RE: Bill Russell

["Odegaard, Greg M." <GMOdegaa@RMC.com>]

I got a very quick reply from some who posted a link to the USA Today
article I mentioned.  I would like to post to all below and ask that you
read it a couple of times and think to yourself as a good Celtic fan how
this great wisdom could assist our young struggling team.  It is too bad
Bill wouldn't consider being an honorary coach, to at least assist in
keeping the spirit alive.  Having Cous around should help as well, and maybe
we should retire a number for George Powles as well.

Enjoy,
Greg


 

 
>>>Tuesday, May 4, 1999 

Banners mark Russell's era
In 13 seasons as Boston's center, Bill Russell and the Celtics won 11 NBA
titles, including eight in a row (1959-66). Russell also was the cornerstone
of two NCAA basketball championships at the University of San Francisco
(USF) in 1955-56. In 1966, he became the first African-American to coach a
major pro team and led Boston to two titles. On May 26, the 30th anniversary
of his final game, Russell will get his No.6 Celtics jersey retired a second
time, at FleetCenter. "The Bill Russell Tribute" will benefit the National
Mentoring Partnership and the Mass Mentoring Partnership. Russell, 65, spoke
with USA TODAY's Tom Weir.

Q: How did your competitiveness develop?

A: When I was a little kid in Oakland, we moved into the projects, which was
an advancement. The first day, I was sitting outside, and five kids came by
and one of them slapped me. I went inside crying and told my mother what
happened. She grabbed me, and we went all through the neighborhood and found
all five kids, and I had to fight each one of them. I won two and lost
three, I think. The point was, I had to fight. I carried that all through my
life. I'm not going to bother anyone, but you can't do anything to me.


Bill Russell presents Michael Jordan with his fifth MVP award in 1998.
Russell is the only other five-time winner (AP). 
 
Q: For someone who won 11 NBA titles, you weren't much of a high school
player in Oakland, were you?

A: My McClymonds high school coach, George Powles, was the only one on the
planet who thought I could play, and that included me. As a sophomore I made
the junior varsity, but I was the 15th man on the squad. And George just
kept me on the squad because he wanted to keep me. So the next year I went
out for the junior varsity again, and it was a different coach, and I got
cut the second day. That was one of the most devastating things that ever
happened to me. The coach put a list up on the wall, and my name wasn't on
it. I sat there and stared at it. It seemed like an hour. Like if I looked
at it long enough my name was going to get on there.

Q: How did you keep playing?

A: I ran into George Powles and told him I just got cut. He said, "I know."
I said I wanted to thank him because he was so kind to me, and I appreciated
him letting me play on the team. He said, "Well, this afternoon I want you
to come out for the varsity." I said, but I just got cut from the junior
varsity. He said, "I'm not the junior varsity coach, I'm the varsity coach."
After practice, he said come on, and we drove to the Boys Club, and he took
$2 and bought me a membership. He said, "Just go and play every night, every
chance you get."

Q: How did a so-so player get a basketball scholarship to USF?

A: In 1949 USF had won the NIT, and Hal DeJulio was on that team. Hal was
this great insurance salesman. Hal always wanted USF to have a good
basketball team, so Hal was out looking for players. He went to scout the
center I was playing against, and I had my best high school game. I got 14
points. I remember every second of that game. I got the last six points of
the first half and the last eight points of the game, and we won by one
point. That impressed Hal. So he used his salesmanship to convince Phil
Woolpert to give me a scholarship.

Q: Coach Woolpert once said he literally cried the first time he saw you
practice, because he thought he had wasted a scholarship.

A: I would not be surprised. Phil's last job was driving a school bus, and
people think that was kind of a comedown, but it was not. I think that was
the best time of his life. He really had been ill-treated in college
coaching. When I played, UCLA and USF were the only major colleges on the
West Coast playing black players. Cal, Stanford and USC might play one black
guy. Phil started three black guys on our team. He used to get hate mail,
and grief from the administration and his fellow coaches. They always wanted
to refer to us as the USF Globetrotters and all that kind of stuff. It never
bothered me. I laughed at it. 

Q: Did you have an instant rapport with Boston's coach, Red Auerbach?

A: Before my first game Red and I were walking into the locker room and he
said, "Russell, are you worried about scoring? Everybody says you can't
score." I said I think about it but I don't worry about it. He said, "I'll
make a deal with you. We'll never discuss statistics when we talk contract.
I'll only discuss whether you played well. If you rebound and play good
defense, I'll just consider whatever points you get a bonus."

