It’s heartbreaking: A very loyal Celtics player has announced his sudden retirement, sending a powerful statement and bidding the team and supporters a heartfelt farewell.
The NBA declared on Thursday that all teams would retire Bill Russell’s No. 6 jersey in commemoration of the Boston Celtics legend.
“Bill Russell’s unparalleled success on the court and pioneering civil rights activism deserve to be honored in a unique and historic way,” Adam Silver, the commissioner, said. “Permanently retiring his No. 6 across every NBA team ensures that Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognized.”
With immediate effect, players who now wear No. 6 can keep doing so, but the number retirement does not.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, Major League Baseball retired Robinson’s No. 42 uniform in 1997.
The first player to have his jersey retired by the NBA was Russell, who passed away on July 31 at the age of 88. This accolade is appropriate given his accomplishments on the court and his influence off it.
After winning two straight championships at the University of San Francisco, the 6’10” center went on to win twelve All-Star games, eleven NBA championships, and five MVP awards. Throughout his 13-year career, he averaged 16.2 points and 24.9 rebounds, making him one of the all-time great players.
He became the first Black head coach in the NBA when the Celtics hired him as both a player and head coach in 1966. In that capacity, he was crowned champion twice in 1968 and 1969.
Russell also pioneered the civil rights movement. In 1963, he participated in the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. He also backed Muhammad Ali at the Cleveland Summit as one of the athletes. Prior to an exhibition in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1961, he was the focus of a boycott by Celtics players because two of his teammates, Sam Jones and Thomas Sanders, had been turned away from a nearby coffee shop.
Russell also didn’t hold back when talking about the bigotry he encountered in Boston during the 1960s while working to establish the Celtics as a dynasty.
Russell was deemed “brilliant” by sociologist Harry Edwards during a 2019 interview with Martenzie Johnson of Andscape.
“He is probably the most brilliant, intellectually, athlete that I have ever come across, and one of the most brilliant people that I’ve come across,” Edwards stated.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball icon, told Johnson how Russell’s advocacy affected his own.
Abdul-Jabbar remarked, “What struck me the most was that, although he expressed himself rationally rather than angrily, he approached injustice with passion.” “Logic won people over to your side; anger never did. I attempted to use that strategy.”
The NBA will honor Russell’s life by having each club wear a memorial jersey patch and putting a memorial logo on the sideline close to the scorer’s table. Russell’s jersey will also be retired.
Russell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011.
