226-636: As coach: William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. At
452-812: A 112–100 win over the Detroit Pistons , Russell grabbed 49 rebounds, which tied for the third-most in a single game in NBA history, along with 27 points and 6 assists. In the 1965 NBA playoffs , the Celtics played the Eastern Division finals against the Philadelphia 76ers , a team that had traded for Chamberlain. Russell held Chamberlain to a pair of field goals in the first three quarters of Game 3. In Game 5, Russell contributed with 12 points, 28 rebounds, and 7 assists, plus 10 blocks and 6 steals; blocks and steals became officially recorded statistics in
678-538: A 12-time NBA All-Star , Russell's rebounding, defense, and leadership made him one of the dominant players of his era. Standing at 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall, with a 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) arm span , his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' dominance during his career. Russell also led the NBA in rebounds four times, had a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. Russell played in
904-539: A 14-year-old African American from Chicago, visited his relatives in Money, Mississippi , for the summer. He allegedly had an interaction with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in a small grocery store that violated the norms of Mississippi culture, and Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam brutally murdered young Emmett Till. They beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River . Three days later, Till's body
1130-522: A 4–2 series win. In the 1960 NBA Finals , the Celtics outlasted the Hawks 4–3 in the series and won their third championship in four years. Russell scored 21 points and grabbed an NBA Finals-record 40 rebounds, plus an assist, in a Game 2 loss, and he added 22 points and 35 rebounds, along with 4 assists, in the deciding Game 7, a 122–103 victory for Boston. In the 1960–61 NBA season , Russell averaged 16.9 points and 23.9 rebounds per game, leading his team to
1356-473: A backlash for his involvement with white actress Kim Novak . Davis briefly married a black dancer in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence. In 1958, officers in Virginia entered the home of Mildred and Richard Loving and dragged them out of bed for living together as an interracial couple, on the basis that "any white person intermarry with a colored person"— or vice versa—each party "shall be guilty of
1582-580: A black player was the best. That did not happen ... My junior year in college, I had what I thought was the one of the best college seasons ever. We won 28 out of 29 games. We won the National Championship. I was the MVP at the Final Four. I was first team All American. I averaged over 20 points and over 20 rebounds , and I was the only guy in college blocking shots. So after the season
1808-605: A bus boycott was considered and rejected. But when Rosa Parks was arrested in December, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson of the Montgomery Women's Political Council put the bus boycott protest in motion. Late that night, she, John Cannon (chairman of the Business Department at Alabama State University ) and others mimeographed and distributed thousands of leaflets calling for a boycott. The eventual success of
2034-498: A choice of any basketball player in the league, my No. 1 choice has to be Bill Russell. Bill Russell never ceases to amaze me." Professional basketball In professional sports , as opposed to amateur sports , participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As
2260-490: A clutch performance, scoring 30 points, along with 4 assists, and tying his own NBA Finals record with 40 rebounds in a 110–107 overtime win. The Celtics lost Cousy to retirement after the 1962–63 NBA season , and they drafted John Havlicek and were powered by Russell, who averaged 16.8 points and 23.6 rebounds per game, won his fourth regular-season MVP award, and earned the NBA All-Star Game MVP honors at
2486-415: A coach confined every or almost every relationship with each Celtic player to a strictly professional one. Russell regarded Auerbach as "the greatest of all coaches". Boston's championship streak ended at eight in his first full season as head coach when Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers won a record-breaking 68 regular-season games and were the favorites heading into the 1967 NBA playoffs , where they beat
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#17327762454102712-489: A combination of bad investments, careless spending, and a lack of non-athletic skills. The wear and tear of a career in professional sport, can cause physical and mental side effects (such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy , a condition that has seen a massive rise in public awareness in the 2010s) that can harm a former professional athlete's employability. In the United States, some of these problems are mitigated by
2938-473: A combined strategy of direct action , nonviolence , nonviolent resistance , and many events described as civil disobedience , giving rise to the civil rights movement of 1954 to 1968. A. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to support demands for elimination of employment discrimination in the defense industry ; he called off the march when the Roosevelt administration met
3164-525: A company ( aircraft industry , food workers , tractor industry ) or organization ( KGB , Red Army , Soviet Air Force ) that sponsored what would be presented as an after-hours social sports society team for their workers . Christians in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement , which adheres to the position of first-day Sabbatarianism , oppose the viewing of or participation in professional sports, believing that professional sports leagues profane
3390-488: A felony" and face prison terms of five years. Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation . They were faced with " massive resistance " in the South by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression . In defiance, African-American activists adopted
3616-779: A football inscribed with the words "World Champions." The whereabouts of the Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup , only given out that one time, are unknown. The legacy of two APFA franchises continues. The Racine Cardinals now play in Arizona, and the Decatur Staleys moved to Chicago in 1921 and changed their name to the Bears the following year. Ten APFA players along with Carr are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, set up in 1963 not far from
3842-458: A force behind the revival of the modern Olympic Games . The tension between the two sporting practices and ideals dates from the inception of modern organized sports in the 19th century. The high political and financial stakes involved in sport have ensured that this tension has remained strong. Professional sporting organizations have often developed as "rebel" organizations in relation to established national and international federation, for example
4068-456: A game, he complained to coach Auerbach, who told him to take matters into his own hands. After the next provocation, Russell pounded Felix to the point of unconsciousness, paid a modest $ 25 fine, and rarely was the target of cheap fouls thereafter. At that time, Russell received much negative publicity as a player. He was notorious for his public surliness. Because Russell ignored virtually any well-wisher who approached him home or away, as well as
4294-485: A great deal of money at the highest levels; for instance, in 2024 the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team is set to pay 70 million dollars to its highest-paid player, Shohei Ohtani . Per Forbes 2021 ranking, the highest-paid athletes include Cristiano Ronaldo , Lionel Messi , Naomi Osaka , Tiger Woods , Serena Williams and wrestler-turned-actor The Rock . The top ten tennis players make about $ 3 million
4520-538: A mirror at night. Russell described himself as an avid reader of Dell Magazines ' 1950s sports publications, which he used to scout opponents' moves for the purpose of defending against them. Russell was ignored by college recruiters and did not receive an offer until recruiter Hal DeJulio from the University of San Francisco (USF) watched him play in a high school game. DeJulio was unimpressed by Russell's meager scoring and "atrocious fundamentals", but he sensed that
4746-578: A neighborhood a character or property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individual whose presence will be clearly detrimental to property values in a neighborhood." The result was the development of all-black ghettos in the North and West, where much housing was older, as well as South. The first anti-miscegenation law was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage . In
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#17327762454104972-571: A network of chapters as the NAACP did. It offered training and leadership assistance for local efforts to fight segregation. The headquarters organization raised funds, mostly from Northern sources, to support such campaigns. It made nonviolence both its central tenet and its primary method of confronting racism. In 1959, Septima Clarke , Bernice Robinson, and Esau Jenkins , with the help of Myles Horton 's Highlander Folk School in Tennessee , began
5198-562: A picture with Auerbach and the nine Celtics but not Russell, who overslept because he thought it was just a tour of the White House and did not know President Kennedy would be meeting them. On February 10, 1963, Russell recorded his first regular season triple-double after putting up 17 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 129–123 win over the New York Knicks . The Celtics reached the 1963 NBA Finals , where they again defeated
