beat the Washington Generals.
But there's a critique among,
especially, intellectual Black people
that these guys are clowns.
That, in fact, they're an extension
of Mantan Moreland
and the other Black Sambo characters.
For a percentage of the Black audience,
they go from being heroes
to actually undercutting
Black achievement.
[Stoll] span style="style2"In 1956, Bill Russell
span style="style2"had gotten his own lucrative offer
from the Globetrotters
while he was still in college.
[George] The Trotters
approached Bill Russell,
"You want to make money, come with us!"
Russell being Russell's like,
"Oh, hell, no."
[Russell] My father said, "My son
will never play for the Globetrotters."
"Because he's the best basketball player
in the world."
"He is not a clown."
[George] "Why am I going to sign up
when I'm an Olympic athlete?"
"I'm a winner."
"I don't need to do this
to validate myself."
[Stoll]span style="style2" Wilt wasn't looking
span style="style2"for validation either.
After Wilt's year
with the Globetrotters was up,
he entered the NBA in 1959
with the Philadelphia Warriors.
[reporter] Basketball fans are waiting
to see how you're going to do,
especially against, uh, players
like Bill Russell.
Do you feel that you are ready for this?
I think, in the long run,
I'll be able to handle myself
man-to-man
with almost anyone in the league.
[dramatic music playing]
[Stoll] span style="style2"The Warriors were coming
span style="style2"off a losing season,
but Wilt gave them the winning edge.
[Russell] When Wilt
first came into the league,
he came in
and made these fantastic numbers.
[Stoll] span style="style2"He averaged 37 points
span style="style2"and 27 rebounds a game,
and Philadelphia was suddenly a contender.
[commentator]span style="style2" Wilt the Stilt
span style="style2"is all fired up.
[Baylor] Could score
every time he wanted to.
He was the strongest guy in the league,
jumped higher than anyone in the league.
Once he got the ball going to the basket,
no one could defend him.
It was impossible.
[Russell] I first encountered him
in the regular season. It was in Boston.
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Garden sold out
span style="style2"months before the game,
and the stands filled up before warm-ups.
[dramatic musical flourish plays]
[spectators cheering]
[Sam Jones] When Philadelphia
went out on the floor,
excitement just went up.
[spectators cheer loudly]
It was deafening.
I looked at his hands, and I knew.
I said, "This guy can hold
a basketball like a baseball."
We knew we were gonna have a problem,
and Russell was gonna have a problem.
[expectant music playing]
[Russell] I thought he was
at least five inches taller.
And I'm wondering now, "Do I look him
in the eye, or do I not look up?"
So I said, "Well,
I'll just look straight ahead."
So I'm looking at his chest.
That ain't gonna cut it. [cackles]
You got two of the greatest guys
in the same era
going up against each other
for the first time.
[tense music playing]
[Stoll]span style="style2" Chamberlain got his points,
treating Russell like he treated
every other center in the league,
but Russell held his own.
[Steve Smith] In our era, you double-team
somebody that big.
All the clips I saw, I saw Mr. Russell
guarding him one-on-one, by himself,
so he had to use angles,
he has to use physics.
Uh, I think Russell recognized
that he was not going to be able
to stop Chamberlain
unless he did some unusual things.
You see Bill positioning himself,
you know, trying to deny the ball.
And at the same time,
you see the calculations in Wilt's mind,
trying to counter what Bill is doing.
[Russell] I knew
that I could not stop him.
But I could put some speed bumps.
That's the best I could come up with.
I think I had over 20 points
and over 20 rebounds.
And I thought he had a really good game,
well over 20 rebounds and 30 points.
And we both got
a lot of blocks and things.
I think, that game,
Chamberlain had all the numbers,
except one, winning.
[spectators cheering]
[music fades]
[upbeat music playing]
[Stoll] span style="style2"In the early '60s,
span style="style2"the NBA hoped to attract more fans
with preseason tours of exhibition games.
