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So, if you're anywhere within a planet's distance of the NBA space, you understand Bill Russell and how legendary, how important he was to this space to not only the game from the player's perspective, not only the game from an explosion, but just activism and civil rights and continuing to push the ball forward on the same level of say A Muhammad Ali. So I have to take a moment to pay respects to the late great Bill Russell eighty eight years old, which I feel like he looked
older than that he did. I was like, dang, I thought you had another ten years though, in you because it just felt like Bill Russell had been around, no matter what documentary, no matter what moment that we shed light on the NBA, what Cornerstone, seventy five fifty, he's in the mix of that, and he's the guy. Yeah, And I've been thinking a little bit about Russell because I've been thinking a lot about the fact that we just continue to resurface the greatest of all Time debate
over and over and over. And I had just watched They Call Me Magic and how good Magic was from the time he was a rookie and he was diagnosed with HIV, and one could say that if Magic never went down, there's a real argument to be made in terms of what he could do on the basketball court for him to be the greatest of all time, and even what he did from a branding perspective, shaping and paving the way for guys like Michael Jordan. Even Michael Jordan was on that documentary and said, it wasn't me
that became a huge international pop star. It was Magic first. But it's always almost MJ. M Braun. That's the two. Sometimes you get some delusional Laker fan bringing up Kobe and you know that's what that is. But when you wonder about, okay, what is the criteria of greatest of all time? And so many people bring up MJ because he has one more than Braun, then you have to say, okay, well, then winning must be the only or the main criterion that we use to hold up the standard. No, if
we're using that, then there is no debate. If we use winning and winning alone outside of the things that you've done on the court, your skills, et cetera, there's only one answer, and the answer is Bill Russell.
Dude.
What won every single level, everywhere he went, everywhere. He won state titles his last two years in high school. He went to a fourteen and seven school, the San Francisco Dons team, and proceeded to go fifty seven and one consecutive national titles. What traded on Draft Night to the Celtics for a six time All star Ed McCauley and another player in what sports historian considered to be
the most important trade in sports history. Why? Because Bill Russell came around and just one of his rookie year yes, one at his first year, one at his last year, and won nine in between, eleven rings in thirteen years, eleven rings in a thirteen thirteen year playing career, and those final two championships. He actually coached the Celtics as the first black head coaching naim Here history, So if you count his coaching titles as double rings, he ended
up with thirteen rings in thirteen years. The player coach thing is wild. That's just such an interesting phenomenon. And for those who say that these guys back in the day couldn't play in today's NBA, keep in mind this little nugget, this little fact Bill Russell was a world class high jumper who ran a sub fifty second four hundred meter in nineteen fifty nine. Are pair of low top chucks. The low top chucks part is important. I feel.
I feel that that's a critical distinction between we've got hokahs or what they called hokahs, hokah wah Wan's waggawan and the Nike juaggo on, Yes, we've got the hokahs, We've got Nikes, we've got this, We've got that. This man's literally playing basketball and running and high jumping in some shit that I wear casually and almost sprain my ankle just walking, still struggling to get the job done in those shoes, just living life. This man used low
top Chucks as a performance shoe. Not too many people could do this now, and not too many people could do that at six feet ten. By the way, when you think about Paolo Ben Carrol and Bill rust will be in the same height. That's that's fucking crazy. So yeah, take that goat argument, slice it, dice it, and get
the fuck out of here. If winning a title is what matters in basketball and then Bill Russell should at least be mentioned in the debate, especially now that the late Great is late and great Rest in peace to the greatest winner in basketball history. Bill Russell. Never got to meet you. Wish I did. I've seen you across the way. Wish I would have said Hi.