5424-465: A plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for blacks were routed to the lowest status and restrictive in potential mobility. Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants , redlining and racial steering ". The Great Migration resulted in many African Americans becoming urbanized, and they began to realign from
5650-561: A record-breaking season of 50.4 points per game, including Chamberlain's 100-point game , the Celtics became the first team to win 60 games in a season and Russell was voted as the league's MVP. Both Cousy and Russell called it the greatest Celtics team of all time. In the Eastern Division championships of the 1962 NBA playoffs , the Celtics met the Philadelphia Warriors led by Chamberlain, who averaged 50 points per game that season, and Russell did his best to slow him down. In
5876-668: A regular season mark of 57–22. In the 1961 NBA playoffs , the Celtics defeated the Syracuse Nationals 4–1 in the Eastern Division finals. The Celtics made good use of the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers had exhausted the St. Louis Hawks in a long seven-game Western Conference finals, and Boston won the 1961 NBA Finals in five games. In the 1961–62 NBA season , Russell scored a career-high 18.9 points per game, accompanied by 23.6 rebounds per game. While his rival had
6102-469: A result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports. In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete. American football (commonly known as football in
6328-594: A series of contests against the NFL, was considered to be at least comparable in talent to the American leagues of the 1960s (its lone game against an AFL squad was a victory). Because Canada has a tenth of the population of the United States, the ability to make money from television was much lower, and although some of the cities of Canada were comparable to the major markets of the U.S., teams in places such as Saskatchewan and Hamilton were in markets quite small compared to even
6554-645: A significant profit, the second-highest American football league in the United States, the United Football League , consistently struggled to pay its bills and has continually lost money despite allotting its players only US$ 20,000 a year, and television networks made the league pay for television airtime instead of paying the league, making the league's business model unworkable. In the United States and Canada, most lower-end professional leagues run themselves as affiliated farm teams , effectively agreeing to develop younger players for eventual play in
6780-589: A speech in Charleston, Illinois in 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people". By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes. By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage was still in force in 29 states. While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, in 1957 actor Sammy Davis Jr. faced
7006-419: A string of 55 consecutive victories, and a 26-point, 27-rebound, 20-block performance in one game. He became known for his strong defense and shot-blocking skills, once denying 13 shots in a game. UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden called Russell "the greatest defensive man I've ever seen". While at USF, he and Jones helped pioneer a play that later became known as the alley-oop . During his college career, Russell
Bill Russell - Misplaced Pages Continue
7232-463: A total of seven points, the champion in spite of protests by the one-loss teams in Decatur and Buffalo, who each had tied Akron and had more wins, thanks in part to Akron's owner presiding over the meeting. The victors received a silver loving cup donated by sporting goods company Brunswick-Balke-Collender. While players were not given diamond-encrusted rings, they did receive golden fobs in the shape of
7458-554: A traditional object of criticism by proponents of the amateur philosophy of sport, according to which the central ethos of sport is competition performed for its own sake and pure enjoyment rather than as a means of earning a living. Examples of amateur philosophy include the muscular Christianity movement that informed the promotion of sports in the English public school system, and the Olympism advocated by Pierre de Coubertin ,
7684-505: A watershed historical moment without Mamie finding the strength to make her private grief a public matter." The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the black community throughout the U.S. The murder and resulting trial ended up markedly impacting the views of several young black activists. Joyce Ladner referred to such activists as the "Emmett Till generation." One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on
7910-489: A year on average. Much of the growth in income for sports and athletes has come from broadcasting rights ; for example, the most recent television contract for the NFL is valued at nearly US$ 5 billion per year. Women tend to earn considerably less than men in such sports as basketball, golf, football (soccer), softball and baseball. The exception is tennis where women tend to have salaries comparable to those of their male counterparts. The highest-paid female athlete in 2019
8136-486: Is $ 70,250 for most players, and for players on the reserve roster (slots #25-28) the minimum salary is $ 56,250. In 1970, the average salary in Major League Baseball in the U.S. and Canada was $ 20,000 ($ 156,915 inflation-adjusted). By 2005, the average salary had increased to $ 2,632,655 ($ 4,107,103 inflation-adjusted) and the minimum salary was $ 316,000 (adjusted: $ 492,979). In 2012 the average MLB salary
8362-588: Is nothing new. According to Cooky, female athletes need more visibility to ensure their access to necessary resources and financial security, which has an impact on their professional development. Outside the highest leagues, however, the money professional athletes can earn drops dramatically, as fan bases are generally smaller and there are no television revenues. For instance, while the National Football League 's teams can afford to pay their players millions of dollars each year and still maintain
8588-434: The 15th Amendment (1870) that gave black males the right to vote (only males could vote in the U.S. at the time). From 1865 to 1877, the United States underwent a turbulent Reconstruction era during which the federal government tried to establish free labor and the civil rights of freedmen in the South after the end of slavery. Many whites resisted the social changes, leading to the formation of insurgent movements such as
8814-513: The 1946–47 BAA season , which guaranteed Russell his first NBA playoffs appearance, where the Celtics met with the Syracuse Nationals , a team led by Dolph Schayes , through the Eastern Division finals. In his first playoff game, Russell finished with 16 points and 31 rebounds, along with 7 reported blocks, which were not yet an officially registered statistic. After the Celtics' 108–89 victory, Schayes, who made Johnny Kerr come off
9040-490: The 1957 NBA Finals , where they met the St. Louis Hawks , led by Pettit and former Celtic Ed Macauley . As the teams split the first six games, the tension was so high that in Game 3 Celtics coach Auerbach punched his colleague Ben Kerner and received a $ 300 fine. In the highly-competitive Game 7, Russell tried his best to slow down Pettit, as Heinsohn scored 37 points and kept the Celtics alive; Russell contributed by completing
9266-625: The 1957–58 NBA season , the Celtics won fourteen straight games and continued to succeed. Russell averaged 16.6 points per game and a league-record average of 22.7 rebounds per game. The NBA reasoned that other centers were better all-round players than Russell but no player was more valuable to his team. He was voted the NBA Most Valuable Player but only named to the All-NBA Second Team , something that would occur repeatedly throughout his career, as players voted for
Bill Russell - Misplaced Pages Continue
9492-810: The 1963 NBA All-Star Game following his 19-point, 24-rebound performance for the Eastern Conference 's All-Star team. Before the January 31, 1963, 18-point, 22-rebound performance in a 128–125 win against the Cincinnati Royals at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland , the Celtics were to tour the White House and Russell had a "Do not disturb" sign on his phone. Auerbach had informed his players to not endorse candidates or causes, as it would alienate fans; Cousy campaigned for Ted Kennedy in 1962. President John F. Kennedy posed for
9718-541: The 1973–74 NBA season . Schayes, who had become the 76ers coach, said: "The Celtics can thank the Good Lord for Bill Russell." That playoff series ended in a dramatic Game 7, when the Sixers were trailing 110–109 five seconds before the end, but Russell turned over the ball. When the Sixers' Hall-of-Fame guard Hal Greer inbounded, Havlicek stole the ball, causing Celtics commentator Johnny Most to scream: " Havlicek stole
9944-709: The American Civil War , eight serving presidents had owned slaves , almost four million black people remained enslaved in the South , generally only white men with property could vote, and the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites . Following the Civil War, three constitutional amendments were passed, including the 13th Amendment (1865) that ended slavery; the 14th Amendment (1869) that gave black people citizenship, adding their total for Congressional apportionment ; and