In 1961, the Celtics and the Hawks
agreed to a matchup
in Lexington, Kentucky.
And it was sold out!
First time they'd ever put
10,000 people in that stadium.
-[music fades]
-[Stoll]span style="style2" The morning of the game,
the Celtics
checked into the Phoenix Hotel.
But Lexington, like most cities
in the South, was still a segregated city.
[Sanders] We went downstairs in the hotelspan style="style2",
and people behind the counter told us,
"We don't serve Negroes in here."
[Russell] We were in the same hotel.
Just couldn't get the same thing to eat.
So I decided,
and the other guys decided
to go along with me, not to play.
So, I told Red we were leaving.
He says, "Well, wait a minute.
Let me see what's going on."
[Cousy] Arnold gets on the phone,
calls the manager of the coffee shop,
and says, "Hey, they're guests!"
"You've got to serve
everyone who's a guest."
So we went back down, and they said,
"We've been authorized to serve you."
Russ said, "We're just kidding.
We don't really stay in the hotel."
[laughs] That's when they said,
"Well, then we can't serve you!"
"We don't serve Negroes in the hotel."
So we ended up just packing and leaving.
-[somber music playing]
-[Russell] I told Red
I wanted the Celtics to play the game,
and to understand clearly,
the Black guys said, "We're not
gonna play under these conditions."
I called the guys on the other team
and said the Black guys
on the Celtics are not gonna play tonight.
And so, the Black guys on the other team,
they decided not to play also.
[Stoll]span style="style2" An all-white version
span style="style2"of the Celtics vs. Hawks
played in Lexington that night.
[Harry Edwards] There were
those in the media who were screaming
that they should be suspended,
that they should be fined,
that they had let their teammates down,
that they were stealing money
because they were picking up a paycheck
for a game they didn't play.
And Bill made it very clear.
"And if it happens again,
we're gonna do the same thing again."
He's still part
of this first wave of Black players.
He's aware of the racial weight,
you know, that's on his shoulders
about representing
not just himself but a community.
[Renee Montgomery] Athletes now
have taken that torch and are carrying it.
We have our own platforms now.
We would have tweeted it
there at the restaurant.
Like, "Wait, y'all ain't trying
to serve us? Wait a minute."
We would have got it
right out there to Twitter right away.
I'm a spoiled brat.
I don't know what it means
to go to a hotel, and they say,
"Oh, you can't sleep here.
You gotta sleep in the back."
I don't know what it means
to go to the water fountain,
and it says "whites only."
Most of the guys,
especially ones playing now,
can't even go through one-tenth
of what he went through.
The irony is that at the same time
they're experiencing racism off the court,
Black players are getting
more prominent in the world of basketball.
[Goudsouzian] By the early 1960s,
the NBA is arriving
in the American sports mainstream.
It's about to usher in
this era of great commercial growth.
One of the key factors for that
is the arrival
of these great
African American superstars.
-[funk music playing]
-[Russell] Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor.
These guys were
really great basketball players.
The addition of so many great
Black athletes coming into the league
continued to make it just flourish.
[George] These guys are bringing
elevation to basketball.
I call it the Black athletic aesthetic.
"How do I express myself within the game?"
[funk music continues]
[Goudsouzian] At the same time,
there's this public fascination
with this new rivalry
between the two great Black centers.
The papers and the fans
and everyone played this up.
And it was a great matchup.
[George] The NBA used Russell and Wilt
to market the game, and it worked.
They brought people into the games.
You call it hype, we call it publicity,
in order to get crowds.
Both cities were sold out automatically.
Well, it was good for the press.
It was good to draw people.
But we didn't care what they wrote.
All we wanted to do was win.
Playing Chamberlain wasn't easy.
Wilt had only played a couple of years,
but he was the most dominant player ever.
[rhythmic music playing]
[Erickson] He would just take over games.
[Russell] He averaged 50 points a game
that season.
That's his average, 50, every game.
[Cousy] Can you imagine averaging 50?
