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The game, the leprechaun, and the bridge!!!
I was at the game last night and let me tell you there was electricity in
the air. A great first half and a nail bitter fourth period. Thank you
Adrian Griffin!!!! I was also at the tap off against the Wizards Wednesday
night when Bill Russell addressed the troops before the game. When he left
the floor I swear I saw the Leprechaun jump out of his back pocket and hit
the parquet running hard to center court where it sort of dissolved into
the floor!! Then I read this article this morning. Give the man his due:
JC
Russell is owed one more title
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist, 11/06/99
By reputation, this is a town that loves winners, one
that respects
accomplishment, victories won through intellect and
discipline,
dedication and purpose. Now comes another chance to prove
that image is
deserved.
After 30 years in absentia, William Felton Russell is
seemingly everywhere -
mentoring the new Celtics, hoisting a banner to the
FleetCenter rafters this
week in honor of his old coach Red Auerbach, and, of
course, being honored
himself this past May, 30 years after his final game in
Celtics' green.
No one would have predicted this reconciliation between
Boston's first
superstar black athlete and a city he came, not without
reason, to despise. But
while the FleetCenter tribute was nice, and even
well-attended, it was not
enough.
This city, so obsessed with its history, so in love with
landmarks, is home to the
Ted Williams Tunnel, the Lieutenant William Callahan
Tunnel, and the Robert
Gould Shaw monument, a James J. Hennigan Middle School.
It's past time to permanently honor the legacy of Bill
Russell, and as Vincent
Cleary of Sunderland suggested in a letter to the Globe
in June, there's a grand
way to do it.
As part of the world's largest public works project, the
world's largest
cable-stayed bridge will soon cast its long shadow on the
Celtics' current
home. It should be named in honor of Russell.
The bridge, which began construction earlier this year,
will span 1,457 feet,
carrying 10 lanes of traffic across its 180-foot width.
It will replace both decks
of the Central Artery, neither of which will be missed.
The Leverett Circle
connector will be another happy casualty of the project.
Though the bridge won't open until mid-2001, jockeying
over what to call it has
already begun. The governor and Legislature will weigh
in, and even the
state's congressional delegation (supposedly representing
the Big Dig's
financiers, you and me) will offer candidates for the honor.
Legendary US House Speaker Thomas P. ''Tip'' O'Neill Jr.
will certainly have
supporters. So, probably, will US Senator Edward M.
Kennedy and US
Representative J. Joseph Moakley. So sensitive is the
issue that Big Dig
officials won't even discuss it, other than to say the
decision is not far off.
Why Russell?
First and most obviously, all those titles, all that
winning. Eleven championships
in 13 years, and that's after the 1956 Olympic gold
medal, and the two NCAA
titles at the University of San Francisco.
Long before anyone cared about basketball - back when
Boston in winter was
a hockey town, period - Russell brought art and passion
and near-perfection to
a sport then barely a decade removed from being an
opening act for school
dances. He elevated the whole notion of what professional
sports could be in
New England. No curses, no excuses, just winning.
That's the happy part.
Less happily, we must consider his own tormented history
here. Everyone's
heard the stories, still so hard to believe. The
ill-fated house in Reading, the
vandalism and defecation. The boos, jeers, and catcalls.
During a recent ESPN special honoring Russell as one of
the ''50 Greatest
Athletes of the Century,'' Bob Cousy broke down in tears
recalling Russell's
treatment here, and his own guilt, more than 30 years
later, at having done so
little to help.
In the eyes of some, Russell was his own worst enemy. He
didn't care what
anybody thought, ever. He spoke his mind, and lived his
beliefs. And he was
resented for it.
There is also the question of this city's general failure
to honor the
accomplishments of women and people of color. There are
schools named for
William Monroe Trotter and John D. O'Bryant; a
thoroughfare named for
Melnea Cass; a sculpture named for Harriet Tubman; and
the Shaw memorial
honoring the black soldiers of the 54th Volunteer
Regiment in Boston
Common. There isn't much else.
This has been a decade of reconciliation. Ted Williams,
whose relationship
with Boston was nearly as prickly as Russell's, has been
reinvented as a
grandfather figure. Russell will never be that, or want
to be. He anticipated
the modern athlete, and modern multicultural Boston, by
ignoring stereotypes,
confounding preconceived notions, being his own, driven,
winning, independent
self.
There could be no better qualities to honor.
Adrian Walker's e-mail address
is walker@globe.com.