10170-640: The Dons ’ freshman basketball team, and made his varsity debut on December 1, 1953. He became the starting center for coach Phil Woolpert , who emphasized defense and deliberate half-court play, which favored Russell's exceptional defensive skills. Woolpert's choice of how to deploy his players was unaffected by their skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball program to start three African-American players: K. C. Jones , Hal Perry , and Russell. In his USF years, Russell took advantage of his relative lack of bulk to guard other players than
10396-528: The Great Migration also faced barriers in employment and housing. Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal and civil rights, such as the civil rights movements of 1865–1896 and of 1896–1954 . The movement was characterized by nonviolent mass protests and civil disobedience following highly publicized events such as the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. These included economic boycotts such as
10622-803: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose members attacked black and white Republicans in order to maintain white supremacy . In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant , the U.S. Army, and U.S. Attorney General Amos T. Akerman , initiated a campaign to repress the KKK under the Enforcement Acts . Some states were reluctant to enforce the federal measures of the act. In addition, by the early 1870s, other white supremacist and insurgent paramilitary groups arose that violently opposed African-American legal equality and suffrage, intimidating and suppressing black voters, and assassinating Republican officeholders. However, if
10848-548: The Los Angeles Lakers , this time in six games. In Game 3, Russell had 21 points, 38 rebounds, and 6 assists. In the 1963–64 NBA season , the Celtics posted a league-best 58–22 record in the regular season. Russell scored 15.0 points per game and grabbed a career-high 24.7 rebounds per game, leading the NBA in rebounds for the first time since Chamberlain entered the league. Boston defeated the Cincinnati Royals 4–1 to earn another NBA Finals appearance and then won against Chamberlain's newly relocated San Francisco Warriors 4–1. It
11074-827: The March on Washington in 1963, moderates in the movement worked with the United States Congress to achieve the passage of several significant pieces of federal legislation that authorized oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, including in schools, employment, and public accommodations . The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities and authorized oversight of registration and elections in areas with historic under-representation of minority voters. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbade property owners from discriminating in
11300-759: The Montgomery bus boycott , " sit-ins " in Greensboro and Nashville , a series of protests during the Birmingham campaign , and a march from Selma to Montgomery . The movement was led by Martin Luther King Jr. , James Bevel , and others, and press coverage of police violence using fire hoses and dogs against students attempting to walk to City Hall to talk with the mayor during the Birmingham campaign increased its public support. Discrimination
11526-647: The Negro leagues . Starting in the late 1950s, major league baseball expanded its geographical range. Western cities acquired teams, either by luring them to move from eastern cities or by forming expansion teams with players made available by established teams. Until the 1970s, because of strict contracts, the owners of baseball teams also virtually owned the players; the rules then changed so that players could become free agents within certain limits, free to sell their services to any team. The resulting bidding wars led to players becoming increasingly wealthy. Disputes between
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#173277624541011752-535: The Philadelphia Warriors , after the Warriors–Celtics game on January 1, 1957, in which he recorded 17 points and 25 rebounds, plus an assist. Gottlieb protested the next day, saying that Russell played a one-man zone and goaltended numerous times, to only be called once. Auerbach replied that Gottlieb's statements were "absolutely ridiculous" and said any controversy was "a question of sour grapes". Constantly provoked by New York Knicks center Ray Felix during
11978-561: The Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on the court and in the civil rights movement . In 2021, Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a second time in recognition of his coaching career. Shortly after his death in 2022, the NBA retired Russell's #6 jersey league-wide, making him the only player in NBA history to receive that honor, as well as
12204-463: The St. Louis Hawks . Auerbach assigned him to shut down the Hawks' main scorer, Bob Pettit , and Russell impressed the Boston crowd with his man-to-man defense and shot-blocking. In previous years, the Celtics had been a high-scoring team but lacked the defensive presence needed to close out tight games. With the added defensive presence of Russell, the Celtics had laid the foundation for a dynasty, as
12430-532: The Triple Crown . After being chosen by the St. Louis Hawks with the second overall pick in the 1956 NBA draft, Russell was traded to the Boston Celtics for Celtics center Ed Macauley and small forward Cliff Hagan . With Russell as their starting center and defensive anchor, the Celtics went on to win their first NBA championship in 1957 and won an NBA record eight consecutive championships from 1959 to 1966. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and
12656-655: The Tuskegee Institute , to dine at the White House , making him the first African American to attend an official dinner there. "The invitation was roundly criticized by southern politicians and newspapers." Washington persuaded the president to appoint more blacks to federal posts in the South and to try to boost African-American leadership in state Republican organizations. However, these actions were resisted by both white Democrats and white Republicans as an unwanted federal intrusion into state politics. During
12882-511: The dunk shot due to Lew Alcindor (1967), although the latter rule was later repealed. The games were often difficult for the USF squad, as Russell and his black teammates became targets of racist jeers, particularly on the road. In one incident, hotels in Oklahoma City refused to admit Russell and his black teammates while they were in town for the 1954 All-College Tournament. In protest,
13108-557: The high jump if he had been snubbed by the basketball team. Under head coach Gerald Tucker , Russell helped the U.S. national basketball team win the gold medal in Melbourne, defeating the Soviet Union national basketball team 89–55 in the final game with an 8–0 undefeated run. The U.S. dominated the tournament, winning by an average of 53.5 points per game. Russell led the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game for
13334-518: The $ 25,000 signing bonus he requested. Celtics owner Walter A. Brown contacted Rochester owner Les Harrison and received an assurance that the Royals could not afford Russell, and they would draft Sihugo Green . Auerbach later said that Brown offered Harrison guaranteed performances of the Ice Capades if they did not draft Russell; it is difficult to verify or disprove this, but it is clear that
13560-562: The 1920s, when Babe Ruth led the New York Yankees to several World Series titles and became a national hero on the strength of his home runs (balls that cannot be played because they have been hit out of the field). One of the most noteworthy players was the Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson , who became the first African-American player in the major leagues in 1947; until then black players had been restricted to
13786-669: The 1930s. A competing league has historically arisen to attempt to challenge the NFL's dominance every 10 to 15 years, but none managed to maintain long-term operations independent of the NFL and only two—the All-America Football Conference of the late 1940s and the American Football League of the 1960s—were strong enough to successfully compete against the league before the NFL subsumed their operations. Minor league football, although their leagues' memberships were unstable, began to arise in
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#173277624541014012-425: The 1950s and 1960s, the nonviolent protesting of the civil rights movement caused definite tension, which gained national attention. In order to prepare for protests physically and psychologically, demonstrators received training in nonviolence. According to former civil rights activist Bruce Hartford, there are two main components of nonviolence training. There is the philosophical method, which involves understanding
14238-468: The 2009–2010 Bundesliga season. The highest-paid player for the 2010–11 Bundesliga season was Franck Ribéry of Bayern Munich who received a salary of €6.3 million after income tax. In the Italian top league, Serie A , the average salary was about €5 million for the 2010–2011 Serie A season, up from €1 million in the 2005–2006 Serie A season. The highest-paid player for the 2010–2011 Serie A season
14464-401: The 2010 season. The highest-paid player for the 2011 Chinese Super League season was Dario Conca of Guangzhou Evergrande who received an annual salary of ¥67.4 million ($ 10.5 million) after income tax, putting him among the highest-paid players in the world. The highest-paid player for the 2011–2012 Russian Premier League season was Samuel Eto'o of Anzhi Makhachkala , who at the end of