I did that once in my entire 13 years,
and it took me four overtimes to do it!
[Stoll]span style="style2" And in a game against
span style="style2"the New York Knicks in March 1962,
Wilt outdid himself,
setting a record
that most agree will never be broken.
He scored 100 points.
After that game, every night,
they were looking for 100 points.
[music fades]
[Stoll] span style="style2"As far as the public
span style="style2"was concerned,
Wilt's only challenger was Bill Russell.
The media played up that narrative,
and the pressure
was on the two titans to deliver.
[tense music playing]
[Russell] It seemed to me, every Sunday,
we'd be on national TV, exposed.
And so that if I went out and I had
an ordinary game, I'd get k*lled.
I mean, he'd go for 60 or 65.
[Paul] Wilt and Bill had that rivalry.
You can't compare that against guys
in today's game. It was a different time.
[Rhoden] People couldn't decide who was
the good guy, who was the bad guy,
because Chamberlain was
much more gregarious.
He was much more accessible.
More kind of,
"What we like with our Negroes."
Then in this corner,
you've got Bill Russell,
kind of a more ominous n*gro.
"We don't kind of know
even if he likes us." [laughs] You know?
[tense music continues]
[Stoll]span style="style2" At the end of the 1961-'62 season,
Wilt tried once again to prove
that he could pull
the Warriors over the finish line
and dethrone the Celtics.
[Springer] Bill may have been
the superstar of his time,
but he approached it as if he was
just one of five guys on that court.
Wilt was just, "I'm Wilt Chamberlain.
I'm here. I'll score 100 points."
"You guys do what you want.
I'll win it for you."
It was a different approach.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Both strategies were effective.
Bill's team ran the Warriors
off the floor in the opener,
but in game two,
Wilt's unstoppable scoring
evened the series.
[Russell] What I had to do
was discipline myself
to never get into a numbers game with him.
[Sanders] In that series,
Russell would come in the dressing room.
He'd say,
"I'm really gonna deal with Wilt."
"Now, it's going to take
a lot out of me to do this,
but what… [chuckles]
…what you guys better do is get a lead."
[tense music playing]
[Sanders] After trying to steal the ball
from Wilt, jump in front of him,
play behind him,
pull the chair out from him,
and trying to force himself to the basket,
there was not much left
that he could do on the court.
But let me just say this.
After Russell had done his magic,
Wilt was like an angry man.
[commentator]span style="style2" Little fight going on.
span style="style2"Chamberlain in the middle right there.
[Sanders] And he would end up
scoring 35 points,
but half of those games, we would win.
[Karen] His individual statistics
may not shine in comparison with Wilt.
But at the end of the day,
he always thought that it didn't matter
how you played the game,
how many points you got,
as long as, the end,
you could say, "We won."
[Russell] When it got to be
three and three,
it's anybody's ball game.
[dramatic music playing]
[Stoll]span style="style2" With the 1962
span style="style2"Eastern Division series tied,
game seven would sharpen the contrast
between Chamberlain and Russell.
[Heinsohn] Chamberlain was awesome.
But Russell had
the competitiveness of a lion.
Whatever it took to win,
this man could pull out of himself.
It would come down
to one or two plays at the very end.
[O'Donnell] And here's
the ridiculous thing.
In Boston,
we were completely confident
in Bill Russell. [laughs]
[Most]span style="style2" Man,
span style="style2"what a ball game this is so far!
[Stoll]span style="style2" With 13 seconds left
span style="style2"and the ball game tied,
the Celtics had a chance to end it.
[Most] span style="style2"Cousy drives to the right,
span style="style2"comes back out towards the middle.
Heinsohn, he goes baseline.
The shot is no good.
[O'Donnell] The shot wouldn't fall.
Philadelphia gets the ball.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Now it was the Warriors' chance.
And they had only one plan.
Get the ball into Wilt's hands.
[Most] span style="style2"What a play by Russell!
[commentator]span style="style2" And that was a mark
span style="style2"of how much he wants to win it.
