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Michael Holley On Bill Russell - Man Of Many Laughs
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Man of a million laughs
No joke: Russell can keep everyone smiling
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 04/08/99
The limousine's back seat is
filled with music, even
though no one has
flipped on the radio.
What you hear is the
sound of a tenor,
erupting with full
notes and notes of
laughter. It is Bill
Russell, still cackling
from a previous joke. And as Russell rolls
through the streets of Roxbury on his way
to the FleetCenter, you often hear these
surprising high-pitched bursts of sound
mixed with a little basketball history.
Before you take this limo ride with
Russell, you must understand this: You
cannot hear him laugh without laughing a
lot yourself. It is impossible. The man
who owns more NBA championship rings (11)
than anyone was one of the first athletes
to host ''Saturday Night Live.'' It would
have been more appropriate if he had been
a regular on one of those ''Make Me
Laugh'' game shows. If I were trying to
win the first-prize big money and had to
scowl for three minutes with Russell
laughing in my face, well, just call me
Mr. Runner-up.
Russell was here yesterday to talk about
the tribute that will be held for him May
26. That date will be 30 years and three
weeks after he played his final pro game
for the Celtics in Los Angeles. During his
tribute, he will have his No. 6 jersey
re-retired. He will be surrounded by
Aretha Franklin, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom
Brokaw, Muhammad Ali, and his daughter,
Karen. He'll laugh a little, too. It's
fitting that a very funny man named Bill
Cosby will host the event.
Russell's shiny black limo was parked
outside the Reggie Lewis Center yesterday.
Eventually he would climb in and be taken
to the FleetCenter, where he would speak
at his press conference. But not before he
reminded John Thomas, owner of two Olympic
medals, of how he embarrassed him during a
pickup basketball game when Thomas was a
kid who didn't know better.
''He used to say to me, `I can play for
the Celtics, I can play for the Celtics. I
can jump,''' Russell said of Thomas, who
won the 1960 silver medal for his high
jumping. ''I said, `It's a lot more than
that, John. But, all right, I'll tell you
what I'll do. We'll go out there and I'll
shoot lefthanded.'''
Pow. There was that laugh again. Thomas
had thought Russell was doing him a favor.
But the 6-foot-9-inch Russell was and is
... lefthanded. So he crushed Thomas
during their matchup. About a week later,
Thomas found out the truth and ''he told
me what a chicken [expletive] thing that
was to do,'' Russell said.
He is laughing again. All the people in
the Center who hear him tell the story are
laughing, too. Malcolm Winn, Roxbury
Community College's men's basketball
coach, loves telling that story when
Russell is not in town. When he saw
Russell yesterday, he repeated it again.
''I was born the year you graduated from
college [1956],'' Winn said to Russell,
within earshot of Thomas. ''My daddy
whispered to me, over my crib, `Son,
Russell is lefthanded.''' Russell loved
that one. He laughed some more and slapped
Winn's hand.
Finally, he would slide into the limo,
seated next to another joker, a man who
wore No. 6 because Russell wore it. The
joker sitting next to Russell, Julius
Erving, heard Karen Russell's cell phone
ring. He decided to answer it.
''Hello, Karen Russell's phone,'' Dr. J
said into the phone, an instrument that
looked like a thimble in his huge hand.
Although Karen was sitting in the front
seat, Erving told the caller, ''Oh, Karen?
She's been arrested. Do you want me to
tell you how to reach her? We're talking
about the same Karen, right? Tall, black
girl?''
Imagine: Dr. J was sitting next to Bill
Russell in a limo, crank-calling Karen
Russell's mother. Once Karen got the phone
from Dr. (J) Patch Adams, she told him,
''My mother says she's going to knock you
upside the head.''
More laughs.
Erving also will be here to toast Russell
in May. Wilt Chamberlain will be here,
too. They will not be here solely because
they liked the way Russell artfully
swatted away shots and began fast breaks.
They will not honor a man, now 65, just
because he once touched the top of a
backboard during a test at the University
of San Francisco. They will talk about him
because they are friends who saw sides of
him that, often, he would not let the
public see.
You know that he battled with Wilt, who
''was stronger than anyone you've ever
seen, I'll tell you that. Shaq? I think he
was stronger than Shaq, especially in his
upper body.'' But Chamberlain and Russell
used to have Thanksgiving dinners
together, too. You know Erving wore No. 6
because of him and met Russell while
Erving was a sophomore at the University
of Massachusetts, but, as the Doctor asked
Russell yesterday, ''Do you remember the
time you flew me out to Los Angeles to do
your radio show? You were hanging with Jim
Brown.''
Russell replied, ''Yep. And I was losing
money to him playing golf.''
Pow. There was that laugh again.
Surprising and complete. Russell then
looked at Erving and said, ''When guys
play well and conduct themselves in a way
that makes you proud, that makes it even
better. And Julius always did that - even
when he was fighting with Larry Bird.''
This is the best laugh yet. Russell grabs
Erving by the shoulders, squeezing and
laughing hysterically. He laughs so much
that Karen turns around and laughs, too. I
think I saw the driver, battling the Big
Dig and afternoon traffic, crack a smile,
too. I think this is a first: Someone
laughing uncontrollably despite being
locked in traffic. Erving and Bird have
never talked at length about their scuffle
in the early 1980s. But you get the
feeling that Russell could get both of
them to talk and laugh about it.
Russell rarely showed this side of himself
when he played. He is a private man (his
jersey was originally retired 27 years ago
in a private ceremony). He rarely pens an
autograph. There are stories about him
steeling himself against racists who threw
epithets when he wanted to purchase a home
in Reading. He is asked about Boston, a
city that has a reputation for being
unkind to black athletes.
''Well, if I remember correctly, Ted
Williams had some difficult times here,''
he said. ''So, maybe it's a town that's
tough on athletes. Roger Clemens is gone.
He was a pretty good baseball player.''
The limo was beginning to turn into a
driveway, where Russell would enter the
FleetCenter. Erving gave Russell a big hug
- not one of those half-hugs that are so
popular now - and returned to the car.
Erving knows: No one won like Russell.
Rick Pitino knows, too. That's why he
asked Russell to speak to the Celtics
before last night's game. He spoke, but he
chooses to drop his basketball wisdom
sparingly.
''They don't mean anything to those
guys,'' he said of the 16 championship
banners hanging above the parquet. ''Do
you think that there is a single player on
the Celtics that goes into the gym, looks
up [at the banners] and says, `Look at
those. We've got to get ours'? There's a
remote possibility that happens. It's not
a knock. It's like walking into a house
and seeing wallpaper. To them, the banners
are the ambience of the building.''
Bill Russell laughed again. Before he
left, he commented about hair. He said
people were aghast at his beard when he
was 22. ''I'll bet,'' he said, ''you get
the same reaction to your hair.'' He
pointed to my dreadlocks. He laughed. And
I did, too.
This story ran on page C01 of the Boston
Globe on 04/08/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.