14690-491: The 2011–12 season was expected to receive a total salary of RUB 900.2 million (£35.7 million) after income tax, making Eto'o the second highest-earning athlete in the world and the highest-paid footballer in the world followed by Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimović . The average salary of a player in the German Bundesliga was about €3.3 million (£2.5 million) for the 2010–11 season, up from €2.5 million in
14916-463: The Canton automobile dealership that gave birth to the NFL in 1920. The APFA, by 1922 known as the National Football League , has remained the predominant professional American football league in the United States, and, effectively, the entire world. The evolution from a haphazard collection of teams in big and small cities to the much more rigid structure it is in the present was gradual. With most of
15142-408: The Celtics 4–1 in the Eastern Division finals. During the series, Russell said: "Right now, he (Wilt) is playing like me [to win]." The Sixers outpaced the Celtics when they shredded the famed Boston defense by scoring 140 points in the clinching Game 5 win. Russell acknowledged the first real loss of his career, as he had been injured when the Celtics lost the 1958 NBA Finals, by visiting Chamberlain in
15368-537: The Celtics through the 1959 NBA playoffs , as they returned to the NBA Finals. In the 1959 NBA Finals , the Celtics recaptured the NBA title, sweeping the Minneapolis Lakers 4–0. Lakers head coach John Kundla praised Russell, stating: "We don't fear the Celtics without Bill Russell. Take him out and we can beat them ... He's the guy who whipped us psychologically." In the 1959–60 NBA season ,
15594-400: The Celtics to a 132–129 win over the Philadelphia Warriors with 18 points, 19 rebounds, and 5 assists. Boston won a then-record 59 regular-season games, including a then-record tying 17-game win streak. In the 1960 NBA playoffs , Russell's Celtics met Chamberlain's Warriors in the Eastern Division finals. Chamberlain outscored Russell by 81 points in the series, but the Celtics walked off with
15820-773: The Celtics win the 1969 NBA championship. Russell served as head coach and general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics from 1973 to 1977. He also coached the Sacramento Kings from 1987 to 1988. Russell also worked as a color commentator and authored several books. Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, was one of the founding inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and
16046-434: The Celtics won 115–106, and the match was called a "new beginning of basketball". The matchup between Russell and Chamberlain became one of basketball's greatest rivalries. On February 5, 1960, Russell had 23 points, 51 rebounds, and 5 assists in a 124–100 win over the Syracuse Nationals . It was the record for most rebounds in a single game until November 24, 1960, when Chamberlain grabbed 55 rebounds against Russell, who led
16272-413: The Celtics won 119–105. At that time, he became the fourth player in Celtics history to have a triple-double, joining Macauley, Cousy, and K. C. Jones. Game 7 was tied one second before the end of regular time, when Lakers guard Rod Hundley faked a shot and passed out to Frank Selvy , who missed an open eight-foot last-second shot that would have won Los Angeles the title. As the game was tied, Russell had
16498-693: The Central California Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) meet, the Pacific AAU meet, and the West Coast Relays (WCR). One of his highest jumps occurred at the WCR, where he achieved a mark of 6 feet 9 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (2.06 m); at the meet, Russell tied Charlie Dumas , who would later in the year win gold in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for the United States and become
16724-456: The Eastern Division finals, proceeding to win the NBA Finals in a tight showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers , with Russell scoring 25 points and grabbing 32 rebounds, plus giving out an assist, in a 95–93 win in Game 7. Celtics coach Red Auerbach retired before the 1966–67 NBA season . To coach the Celtics, he had initially wanted his old player Frank Ramsey , who was too occupied running his three lucrative nursing homes. His second choice
16950-515: The Hawks prevailed in Games 5 and 6, with Pettit scoring 50 points in the deciding Game 6. Many observers thought that Boston could have won had Russell not been injured, but Auerbach commented: "You can always look for excuses ... We just got beat." In the 1958–59 NBA season , Russell averaged 16.7 points per game and 23.0 rebounds per game. The Celtics broke a league record by winning 52 games and Russell's strong performance once again helped lead
17176-408: The Hawks were so depleted that they had only seven players left. With the Celtics leading 125–123 with one second left, the Hawks had the ball at their own baseline. Reserve forward Alex Hannum threw a long alley-oop pass to Pettit and Pettit's tip-in rolled indecisively on the rim for several seconds before rolling out again. The Celtics won, earning their first NBA championship . At the start of
17402-562: The MVP award, something that would last until the 1979–80 NBA season , while the media has always voted for the All-NBA teams. The Celtics won 49 games and made the first berth in the 1958 NBA playoffs , where they met in the 1958 NBA Finals with their familiar rivals, the St. Louis Hawks . The teams split the first two games, but Russell went down with a foot injury in Game 3 and only returned for Game 6. The Celtics won Game 4 in an upset, but
17628-707: The Montgomery Improvement Association, joined with other church leaders who had led similar boycott efforts, such as C. K. Steele of Tallahassee and T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge, and other activists such as Fred Shuttlesworth , Ella Baker , A. Philip Randolph , Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison , to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC, with its headquarters in Atlanta , Georgia , did not attempt to create
17854-516: The Montgomery bus boycott to demand a bus system in which passengers would be treated equally. The organization was led by Jo Ann Robinson, a member of the Women's Political Council who had been waiting for the opportunity to boycott the bus system. Following Rosa Parks' arrest, Jo Ann Robinson mimeographed 52,500 leaflets calling for a boycott. They were distributed around the city and helped gather
18080-496: The NAACP and the national civil rights movement obtained federal court orders to integrate the prestigious Little Rock Central High School in September, 1957. The Nine faced intense harassment and threats of violence from white parents and students, as well as organized white supremacy groups. The enraged opposition emphasized miscegenation as the threat to white society. Arkansas Governor , Orval Faubus , claiming his only goal
18306-747: The NBA views with carrying the Chicago Bulls to six titles in the 1990s. In the 1920s some cricketers from the Caribbean played professional cricket in Britain. After World War II , professional cricketers from the Indian subcontinent were enlisted in British teams. Ice hockey was first professionalized in Pittsburgh , U.S. in the first decade of the 20th century. Because Canadians made up
18532-538: The NBA witnessed the debut of 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain , who averaged a record 37.6 points per game in his rookie year. On November 7, 1959, Russell's Celtics hosted Chamberlain's Warriors and pundits called the matchup between the best offensive and defensive centers "The Big Collision" and "Battle of the Titans". Both men awed onlookers with "nakedly awesome athleticism", and while Chamberlain outscored Russell 30 to 22,
18758-716: The NFL in 1970); the NFL expanded coast-to-coast, the first of the four major leagues to do so, in 1946 with the Los Angeles Rams and admitted the San Francisco 49ers four years later; the NFL did not enter the Southern United States until admitting the Dallas Cowboys , Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints in the 1960s. A championship game was established in 1933, a draft was established in 1936, and schedules were standardized in
18984-512: The NHL in 1979, but had to give up most of its players, as they were still under NHL contract and had to return to their original teams. The NHL made its last pronounced realignment in the 1990s, moving most of the WHA teams out of their markets and establishing a number of new teams in the southern United States. In Europe, the introduction of professionalism varied widely, and the highest-caliber league on
19210-528: The Nine were teased and ridiculed every day. In the city compromise efforts all failed and political tensions continued to fester. A year later in September 1958 the Supreme Court ruled that all the city's high schools had to be integrated immediately. Governor Faubus and the legislature responded by immediately shutting down all the public high schools in the city for the entire 1958–1959 school year, despite
19436-647: The RCNL, Howard led campaigns to expose brutality by the Mississippi state highway patrol and to encourage blacks to make deposits in the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Nashville which, in turn, gave loans to civil rights activists who were victims of a "credit squeeze" by the White Citizens' Councils . After Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in March 1955,
