Its really not. He had more rings than number of nba teams. It was hilarious how the league was structured. I'm more impressed by Dirk's 1 ring than those 11
Honestly, Bill Russell is the most disrespected man in NBA history!
- Thread starter Carlton Banks
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I'm not sayin he da goat or no shyt like that I'm just sayin 11 rings is still impressive. the league must have been really fukkin awful to let that shyt happen. I would think some athletic brehs back in the day would be like look at russell dominating these cacs shyt I could do that and join the league and proceed to do it. and i'm sure some joined but they ain't win 11 rings
Dirk's 1 ring is becuz lebron n dem boys choked
not taking anything away from Dirk and his ring tho 
earned it fair and square
Only people who claim that without disclaimers are the very old Cacs. Them Peter Gammons / Bob Ryan type of geezers. After that you usually get Willie Mays. But at least they will mention the game was different with pitchers routinely pitching full games, no black players, etc...
But even then you had 16 teams, not 8! You double the number of NBA teams and all of a sudden them Celtics teams need to spread the talent and they not reeling off 10 titles. Any time a team reals off 8 straight titles, the competition needs to be questioned. That shyt is absurd.
He’s almost universally considered top 5 of all time
Pre-Merger NBA is just a whole different world man... There were only 8 damn teams in 1960 lol I think Bill even getting mentioned with the post merger modern nba players is a testament to his impact in itself …players really respect his contribution to the sport which imo is more valuable than these shallow player x > player y convos ….
But yeah for me I tend to leave pre-merger players out of my top player list discussion not as a diss but because I try to talk about players who played in a relatively similar league and he’s era just wasn’t that
But yeah for me I tend to leave pre-merger players out of my top player list discussion not as a diss but because I try to talk about players who played in a relatively similar league and he’s era just wasn’t that
OperationNumbNutts
Superstar
This thread is another example why I think sports media make people dumb. 
I do believe Bill Russell does get disrespected. Sport media basically pick their favorites and talk about nothing else. Just like the Cowboys. They act like 90s were two months ago and they are playoff bound every year. For basketball, Lebron Lebron, and oh yeh Lebron.
I do believe Bill Russell does get disrespected. Sport media basically pick their favorites and talk about nothing else. Just like the Cowboys. They act like 90s were two months ago and they are playoff bound every year. For basketball, Lebron Lebron, and oh yeh Lebron.
Doing some first =/= doing something BEST …. Shot out to Russ but this premise is silly
/ThreadWhat you expect when there were only 8 teams back then and 5/6 of the 8 are no longer in existence.
That time period is like MLB before integration and the NFL pre Super Bowl. It shouldnt be compared to the modern games.
Before Bill Russell got there, the Celtics had made the East Divison Finals in three consecutive seasons. They already had 2 of the 5 guys on 1st-team All-NBA: Bob Cousey and Bill Sharman.
In the '56 draft the Celtics got Russell with the #2 pick (by literally bribing Rochester not to take him with the #1 pick) and then Tom Heinsohn with the #6 pick. Heinsohn became an immediate all-star at forward in his rookie season and built a Hall of Fame career. The Celtics also got Frank Ramsey back, a future HOF who had been gone the previous year serving in the military.
So the '57 Celtics were:
Cousey: 21-5-8 and 1st-team All-NBA
Sharman: 21-4-4 and 1st-team All-NBA
Heinsohn: 16-10-2 and an All-Star
Russell: 15-20-2 with elite defense
Ramsey: 12-5-2
Then the very next year they drafted Sam Jones who would become a yearly All-Star, 20ppg scorer and HOF player.
4 of those 6 guys hadn't been there the previous year. All 6 of them would win at least 6 titles and make the Hall of Fame. THAT is why they went on a title streak, not because of Russell alone.
And Russell won his final championship in 1969, averaging just 9ppg on 39.7% shooting in the Finals, while Havlicek (yet another HOF) added 28-11-4 and Sam Jones had 19-4-2. Havlicek would end up winning 8 titles including leading the Celtics to 2 more titles after Russell left.
If Russell's 11 titles make him so amazing, then why doesn't anyone take Havlicek's 8 titles and say he's better than Kobe and Bird? I mean fukk, they don't even say Havlicek is better than Jerry West and Havlicek outdid West 8 titles to 1 in the same fukking era.
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Wilt averaged 30-28-4 on 49% shooting for his career against Russell.
Russell averaged 14-23-4 on 37% shooting for his career against Wilt.
If Russell was locking up Wilt....then what the fukk do you call what Wilt was doing to Russell? And what were all those white centers doing to Russell in those years where he averaged just 10-15ppg against them on bad FG% in the Finals?