(CNN) With apologies to basketball greats Bob Cousy and Larry Bird, Bill Russell will forever be the most important superstar to ever play for the Boston Celtics.
And with another apology to legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, Russell will always be the GOAT — not just of Boston, but of excellence and victories in American esports.
The 11-time NBA champion, who passed away this weekend at the age of 88, was among the greatest to ever play basketball. But his greatness was also measured by his accomplishments off court – his tireless activism for social justice, which reflects America’s post-war evolution away from Jim Crow’s racial segregation and the struggle for civil rights and black power that transformed the country.
Russell’s early life was marked by the tragic death of his mother and the daily challenges of growing up in racially segregated Monroe, Louisiana, where his father was threatened with a shotgun for challenging the Jim Crow-era rules that allowed it to serve whites before blacks . His mother, who died when he was 12, was once nearly arrested for dressing too elegantly for a black woman.
Russell’s family later immigrated to Oakland, California, where he became a top player on his high school basketball team, followed by a star in college basketball, leading the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships. In 1956, he led the US Olympic team to a basketball gold medal.
Then came the Boston proving ground.
Russell joined the Boston Celtics in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court ruled in its Brown v. Board of Education decision that “separate but equal” schooling was unconstitutional. As one of the few black players in the Celtics, Russell experienced unique racial trauma.
He would remember Boston as a “flea market of racism” that possessed an amazing variety of ways to show contempt for African Americans.
“There were corrupt town hall boy racists in the city, stone-throwing racists they sent back to Africa, and in the university neighborhoods fake radical-chic racists (long before they showed up in New York)” he bitterly recalled in his memoir ” Second Wind”, which he co-authored with the great author and historian Taylor Branch.
Perhaps out of defiance of the racism he encountered throughout his life, Russell became one of the country’s most visible civil rights athletes. He accused the predominantly white NBA of intentionally excluding black players in the late 1950s. In 1961, after two Black Boston Celtics were denied service at a restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky before a preseason exhibition game, Russell led a boycott in which he and other black players refused to play in the state.
On the pitch, Russell was subjected to racial taunts and insults. In the town of Reading outside of Boston where he lived, Russell and his family endured threats, burglaries and vandalism. But he undoubtedly channeled the emotion and intensity into his unparalleled game on the pitch.
Russell was a 6-foot-10 center whose defensive prowess, rebounding ability and all-around lead propelled the Celtics to 11 titles in 13 years. In the last two championships, Russell has served as player-manager for the Celtics, which he has built into one of the league’s most successful franchises.
That track record eventually helped win over reluctant Boston fans, but it took a few years, and by then the relationship was beyond repair. Russell said he “played for the Celtics” but “not for the city of Boston,” according to his daughter Karen, who poignantly wrote about the family’s encounters with racism in an essay for The New York Times.
Russell continued to shape basketball long after he retired. In 2009, the National Basketball Association renamed their Finals MVP trophy after him. He became the league’s Elder Statesman and forged warm relationships with a new generation of players that included LeBron James, the player whose activism and authenticity most resembles Russell.
And he was the first African American — not just in pro basketball, but in professional sports — to serve as a head coach.
Among the many tributes following the announcement of his death on Sunday was one from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who celebrated Russell as a figure whose symbolism and substance brought racial justice and justice “into the league’s DNA.”
As if appearing on a news reel covering the major events of the civil rights era, he has consistently been present at key moments for the movement, from the March on Washington in 1963 to his visit to Mississippi the same year following the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
Russell also supported Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War and actively opposed racial segregation and injustice in all its forms. In 2011, then-President Barack Obama presented Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, not only in honor of his athletic achievements but also for his commitment to social justice and equality.
After retiring from the NBA in 1969, Russell insisted that the ceremony to remove his number be held privately and skipped his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. “I have very little faith in cheers,” he noted once and said he found his inspiration on the pitch from his inherent love of the game.
Russell’s antipathy to Boston diminished somewhat over time. Cousy, the Hall of Fame Celtics point guard and longtime teammate, regretted not publicly addressing the racism Russell and other black players faced in their playing days. And Boston honored Russell with a bronze statue of his likeness in 2013, an honor that was long overdue.
Over the years he has never lost his willingness to denounce racism or felt indifferent towards it. In recent years, he has chided white Americans for their disbelief — following the murder of George Floyd and the racist and political reckoning that followed — about the existence of systemic racism.
In an essay two years ago for The Players’ Tribune entitled “Racism Is Not a Historical Footnote,” Russell provided a brilliantly multifaceted analysis of structural racism through memoir, anecdote and biography.
“In 2020, blacks and browns are still fighting for justice, racists still hold the highest office in the country, and children today are still growing up with cultural norms not different enough from the ones Lester Maddox grew up with.” Russell wrote and referred to the restaurateur-turned-governor of Georgia who had shamefully driven black diners out of his chicken coop with an ax handle.
“This surprise is particularly dangerous because racial injustice is rampant in every aspect of American society, from education to health care to sports,” Russell wrote, “and the fact that this remains surprising to many shows just how.” different are the experiences of blacks and whites living in America.”