19662-855: The Republican to the Democratic Party, especially because of opportunities under the New Deal of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Substantially under pressure from African-American supporters who began the March on Washington Movement , President Roosevelt issued the first federal order banning discrimination and created the Fair Employment Practice Committee . After both World Wars, black veterans of
19888-419: The Royals underrated Russell. The St. Louis Hawks , who owned the second pick, drafted Russell but were vying for Celtics center Ed Macauley , a six-time NBA All-Star who had roots in St. Louis . Auerbach agreed to trade Macauley, who had previously asked to be traded to St. Louis in order to be with his sick son, if the Hawks gave up Russell. The owner of the Hawks called Auerbach later and demanded more in
20114-706: The Sabbath , compete with a Christian's primary commitment to God, exhibit a lack of modesty in the players' and cheerleaders' uniforms, are associated with violence and extensive use of profanity among many players, and encourage gambling, as well as alcohol and other drugs at sporting events, which go against a commitment to teetotalism . Laestadian Lutherans , who belong to the Pietistic Lutheran tradition, likewise teach that "Competitive sports are not acceptable, but we should maintain fitness through various forms of exercise." Professional sportsmen can earn
20340-430: The South." From 1910 to 1970, blacks sought better lives by migrating north and west out of the South. A total of nearly seven million blacks left the South in what was known as the Great Migration , most during and after World War II. So many people migrated that the demographics of some previously black-majority states changed to a white majority (in combination with other developments). The rapid influx of blacks altered
20566-645: The Spanish La Liga , the average salary for the players of Lionel Messi's club FC Barcelona was €6.5 million for the 2010–2011 La Liga season, up from €5.5 million for the 2009–2010 La Liga season. The average salary of a player in the English Premier League was about £2.6 million in the 2017–18 season, compared with about £1.2 million in 2007–08 and £676,000 in 2006–07. Even as early as 2010–11, top players such as John Terry and Steven Gerrard could make up to £7 million per year with
20792-669: The United States) was professionalized in the 1890s as a slow, and initially covert, process; Pudge Heffelfinger and Ben "Sport" Donnelly were the first to secretly accept payment for playing the game in 1892. Regional leagues in Chicago, Pennsylvania , Ohio and New York had coalesced in the 1900s and 1910s, most of which gave way to the American Professional Football Association in 1920. By 1920, pro football remained overshadowed by
21018-538: The University of San Francisco, Russell led the San Francisco Dons to consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 . He was named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player , and captained the gold medal-winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics . These victories along with his NBA championships made Russell one of only eight players in the history of basketball to achieve
21244-541: The WHL a contract, the NHL doubled in size in 1967 , beginning a period of expansion that lasted through much of the 1970s. The last major challenger to the NHL's dominance was the World Hockey Association , which successfully broke the NHL's reserve clause in court, drove up professional hockey salaries, and continued to pressure the older league into expansion. The WHA merged four of its remaining teams into
21470-468: The Year check. The relationship between the two was tenuous at best. Despite their different ethnic backgrounds and lack of common off-court interests, his relationship with Cousy was amicable. Russell played 48 games, averaging 14.7 points per game and a league-high 19.6 rebounds per game. The Celtics finished the 1956–57 regular season with a 44–28 record, the team's second-best record since beginning play in
21696-741: The amateur rules of the International Olympic Committee to retain their amateur status and compete in the Olympics . The modern-day descendant of the Soviet league, the Kontinental Hockey League , is fully professional and has some teams outside Russia, to the point where it has the resources to sign NHL veterans. Other European countries including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, and Austria have prominent professional leagues. Rugby union
21922-467: The annual Hampton Negro Conference in Virginia, said that "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage-earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South. There seems to be an apparent effort throughout the North, especially in the cities to debar the colored worker from all the avenues of higher remunerative labor, which makes it more difficult to improve his economic condition even than in
22148-791: The appointment of African American David Jones to the school board in 1953, convinced numerous white and black citizens that Greensboro was heading in a progressive direction. Integration in Greensboro occurred rather peacefully compared to the process in Southern states such as Alabama, Arkansas , and Virginia where " massive resistance " was practiced by top officials and throughout the states. In Virginia, some counties closed their public schools rather than integrate, and many white Christian private schools were founded to accommodate students who used to go to public schools. Even in Greensboro, much local resistance to desegregation continued, and in 1969,
22374-431: The attention of civil rights leaders. After the city rejected many of its suggested reforms, the NAACP, led by E. D. Nixon , pushed for full desegregation of public buses. With the support of most of Montgomery's 50,000 African Americans, the boycott lasted for 381 days, until the local ordinance segregating African Americans and whites on public buses was repealed. Ninety percent of African Americans in Montgomery partook in
22600-564: The ball ! It's all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!" After the Division finals, the Celtics had an easier time in the NBA Finals, winning 4–1 against the Los Angeles Lakers . In the 1965–66 NBA season , Russell contributed 12.9 points and 22.8 rebounds per game. This was the first time in seven years that he failed to average at least 23 rebounds a game. The Celtics won the 1966 NBA Finals and their eighth consecutive title. Russell's team again beat Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers 4–1 in
22826-406: The ball to teammate Sam Jones , who scored to clinch the win. Boston then beat the Los Angeles Lakers 4–2 in the 1968 NBA Finals , giving Russell his tenth title in twelve years. For his efforts, Russell was named Sports Illustrated ' s Sportsman of the Year . After losing for the fifth straight time against Russell and the Celtics, Hall-of-Fame Lakers guard Jerry West stated: "If I had
23052-516: The basket, they're going to have to rewrite the rules." The NCAA in fact did; the lane was widened for his junior year. After he graduated, the NCAA rules committee instituted a second new rule to counter the play of big men like Russell; basket interference was now prohibited. Russell became one of several big men who have brought about NCAA rule changes. The NCAA had previously prohibited goaltending in response to George Mikan (1945) and later banned
23278-472: The bench because he struggled against Russell in the regular season, quipped: "How much does that guy make a year? It would be to our advantage if we paid him off for five years to get away from us in the rest of this series." The next day, The Boston Globe read: "Russell's Reflexes Befuddles Visitors." The Celtics swept the Nationals in three games to earn the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance in
23504-527: The best Japanese players often emigrate to the U.S. by way of the posting system . Other countries where the game is important include South Korea (where their league has its own posting system with Major League Baseball), Taiwan, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean states. Basketball was invented in 1891 and the first professional leagues emerged in the 1920s. The Basketball Association of America
23730-564: The best players to be stacked onto certain teams), and restricting its players' salaries through reserve clauses . This stagnation allowed other leagues to arise: the Western Hockey League soon became the de facto major league of the western states and provinces, and the second-tier American Hockey League emerged in a number of midwestern markets the NHL had neglected, in addition to a handful of small towns. Amid pressure from television networks that were threatening to offer
23956-467: The boycott made its spokesman Martin Luther King Jr. , a nationally known figure. It also inspired other bus boycotts, such as the successful Tallahassee, Florida boycott of 1956–57. This movement also sparked the 1956 Sugar Bowl riots in Atlanta which later became a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1957, King and Ralph Abernathy , the leaders of
24182-550: The boycotts, which reduced bus revenue significantly, as they comprised the majority of the riders. This movement also sparked riots leading up to the 1956 Sugar Bowl . In November 1956, the United States Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling in the case of Browder v. Gayle and ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated, ending the boycott. Local leaders established the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus their efforts. Martin Luther King Jr.
