(ThyBlackMan.com) The last year of the 2010s as been full of nostalgia and history, even in sports. It is notably the 150th year of college football and 100th NFL season but there have been basketball retrospectives as well. There have been articles written that rank the best NBA players of the 2010s, a list that includes several players who will certainly be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Those players will join a litany of impressive coaches, contributors, and players. Legendary NBA players like Bill Russell have an indescribable legacy on the game of basketball for multiple reasons including his excellent play and being synonymous with winning in a team sport.
Being a 12-time NBA All-Star is very impressive but being an 11-time NBA champion might be more impressive and Bill Russell is both. As the leader of the Celtics dynasty of the 1950s and 1960s, Russell is the textbook definition of winner and champion based on the amount of championships he accumulated in his basketball career. However, some people forget about how he broke ground in terms of social justice and racism as a participant in the 1963 March on Washington and becoming the first black NBA head coach in history in 1966. He became the first black head coach and a superstar in the NBA in the city of Boston during the 1950s and 1960s, which was not the most socially welcoming city in America for black people at the time even those with Russell’s unbelievable credentials.
It might shock people that Bill Russell has never received his Basketball Hall of Fame ring. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 but just received his Basketball Hall of Fame ring in early November of 2019. The five-time NBA Most Valuable Player made a humble decision to pass on attending his induction ceremony back in 1975 because he felt he didn’t deserve to be the first black player inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The first black man inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame was Robert L. “Bob” Douglas, who went in as a contributor, and he owned and coached the New York Renaissance from 1922 until 1949. Douglas was known as “The Father of Black Professional Basketball”.
At the time Russell was going to be the first black player to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he told newspaper The New York Times, “for my own personal reasons, which I don’t want to discuss, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m not going. They know that. I’ve felt this way for many years.” It was very surprising that he declined at the time.
There is no real parallel to turning down an invitation to the Hall of Fame of a sport like Bill Russell did. A year ago, former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens drew significant attention by not attending his class’ Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony and holding his own ceremony on the same date and time. However, Owens’ decision was seen out of spite for having to wait years to be selected to the Hall of Fame and not the respectful and selfless reason that Bill Russell snubbed his ceremony. In a private ceremony in early November of 2019, Russell received his ring and tweeted: “I felt others before me should have that honor.” He decided to accept his ring the same year that Chuck Cooper, who in 1950 was the first African-American player drafted by the NBA, was posthumously inducted. The legend of 85-year-old Bill Russell continues to grow long after his playing and coaching days are over.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