Q: What was your key to being a great team player?

A: Every play we had, I could run from every position on the floor. The
reason that's important is if I don't know what your problems are, I can't
help you. So I would mentally practice running plays from every position. A
cliché I like to use is, it's far more important to understand than to be
understood.

Q: It's said that during the regular season you, individually, didn't
practice hard.

A: I was not a very good practice player in the conventional sense, but I
was a great practice player in reality. The things I did, I couldn't
practice against my team. For example, Red comes in one day, and the nice
way to put it is that he's got a burr under his saddle. He says, "Listen,
Russell, we're going to scrimmage and you're going to work, and if I don't
get 20 minutes of hard work out of you, we're going to stay here all day."
He brings out eight cigars and says, "That's enough to last me until
midnight, and if I don't get 20 hard minutes out of you we're going to stay
here until I smoke all of them." So he puts the first unit against the
second unit, and I play like it's the seventh game of the playoffs. We're
beating them like 50-6, and after five minutes Red says to stop. He says,
"Russell, you've messed up my practice. All you guys get out of here." So
you see, if I practiced like I played, that would be the result of the
practice.

Q: Was it intimidating to follow Auerbach as Celtics coach?

A: Red got thrown out of 22 games his last year. I, as the captain, had to
coach the rest of those games. When I took the job, I had probably coached
30 games. And Red didn't have an assistant coach, ever. That's one reason
that being captain of the Celtics meant more than just being a team captain.

Q: The first time Auerbach offered you the coaching job you turned it down.
What changed your mind?

A: I had thought about leaving. We had just won eight straight
championships, and there was nothing left to do. I was honestly getting
bored, and the list of things I was not willing to do anymore was starting
to grow. So when I took the coaching job I started to re-energize and really
became immersed in the game. And I didn't hire an assistant coach either.

Q: Who set the tone for the Celtics' team spirit?

A: I think Bob Cousy was a big part of that. When he was team captain, he
was just a really good guy. And if Cousy was a good guy to everybody, nobody
else could not be a good guy.

Q: Speaking of good guys, do you and your biggest rival, Wilt Chamberlain,
keep in touch?

A: Wilt and I talk all the time, about everything. He gets very upset about
some things, and I just laugh. Sports Illustrated had an article saying
Dennis Rodman was the greatest rebounder ever, and I thought Wilt was going
to have a heart attack. ... For years I had Thanksgiving dinner with Wilt's
family in Philadelphia. The NBA was a community then, and we all knew that
we were nothing without each other.

Q: How did you defend him?

A: One of the things I found out was he had a vertical game no one could
touch. But in the horizontal game I was better than he was. His lateral
movement was not as good as mine. So I put myself so he had to go sideways
instead of straight up.

Q: How do you feel about people who considered Wilt a loser?

A: I think he wanted to win just as bad as I did, maybe more so. The
difference was in the way we approached winning. His approach was that if I
play so overwhelmingly well, we'll win. My approach was I have to make all
the other guys on my team better for us to win.

Q: Do you accept the conventional wisdom that Michael Jordan is the greatest
basketball player of all time?

A: I cannot imagine anybody playing any better than Michael. But I can say
that about when Elgin Baylor was in his prime. Or Bob Pettit in his prime.
Or Oscar Robertson or Wilt Chamberlain. I always call them my ties. You can
tie them, but you can't beat them.

Q: How do you rank yourself?

A: I think I had the best set of subtle skills of any player that's ever
played. But my thing is how many championships did I win? That's the only
thing that's important because that's a historical fact, not anybody's
opinion.

Q: Does it bother you that in your era no official statistics were kept on
your specialty, blocking shots?

A: I was talking to (former NBA coach) Jack Ramsey, and he said he figured
my average would have been double digits. But the way I view it is that I
brought blocked shots to basketball.

Q: You've become somewhat infamous among autograph collectors. Why?

A: I don't sign autographs, basically. But there's a difference between
don't and won't. "Won't" is personal. "Don't" is policy. My attitude is that
over the years I've had this great conversation with all sorts of people
about whether I sign autographs. I could sign them and let them go away. But
that's the illusion of having had contact. It isn't real.

Q: Why do you do so few interviews? 

A: Over the last 10 years I haven't talked to sportswriters. You may have
noticed that. I didn't have anything I wanted to say. Whatever image I have,
I want it to be what I think it is.

Q: What are you doing these days?

A: Trying to grow old peacefully.<<<