24408-399: The bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks later informed Till's mother that her decision to stay in her seat was guided by the image she still vividly recalled of Till's brutalized remains. The glass topped casket that was used for Till's Chicago funeral was found in a cemetery garage in 2009. Till had been reburied in a different casket after being exhumed in 2005. Till's family decided to donate
24634-457: The case known as Brown II , the Court ordered segregation to be phased out over time, "with all deliberate speed". Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) did not overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson was segregation in transportation modes. Brown v. Board of Education dealt with segregation in education. Brown v. Board of Education did set in motion
24860-506: The city of Anniston, Alabama , two black ministers were brutally beaten for attempting to integrate the public library. Though there was resistance and violence, the integration of libraries was generally quicker than the integration of other public institutions. The situation for blacks outside the South was somewhat better (in most states they could vote and have their children educated, though they still faced discrimination in housing and jobs). In 1900 Reverend Matthew Anderson, speaking at
25086-827: The civil rights movement's peak in the mid-1960s, and still faced discrimination in jobs, housing, education and politics. A wave of riots and protests in Black communities in the 1960s, including in Los Angeles in 1965 , in Newark in 1967 , and in Chicago in 1968 following King's assassination lessened support from the White middle class. By the early 21st century, though " affirmative action " programs had expanded opportunities for Black and other minorities, Black income levels and life expectancy remained lower than that of Whites. Before
25312-566: The college game. The first game involving an APFA team took place on 26 September 1920, at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois, as the hometown Independents flattened the St. Paul Ideals 48–0. The first head-to-head battles in the league occurred one week later as Dayton topped Columbus 14-0 and Rock Island pasted Muncie 45–0. Forward passes were rare, coaching from the sidelines was prohibited and players competed on both offense and defense. Money
25538-483: The competition. His former USF and future Celtics teammate K. C. Jones joined him on the Olympic squad and contributed 10.9 points per game, including a Russell–Jones combined 29 points in the finals. The Harlem Globetrotters invited Russell to join their exhibition basketball squad, but Russell, who was sensitive to racial prejudice, was enraged by the fact that Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein would only discuss
25764-577: The conclusion of the season there were no play-offs (that innovation, although New York's regional league had used it, did not arrive until 1933) and it took more than four months before the league even bothered to crown a champion. Much as college football did for decades, the APFA determined its victor by ballot. On 30 April 1921, team representatives voted the Akron Pros, which completed the season undefeated with eight wins and three ties while yielding only
25990-622: The constitutionality of those state laws that required racial segregation in public facilities in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , legitimizing them through the " separate but equal " doctrine. Segregation, which began with slavery, continued with Jim Crow laws, with signs used to show blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, non-whites had to wait until all white customers were served first. Elected in 1912, President Woodrow Wilson gave in to demands by Southern members of his cabinet and ordered segregation of workplaces throughout
26216-645: The continent, the Soviet Championship League (proven to be at least equal to or better than the NHL in the 1970s), was officially populated with ostensibly amateur players who were actually full-time sportspeople hired as regular workers of a company ( aircraft industry , food workers , tractor industry ) or organization ( KGB , Red Army , Soviet Air Force ) that sponsored what would be presented as an after-hours social sports society hockey team for their workers. In other words, all Soviet hockey players were de facto professionals who circumvented
26442-517: The court majority opinion that Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. The lawyers from the NAACP had to gather plausible evidence in order to win the case of Brown vs. Board of Education . Their method of addressing
26668-427: The daunting task of defending against Baylor with little frontline help: Loscutoff, Heinsohn, and Satch Sanders , the three best Celtics forwards, had fouled out. In overtime, Frank Ramsey , the fourth forward, fouled out trying to guard Baylor, so Russell was robbed of his usual four-men wing rotation; he and little-used fifth forward Gene Guarilia successfully pressured Baylor into missed shots. Russell finished with
26894-719: The demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 , which barred racial discrimination and created an agency to oversee compliance with the order. The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation that had typified the civil rights movement during the first half of the 20th century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized " direct action ": boycotts, sit-ins , Freedom Rides , marches or walks, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance, standing in line, and, at times, civil disobedience. Churches, local grassroots organizations, fraternal societies, and black-owned businesses mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions. This
27120-462: The demographics of Northern and Western cities; happening at a period of expanded European, Hispanic, and Asian immigration, it added to social competition and tensions, with the new migrants and immigrants battling for a place in jobs and housing. Reflecting social tensions after World War I, as veterans struggled to return to the workforce and labor unions were organizing, the Red Summer of 1919
27346-424: The draft, Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach set his sights on Russell, thinking his defensive toughness and rebounding prowess were the missing pieces the Celtics needed. Auerbach's thoughts were unorthodox, as in that period centers and forwards were defined by their offensive output, and their ability to play defense was secondary. Boston's chances of getting Russell seemed slim because they had finished second in
27572-503: The dress, which he described as "white woman's clothing". During World War II , the Second Great Migration began, with large numbers of Black people leaving the South to find jobs in the rest of the U.S. When Russell was eight years old, his father moved the family to Oakland, California . While there, they fell into poverty and Russell spent his childhood living in a series of public housing projects. His father
27798-579: The entire process of developing and training the mental, physical and moral powers and capabilities of human beings". Risa Goluboff wrote that the NAACP's intention was to show the Courts that African American children were the victims of school segregation and their futures were at risk. The Court ruled that both Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had established the "separate but equal" standard in general, and Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899), which had applied that standard to schools,
28024-536: The fact that the college sports system ensures most professional athletes receive a college education with no student debt, a legacy that provides them with a career path after their sports career ends. In the NFL average annual salaries by position in 2009 were: The average salary of a player in the Chinese Super League was about ¥ 10.7 million (£1 million) for the 2011 season, up from ¥600,000 in
28250-466: The famous "Coleman Play", as he ran down Hawks forward Jack Coleman , who had received an outlet pass at midcourt, and blocked his shot despite the fact that Russell had been standing at his own baseline when the ball was thrown to Coleman. The block preserved Boston's slim 103–102 lead with 40-odd seconds left to play in regulation, saving the game for the Celtics. In the second overtime , both teams were in serious foul trouble: Heinsohn had fouled out, and
28476-455: The favorites. National tragedy struck on April 4, day of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. With eight of the ten starting players on Sixers and Celtics being black, both teams were in deep shock and there were calls to cancel the series. In a game called as "unreal" and "devoid of emotion", the Sixers lost 127–118 on April 5. In Game 2, Philadelphia evened the series with a 115–106 win and then went on to win Games 3 and 4. As Chamberlain
28702-402: The federal government found the city was not in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Transition to a fully integrated school system did not begin until 1971. Many Northern cities also had de facto segregation policies, which resulted in a vast gulf in educational resources between black and white communities. In Harlem , New York, for example, neither a single new school was built since
28928-552: The federal government. The early 20th century is a period often referred to as the " nadir of American race relations ", when the number of lynchings was highest. While tensions and civil rights violations were most intense in the South, social discrimination affected African Americans in other regions as well. At the national level, the Southern bloc controlled important committees in Congress, defeated passage of federal laws against lynching, and exercised considerable power beyond
