Did you know that Bill Russel was a five-time winner of the
NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a twelve-time
All-Star?
Did you know that Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics
dynasty that won eleven
NBA Championships during Russell's thirteen-year career.
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| Henri Richard |
Did you know that
Henri Richard of the
National Hockey League's
Montreal Canadiens, and Bill Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league?
Did you know that Russell led the
University of San Francisco to two consecutive
NCAA championships (1955, 1956)?
Did you know that Russell also won a gold medal at the
1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the
U.S. national basketball team?
Did you know that by winning the 1956 NCAA Championship with USF and the 1957 NBA title with the Celtics, Russell became the first of only four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship back-to-back (the others being
Henry Bibby,
Magic Johnson, and
Billy Thompson)?
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| Bill Russell & Wilt Chamberlin |
Did you know that Russell led the NBA in rebounds four times and tallied 21,620 total rebounds in his career?
Did you know that Russell is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival
Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than fifty rebounds in a game?
Did you know that Russell was the first
African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA?
Did you know that Russell also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as
player-coach and won two NBA Championships for the Celtics, becoming the first African American NBA coach?
Did you know that Russell was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by
Barack Obama in 2011?
Did you know that Russell is a member of the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the
National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame?
Did you know that Russell was selected into
NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, into
NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980 and named as one of the
50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players that selected into all three teams?
Did you know that in 2009, the NBA announced that the
NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named the
Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Russell?
Did you know that Russell wrote 4 books?
- Russell, Bill; McSweeny, William (1966). Go Up for Glory. Coward-McCann.
- Russell, Bill; Branch, Taylor (1979). Second Wind. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0394503851.
- Russell, Bill; Faulkner, David (2001). Russell Rules. New American Library. ISBN 0-525-94598-9.
- Russell, Bill; Steinberg, Alan (2009). Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend. Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-176614-5.
Did you know that Coach Geno Auriemma, of Connecticut is the second highest paid coach in Women NCAA College Ball?