It'll be Boston ball.
[Stoll]span style="style2" With the series on the line,
Bill knew who to trust
with the final shot.
[Most]span style="style2" Sam Jones taking a long shot.
Wowee!
[commentator]span style="style2" Time has run out,
span style="style2"and the Boston Celtics have done it again!
[cheering]
Bill Russell used to say,
"If you want to be a champion by yourself,
son, go play tennis."
"But if you want to win as a family,
you need to associate yourself
with your teammates."
["Last Night" by The Mar-Keys playing]
[Stoll] span style="style2"To hang their next banner,
the Celtics had to defeat
a familiar but improved foe.
The Lakers relocated
to Los Angeles from Minneapolis
and boasted a pair of rising stars.
Well, my name is Jerry West,
and, uh, what I used to do was, um…
What's that crazy sport
where you dribble the ball?
Basketball, yeah.
[commentator]span style="style2" Hot Rod Hundley
behind his back
to the trailer, Jerry West.
West up for the shot,
and he's got another one.
[Russell] Jerry was a great player.
One of the great offensive players
that was equally good
as a defensive player.
Jerry West was
the number one draft choice,
one of the greatest shooters of all time,
one of the hardest players of all time.
He was known in Los Angeles as Mr. Clutch.
At the end of the game, you get the ball
to Jerry, and it was as good as gold.
[spectators cheering]
[percussive music playing]
[West] Playing against the Celtics
did not concern me at all.
I felt that they had to compete with me
for a change.
We also had Elgin Baylor,
who was really fun to watch.
[Russell] There's never been
a better forward than Elgin Baylor.
People don't remember how great
Elgin was. He was unstoppable.
Elgin was Dr. J before Dr. J.
He was Michael before Michael.
[Stoll]span style="style2" In game five
span style="style2"of the '62 NBA Finals,
Baylor carried his team,
scoring 61 points, a Finals record.
You have confidence in yourself
that you can pull it off, get it done.
And I think
all the great players had that confidence.
[Stoll]span style="style2" The decisive seventh game
span style="style2"drew a sellout crowd at the Garden.
[tense music playing]
The 1962 seventh game against the Lakers
is always referred to as the Selvy game.
[Stoll] span style="style2"With five seconds remaining
span style="style2"and the score tied at 100,
the Lakers had possession.
[Ryan] Selvy was the other guard
with Jerry West.
And I'm guarding Selvy at half-court,
and Selvy whips away from me
into the corner.
He'll make that shot
nine out of ten times.
[commentator]span style="style2" Three seconds,
span style="style2"two, Selvy shoots!
-It is no good, rebound… Overtime!
span style="style1"-[spectators exclaim]
[commentator]span style="style2" Bill Russell
span style="style2"has gone down on his knees on the floor
from the emotion.
[Stoll]span style="style2" In overtime, an exhausted Russell
managed to score six points
to give the Celtics a slim lead.
[commentator]span style="style2" Now, Baylor. And the foul,
span style="style2"I think, is on Frank Ramsey.
He leaves the game with 23 points.
Gene Guarilia comes in.
[Russell] We had this guy Gene Guarilia,
who never got in the game.
Never got to play.
So, Red's got no choice.
He puts Guarilia on Elgin.
[commentator]span style="style2" Baylor.
span style="style2"Guarilia guarding him.
Baylor turning, sh**ting, missing.
Rebound, Russell!
Baylor with Guarilia guarding him.
A tip-in attempt by Selvy.
Rebound, Sam Jones!
[Russell] What happened was,
the guy was so scared he couldn't move.
When Elgin faked, he didn't move,
he didn't react. He just stood there.
Completely shuts Elgin down.
[commentator]span style="style2" Out, no good.
span style="style2"Rebound action. Foul called.
Foul's on Baylor.
That's all for Elgin Baylor.
A standing ovation
at Boston Garden for Elgin Baylor.