29154-521: The first Citizenship Schools in South Carolina 's Sea Islands . They taught literacy to enable blacks to pass voting tests. The program was an enormous success and tripled the number of black voters on Johns Island . SCLC took over the program and duplicated its results elsewhere. In the spring of 1951, black students in Virginia protested their unequal status in the state's segregated educational system. Students at Moton High School protested
29380-481: The first person to high-jump 7 feet (2.13 m). this was all before the Fosbury Flop was introduced, with which all high jump world records after 1978 have been set. He also competed in the 440 yards (402.3 m) race, which he could complete in 49.6 seconds. Before his NBA rookie year, Russell was the captain of the 1956 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team that competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics , which
29606-501: The first professional baseball league was created. By the beginning of the 20th century, most large cities in the eastern United States had a professional baseball team. After several leagues came and went in the 19th century, the National League (founded in 1876) and American League (recognized as a major league in 1903) were established as the dominant leagues by the early 20th century. The most victorious team in each league
29832-407: The first time in NBA history a team lost a series after leading 3–1. Russell limited Chamberlain to only two shot attempts in the second half. Despite this, the Celtics were leading only 97–95 with 34 seconds left when Russell closed out the game with several consecutive clutch plays. He made a free throw , blocked a shot by Sixers player Chet Walker , grabbed a rebound off a miss by Greer, and passed
30058-557: The funeral in Jet is credited as a crucial moment in the civil rights era for displaying in vivid detail the violent racism that was being directed at black people in America. In a column for The Atlantic , Vann R. Newkirk wrote: "The trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of white supremacy ". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-white jury . "Emmett's murder," historian Tim Tyson writes, "would never have become
30284-473: The future overturning of 'separate but equal'. On May 18, 1954, Greensboro, North Carolina , became the first city in the South to publicly announce that it would abide by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. "It is unthinkable,' remarked School Board Superintendent Benjamin Smith, 'that we will try to [override] the laws of the United States." This positive reception for Brown, together with
30510-401: The harm it did to all the students. The decision to integrate the school was a landmark event in the civil rights movement, and the students' bravery and determination in the face of violent opposition is remembered as a key moment in American history. The city and state were entangled in very expensive legal disputes for decades, while suffering a reputation for hatred and obstruction. During
30736-660: The highest average salaries in 2017–18, with players for both Manchester United and Manchester City averaging over £5.2 million. Players in lower divisions make significantly less money. In 2006–07 the average salary of a player in the Championship (the second tier of the English football pyramid) made £195,750 while the average salary for League One and League Two (tiers 3 and 4) combined were £49,600. The highest salary in Major League Soccer in 2019
30962-427: The individual person's attitude and mental response to crises and violence" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). Hartford and activists like him, who trained in tactical nonviolence, considered it necessary in order to ensure physical safety, instill discipline, teach demonstrators how to demonstrate, and form mutual confidence among demonstrators (Civil Rights Movement Archive). For many, the concept of nonviolent protest
31188-426: The issue of school segregation was to enumerate several arguments. One pertained to having exposure to interracial contact in a school environment. It was argued that interracial contact would, in turn, help prepare children to live with the pressures that society exerts in regard to race and thereby afford them a better chance of living in a democracy. In addition, another argument emphasized how "'education' comprehends
31414-401: The job because I am a Negro, I was offered it because Red figured I could do it." When he became player-coach, Russell bluntly said to his teammates that "he intended to cut all personal ties to other players" and seamlessly made the transition from their peer to their superior. At the time his additional role of coach was announced, Russell publicly stated he believed Red Auerbach 's impact as
31640-460: The landmark Supreme Court case of Smith v. Allwright (1944), which prohibited white primaries , progress was made in increasing black political participation in the Rim South and Acadiana – although almost entirely in urban areas and a few rural localities where most blacks worked outside plantations. The status quo ante of excluding African Americans from the political system lasted in
31866-441: The last African Americans were elected to Congress from the South before disenfranchisement of blacks by states throughout the region, as described below. From 1890 to 1908, southern states passed new constitutions and laws to disenfranchise African Americans and many Poor Whites by creating barriers to voter registration; voting rolls were dramatically reduced as blacks and poor whites were forced out of electoral politics. After
32092-408: The late 1930s and remained viable as a business model up into the 1970s. A major factor in the NFL's rise to dominance was its embrace of television early in the sport's history. As college football heavily restricted the rights of its teams to broadcast games (a policy eventually ruled to be illegal in 1984), the NFL instead allowed games to be televised nationwide, except in a team's home city ;
32318-541: The leadership of Walter Reuther , the United Auto Workers donated $ 75,000 to help pay for the NAACP's efforts at the Supreme Court. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas , that mandating, or even permitting, public schools to be segregated by race was unconstitutional . Chief Justice Warren wrote in
32544-412: The league did not maintain official standings. The inaugural season was a struggle. Games received little attention from the fans, and even less from the press. According to Robert W. Peterson's book "Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football," APFA games averaged crowds of 4,241. The association bylaws called for teams to pay a US$ 100 entry fee, but no one ever did. The season concluded on 19 December. At
32770-456: The league's retrenchment to six markets: Boston, New York City, Chicago and Detroit in the U.S., and Toronto and Montreal in Canada. These Original Six cities were the only cities with NHL franchises from 1935 to 1967. During this time, the NHL was both stagnant and restrictive in its policies, giving teams territorial advantages, having teams with multiple owners in the same family (thus allowing
32996-414: The locker room, shaking his hand, and saying: "Great." The game still ended on a high note for Russell. After the loss, he led his grandfather through the Celtics locker rooms and the two saw the white Celtic Havlicek taking a shower next to his black teammate Sam Jones and discussing the game. Suddenly, his grandfather broke down crying. Asked by Russell what was wrong, his grandfather replied how proud he
33222-482: The major leagues in exchange for subsidizing those players' salaries; this is known as the minor league system and is most prevalent in professional baseball and professional ice hockey . Otherwise, the league may be required to classify itself as semi-professional , in other words, able to pay their players a small sum, but not enough to cover the player's basic costs of living. Many professional athletes experience financial difficulties soon after retiring, due to
33448-408: The majority of whom had recently been enslaved. For a short period of time, African-American men voted and held political office, but as time went on Blacks in the South were increasingly deprived of civil rights, often under racist Jim Crow laws , and were subjected to discrimination and sustained violence by White supremacists . African Americans who moved to the North to enhance their prospects in
33674-465: The matter with USF Coach Woolpert, and not Russell. While Saperstein spoke to Woolpert in a meeting, Globetrotters assistant coach Harry Hanna tried to entertain Russell with jokes, but he was livid after this snub and declined the offer. He reasoned that if Saperstein was too smart to speak with him, then he was too smart to play for Saperstein. Russell made himself eligible for the 1956 NBA draft . In
33900-419: The method of nonviolence and why it is considered useful, and there is the tactical method, which ultimately teaches demonstrators "how to be a protestor—how to sit-in, how to picket, how to defend yourself against attack, giving training on how to remain cool when people are screaming racist insults into your face and pouring stuff on you and hitting you" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). The philosophical basis of
34126-473: The military pressed for full civil rights and often led activist movements. In 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 , which ended segregation in the military . Housing segregation became a nationwide problem following the Great Migration of black people out of the South. Racial covenants were employed by many real estate developers to "protect" entire subdivisions , with
34352-601: The movement made its largest legislative and judicial gains during the 1960s. The movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans. After the American Civil War and subsequent abolition of slavery in the southern states in 1865, the three Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution had granted emancipation and constitutional rights of citizenship to all African Americans,