[spectators whistling]
[commentator] span style="style2"Bill Russell
span style="style2"will go over and shake the hand
of a great basketball player,
Elgin Baylor.
[Stoll]span style="style2" With the game under control,
span style="style2"Cousy ran out the clock
with his iconic right-handed dribble.
[commentator 2]span style="style2" He's eating up the clock,
span style="style2"time ticking away,
and the ball game is over!
For big Bill Russell, 30 points
and 40, I repeat, 40 rebounds.
A tremendous basketball game.
[Stoll]span style="style2" In the locker room, there was
span style="style2"the traditional beer-soaked celebration.
The fifth championship for Russell,
and the Celtics had become span style="style1"the dynasty.
[mellow music playing]
On one level, for Russell, by the 1960s,
he's kind of living the American dream.
A home in the suburbs,
he's got three young children,
he's got a doting wife,
he's got a good job, he's got a nice car.
All these sort of accoutrements
of sort of a life of general prosperity.
[Stoll] span style="style2"Bill and Rose
span style="style2"were starting to feel more at home
in the white suburb of Reading,
and Reading was rightfully proud
of its most famous citizen.
In the spring of 1963,
the town threw the Russells
a testimonial banquet
to show their appreciation.
[Kenneth Latham]span style="style2" Be it resolved
that this annual town meeting
of March 1963
decrees that a day
be designated as Bill Russell Day.
Bill, we're honoring you and Rose
and your family tonight
here in Reading for what you are,
not just a basketball player,
but as a sportsman, as an athlete,
as a father, as a family man…
[Newt Morton]span style="style2" As a lifelong resident
span style="style2"of this town,
I like to think that one
of its outstanding characteristics
is neighborliness…
Mrs. Russell, it has been
,
and I deem it an honor…
A credit to his race, the human race.
[Curtis]span style="style2" …and break bread
span style="style2"with both you and Mrs. Russell.
[Latham]span style="style2" And now
span style="style2"it's your turn at the mic.
[Russell clears throat]
span style="style2"Thank you very much.
Yes, I'm nervous again tonight.
I'm really nervous.
I think I'd rather play Chamberlain
ten times than face this once.
[guests chuckle]
[Russell]span style="style2" I don't even know
span style="style2"where to start.
But I say that, in all sincerity,
it's a little bit too much for me
to see so many wonderful people
here tonight.
It makes me feel like my life
hasn't been a complete waste.
I honestly thought that no one
even noticed that I was here.span style="style1" [laughs]
And this is something
I'll always remember,
and I only hope I can lead a life
that will make you always feel
this way about me.
And I appreciate it very much. Thank you.
[guests applauding]
[Goudsouzian] Russell was touched.
He felt, "I'm finally being welcomed
in my hometown."
Weeks later, he decides,
"We're committing to Reading."
"We've outgrown our home. It's time
to look for another home in Reading."
He's looking at some
of these statelier homes on the west side.
[Wright]span style="style2" Less than a month later,
a rumor got out that I wanted to buy
a house in another part of this town.
And the neighbors objected like hell.
As an athlete, a celebrity even,
you're a great guy to have in the town,
as long as you don't stay close to me.
My wife Rose came home in tears
as she watched residents
sign a petition against the sale.
"We better forget that house,"
Rose said to me.
"They don't want us here."
"I bought that house, and I'm the one
making the mortgage payments."
"I don't care
what anyone else thinks," I said.
"What about our children?
Who will play with them?"
"What will our white neighbors
say to them?" Rose said.
[somber music playing]
"I'm thinking about our kids."
"I couldn't look them in the face
if I put up with that kind of behavior."
I wouldn't let anyone tell me
where I'm going to live.
As Russell's winning these titles
and he's getting more prominent,
he knows that his winning
wasn't about to protect him from racism.
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around"
by The Roots playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" I had been reacting
span style="style2"to white cultural bias
virtually all my life.
It was everywhere.
It's a whole new way of life.
[Wright]span style="style2" In libraries,
span style="style2"on television shows, on people's faces.
[man]span style="style2" We have a good chance of success.
[woman]span style="style2" You feel just as good as you look.
[man 2] Can't be popular
unless you know how to dress.
[woman 2]span style="style2" And that's
span style="style2"the real beauty of it.
[Wright]span style="style2" There were few things
span style="style2"white people could do
without revealing prejudice
that was offensive to me.
I spent a lot of time
trying to combat bias in all forms.
I was always on defense,
just like in basketball.
I ached for some offense.
The evolution Russell went through
is very typical
of a lot of striving Black people
who worked hard,
who then had to begin to think,
"I should use the platform I have
to protest against what's happening
to my people and to me."
"Is there more for me to say about this
than me just achieving?"
This is the beginning
of a full-scale attack
on the system of segregation
and discrimination.
[Stoll]span style="style2" By 1963,
as the Civil Rights Movement
gained strength,
Russell deepened
his commitment to the struggle.
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around"
continues]
[Goudsouzian] There's a big rally,
and Russell leads a march
from Roxbury, a Black neighborhood,
to Boston Common.
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪
Turn me around, turn me around ♪
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪
I just keep on walkin'
Keep on talkin' ♪
Marching on to freedom land ♪
[Stoll] span style="style2"A few months later,
span style="style2"the Mall in Washington, DC,
would be the site of the biggest march
in the nation's history.
[faint singing and chatter]
[reporter]span style="style2" They came
span style="style2"with white sympathizers
from every point on the compass.
Their primary aim,
a full program of civil rights.
There will be neither rest
nor tranquility in America
until the n*gro is granted
his citizenship rights.
[Russell] The March on Washington,
I stayed in the same hotel
as Reverend Martin Luther King.
And so we met in the lobby
and had a brief conversation.
He invited me to go on stage
when he made the big speech.
And I respectfully declined.
And the reason I declined was
they had worked for a couple of years
to put that thing together,
and I hadn't done anything.
And it would not be right
for me to go on stage
and say, "Hey, listen.
This is what we've done."
So I sat in the first row.
We remember it as a picnic,
but at the time, it terrified people.
They had paratroopers
surrounding the city.
They stockpiled plasma.
They thought it was gonna be a bloodbath.
To go to the March on Washington
took a little bit of courage.
I think that the era
that Russell played basketball,
the world is
in a different type of turmoil.
It wasn't "lose your job."
It wasn't "lose your career."
It was "lose your life."
I've had threatening calls,
people calling me,
saying that they were gonna k*ll me,
saying they were gonna blow my home up.
I said, "Well, whenever my time comes,
I'm ready."
Medgar Evers had dedicated nine years
of his life to the w*r against racism.
Now, he is dead in battle.
Thirty-seven years old,
a veteran of World w*r II,
a martyr now
to the n*gro struggle to end segregation.
[protestors chanting indistinctly]
[Russell] When Medgar Evers got shot,
we had a memorial service for him
in Boston, at the Boston Common.
[faint singing]
[Russell] And I sat
next to Charlie Evers, his brother.
I told him, "If there's anything I can do,
here's my home number."
He calls me the next summer and says,
"We've taken a hit, morale-wise."
"Why don't you do some basketball clinics
in Jackson, Mississippi,
to show somebody from outside cares?"
[pensive music playing]
[protestors chanting indistinctly]
In Mississippi in 1964,
we're still talking about bloodshed.
We're talking about…
I mean, it was awful. Awful.
If the White Citizens' Council,
the Ku Klux Klan,
and the… some group
for the preservation of the white race.
I forget the name of it exactly.
They didn't want no part of this.
And if they have their way,
you know, they said they don't mind
k*lling a few people.
And Charlie says to me,
"You know we're not gonna let
anything happen to you."
I was like, "Okay."
He had announced to members of the team
that he was going to go
down to Mississippi.
Somebody said,
"Well, that's a pretty dangerous place."
Somebody… Cousy or Sharman or somebody
spoke up and said,
"Bill, you'll be okay.
Just keep a low profile."
[laughing] You know, here's a guy
who had just won an NBA championship,
MVP, all this kind of stuff,
6'9", Black, with a goatee,
go to Mississippi during Freedom Summer
and keep a low profile.
He said, "That's when I really knew
I was in trouble."
[pensive music continues]
Mr. Russell,
what brings you to Mississippi?
Well, Mr. Evers here asked me
to come down a few days ago,
and I've known him for quite some time,
so I was very glad to come down.
I've been following
what's been happening here,
and this is very much a part of my life.
Uh, one of the purposes for me to come,
I'm going to conduct basketball clinics.
Do you think your presence here
will help alleviate the trouble?
I'm hoping. I'm not, uh, hoping
to make things worse.
Do you think you'll get some white kids
to play basketball with n*gro kids?
I think so. I don't see why not.
My kids play with white kids.
-Ain't nobody got hurt yet.
-Not yet.
-Nice to meet you.
-Thank you.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Russell conducted his clinics
span style="style2"in Jackson
despite threats on his life.
Since it was too dangerous
to travel outside the city,
Russell was forced
to cut his Mississippi trip short.
Still, he had walked
into the belly of the beast
and taken a very public stand
against racial terror.
[melancholy music playing]
[Wright]span style="style2" The civil rights movement
of today has become stagnant.
We all overlook the fact
that the responsibility is on us
to undo within the next two or three years
what it took three centuries to create.
We must undo a whole thinking process,
and we have only two or three years
to accomplish that goal.
There must be more understanding
of the ones who really fight the battle.
It is the people,
the whites and the Negroes,
who inhabit the battleground
day after day and night after night,
who are the true warriors.
Human rights is just as complex
as any other political problem.
The only element on which we can all agree
is that the problem must be solved.
[Stoll]span style="style2" Amidst America's cultural turmoil,
the Celtics faced a seismic shift.
Bob Cousy, the Houdini of the Hardwood,
the team's captain
and its most popular player,
was suiting up for his last season.
[tense, dramatic music playing]
[Russell] The year
that Cousy was gonna retire,
he told us, "This is my last year."
We wanted to make sure his last year
was a championship year.
[Stoll] span style="style2"The 1962-1963 season
span style="style2"was a celebration of Bob Cousy,
with tributes in every city
the Celtics played.
[Sam Jones] Signs were all up
over the Garden,
"We love you, Cousy."
"We're going to miss you, Cous."
We were hoping
that Cousy could go out a winner.
I perhaps had wanted the championship
as badly as I wanted the first.
[Stoll]span style="style2" The team
span style="style2"did everything that season
to deliver one more championship
for Cousy.
They made it to the Finals,
where a familiar and angry foe
awaited them.
The Celtics are gunning
for an unprecedented
fifth World Championship in a row.
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Celtics failed
span style="style2"to sew up the series in Boston.
Now they carried a three-two series lead
to Los Angeles for game six.
[Cousy] Well, it was only dramatic
because of the circumstances,
my last year, the end of a career,
the World Championship on the line.
[Stoll]span style="style2" If Cousy was nervous
span style="style2"about the last game of his career,
he didn't play like it.
[commentator]span style="style2" Cousy knocks it to Russell.
[man exclaims]
[commentator] span style="style2"Long pass to Sanders.
span style="style2"Look at that play!
[Stoll]span style="style2" Cousy played a strong first half,
propelling the Celtics
to a commanding lead.
[commentator]span style="style2" So that's the end
span style="style2"of the first half of play with the score…
[Stoll]span style="style2" The Celtics machine,
span style="style2"perfected by Cousy and Russell
over the past seven years,
was working without a hitch.
[commentator]span style="style2" Krebs guarding Russell,
span style="style2"and Baylor…
[Stoll]span style="style2" Then, early in the fourth quarter
span style="style2"with Boston ahead 92 to 83,
Cousy went down.
[commentator]span style="style2" Cousy is hurt!
Coming from one side to the other,
looks like he hurt his left ankle.
That'll be a crushing blow
to the Boston Celtics.
[Cousy] First time I was hurt seriously
in 13 years.
I wanted to end it,
if at all possible, on the floor.
[commentator]span style="style2" It certainly appears
span style="style2"to be a most serious injury,
the way he's going off…
We all recognized that without Cousy,
we're gonna have some problems.
[tense music playing]
[commentator] span style="style2"West goes
span style="style2"down the middle and gets it!
Russell guarding Baylor,
but Baylor made it!
[Russell] Without Bob Cousy,
we started losing our rhythm,
and we got k*lled.
We knew we were playing the best team,
the better team,
but we thought we were going to win.
We had an opportunity.
[commentator]span style="style2" Red Auerbach
span style="style2"pacing along the sideline.
[Stoll]span style="style2" With only four minutes remaining,
span style="style2"the Celtics were ahead by just one point
when the unbelievable happened.
[dramatic music playing]
[commentator]span style="style2" Bob Cousy is coming back!
[Cousy] Buddy LeRoux, our famous trainer,
iced it down to the point
where I felt I could go back
into the game and finish it out.
[dramatic music continues]
[Stoll]span style="style2" The reenergized Celtics
span style="style2"cemented their lead.
And in the final seconds,
the ball was in Cousy's hands.
-[commentator]span style="style2" A second to go.
-[siren blares]
[commentator] span style="style2"Cousy
span style="style2"throws it high in the air,
and the Boston Celtics
are World Champions!
That's the end of the game.
[cheering and whistling]
[Stoll] span style="style2"Their sixth championship
span style="style2"in seven seasons.
[Cousy] I'm very, very fortunate
in my 13 years,
and God certainly granted my last wish.
-Well, I'll say--
-What a way to go out. Oh my God!
I love it, wonderful.
[Russell] I have always considered Cousy
a near-perfect teammate.
[Cousy] Grabbing Russ and hugging him,
you want to share your joy
with someone that's close to you.
[dramatic music continues]
[Cousy] In this regard, I can only say,
if I had it to do over again…
[sniffles] …I just couldn't imagine
playing anywhere but Boston.
[applause]
I've been asked many times this year
what I will miss most
about no longer playing. [sniffles]
[Russell] When Cous retired,
and he's giving his speech, breaking up,
and then everybody starts crying…
[man] We love you, Cous!
[spectators applauding and cheering]
[Russell] Somebody yelled out,
says, "We love you, Cous."
I thought it was a great moment.
I said to Red, he was standing next to me,
"I'd never go through that sh*t."
[cackles]
["Turiya and Ramakrishna"
by Alice Coltrane playing]
[Wright] span style="style2"We were special friends
but limited ones,
and I had too much respect for him
ever to get sucked into the jealousy
others tried to promote between us.
Still, I can't say
that I was ever close to Cousy.
There is simply
too much competitive pressure
in professional sports
to share your hope and fears
with somebody in the same business.
[Stoll]span style="style2" For Russell, the fears
span style="style2"were starting to outweigh the hopes.
He was frustrated
by the lack of progress in civil rights
and wondered if the game had any value.
[Wright]span style="style2" Through it all, I was confronted
with the never-ending search
all n*gro males must go through
for their manhood.
But I was the world champion.
The pressure continued.
The games had to be played.
The opponents had to be faced.
A guy walks up to me.
I was in Boston. The guy says,
"What are you guys gonna do now
you don't have Cousy to carry you?"
So, I said, "Well,
it'll be difficult.
We got to make an adjustment."
"But do yourself a favor
and call the span style="style2"Boston Globe or WBZ
and find out who the MVP
of this league was the last three years."
[Russell cackles]
[projector whirs and clicks]
[dramatic music playing]
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01x01 - Part 1
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Features interviews and personal archives from the life and career of NBA legend Bill Russell.
Features interviews and personal archives from the life and career of NBA legend Bill Russell.