34578-531: The number of whites in the South. Characteristics of the post-Reconstruction period: African Americans and other ethnic minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it in numerous ways and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political redress, and labor organizing (see the Civil rights movement (1896–1954) ). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
34804-449: The opponents tried to find the open man. He also became famous for his shot-blocking skills and pundits called his blocks "Wilsonburgers", referring to the Wilson NBA basketballs he "shoved back into the faces of opposing shooters". This skill allowed the other Celtics to play their men aggressively; if they were beaten, they knew that Russell was guarding the basket. Russell's defense was called into question by Eddie Gottlieb , coach of
35030-520: The opposing center: using his quickness and speed, he would double-up on forwards and aggressively challenge their shots. Russell played on USF's varsity team from 1953 to 1956. Combining the stature and shot-blocking skills of a center with the foot speed of a forward, Russell became the centerpiece of a USF team that soon became a force in college basketball. After USF kept Holy Cross Crusaders star Tom Heinsohn scoreless in an entire half, Sports Illustrated wrote: "If [Russell] ever learns to hit
35256-410: The original casket to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American Culture and History, where it is now on display. In 2007, Bryant said that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her story in 1955. On December 1, 1955, nine months after a 15-year-old high school student, Claudette Colvin , refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and
35482-449: The overcrowded conditions and failing facility. Some local leaders of the NAACP had tried to persuade the students to back down from their protest against the Jim Crow laws of school segregation. When the students did not budge, the NAACP joined their battle against school segregation. The NAACP proceeded with five cases challenging the school systems; these were later combined under what is known today as Brown v. Board of Education . Under
35708-505: The pivotal Game 7, Russell managed to hold Chamberlain to 22 points, 28 points below his season average, while scoring 19 points. The game was tied with two seconds left when Sam Jones sank a clutch shot that won the Celtics the series. In the 1962 NBA Finals , the Celtics met the Los Angeles Lakers of forward Elgin Baylor and guard Jerry West . The teams split the first six games. In Game 6, Russell recorded his first career triple-double with 19 points, 24 rebounds, and 10 assists as
35934-537: The players of Premier League club Manchester City F.C. receiving an average salary of £2 million in that season. Premier League salaries have boomed in more recent years thanks to massive television deals and wealthy new investors in clubs. Terry's and Gerrard's 2010–11 salaries would not have placed them among the top 25 earners in 2017–18. In that season, more than 20 players earned more than £10 million, led by Alexis Sánchez (£21.5 million) and Mesut Özil (£20.9 million). The Premier League's two Manchester clubs had
36160-407: The players' union and the owners have at times halted baseball for months at a time (e.g., 1994–95 player strike ). A prominent professional baseball circuit known as Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) also developed in Japan. Founded in 1934, the league emerged as an international force after World War II. NPB is considered to be the highest caliber of baseball outside the U.S. major leagues, and
36386-449: The practice of nonviolence in the American civil rights movement was largely inspired by Mahatma Gandhi 's "non-cooperation" policies during his involvement in the Indian independence movement , which were intended to gain attention so that the public would either "intervene in advance" or "provide public pressure in support of the action to be taken" (Erikson, 415). As Hartford explains it, philosophical nonviolence training aims to "shape
36612-445: The pressure of the lawsuit with a school boycott in 1959. During the boycott, some of the first freedom schools of the period were established. The city responded to the campaign by permitting more open transfers to high-quality, historically white schools. (New York's African-American community, and Northern desegregation activists generally, now found themselves contending with the problem of white flight , however.) Emmett Till ,
36838-455: The previous season and the worst teams had the highest draft picks, and the Celtics had slipped too low in the draft order to pick Russell. In addition, Auerbach had already used his NBA territorial pick to acquire talented forward Tom Heinsohn . Auerbach knew that the Rochester Royals , who owned the first draft pick, already had a strong rebounder in Maurice Stokes , were looking for an outside shooting guard, and were unwilling to pay Russell
37064-446: The primary intent to keep " white " neighborhoods "white". Ninety percent of the housing projects built in the years following World War II were racially restricted by such covenants. Cities known for their widespread use of racial covenants include Chicago , Baltimore , Detroit , Milwaukee , Los Angeles , Seattle , and St. Louis . Said premises shall not be rented, leased, or conveyed to, or occupied by, any person other than of
37290-475: The remainder of the South, especially North Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama, until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s to provide federal enforcement of constitutional voting rights. For more than sixty years, blacks in the South were essentially excluded from politics, unable to elect anyone to represent their interests in Congress or local government. Since they could not vote, they could not serve on local juries. During this period,
37516-504: The rental or sale of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and the Black Power movement emerged, which criticized leaders of the existing movement for their cooperative attitude and adherence to legalism and nonviolence . Black Power leaders, including within the Black Panther Party , demanded not only legal equality, but also economic self-sufficiency for the community. Support for Black Power came from African Americans who had seen little material improvement since
37742-414: The restriction was softened in the early 1970s, by which point the NFL had secured broadcast deals with all of the major television networks , another major factor in the inability of any competing league to gain traction since then. The related sport of Canadian football was eventually professionalized by the 1950s with the evolution of the Canadian Football League . The CFL, despite losing all games in
37968-459: The same time as African Americans were being disenfranchised, white southerners imposed racial segregation by law. Violence against blacks increased, with numerous lynchings through the turn of the century. The system of de jure state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression that emerged from the post-Reconstruction South became known as the " Jim Crow " system. The United States Supreme Court made up almost entirely of Northerners, upheld
38194-548: The schism which created the code of rugby league. Arguments against amateurism often appeal to the argument that amateurism in sport favors the classes who can afford not to be paid to play, and is thus a covert form of prejudice against lower classes. Another argument is that amateur players are often de facto professionals who retain their amateur status by earning allowances instead of salaries. For example, all Eastern bloc countries were populated with amateur players who were actually full-time athletes hired as regular workers of
38420-459: The small markets of the NFL, thus the CFL pays significantly less than other major professional leagues, though enough to be considered fully professional. Europe, Japan, Mexico also have American football leagues of varying levels that sign professional players. The top leagues are the German Football League , Austrian Football League , the new European League of Football and the X-League . There are over 60 countries that have leagues throughout
38646-401: The small-market teams except the Green Bay Packers squeezed out of the NFL by the time of the Great Depression , multiple attempts at teams in the major cities of Washington , New York , Detroit , Cleveland, and Philadelphia failed before, eventually, their current representatives took root (though Boston proved particularly problematic until the New England Patriots were accepted into
38872-455: The sport to be viable in smaller cities than other sports. Professional basketball leagues of varying caliber can be found around the world, especially in Europe and South America. Basketball mainly became popular in the early 1980s when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird joined the NBA and lead their teams to multiple NBA titles. They are considered two of the best players of all time usually underneath Michael Jordan . Michael Jordan also gained
39098-527: The states failed to implement the acts, the laws allowed the Federal Government to get involved. Many Republican governors were afraid of sending black militia troops to fight the Klan for fear of war. After the disputed election of 1876, which resulted in the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops, whites in the South regained political control of the region's state legislatures. They continued to intimidate and violently attack blacks before and during elections to suppress their voting, but
39324-466: The support and appreciation of female athletes in professional sports. Female athletes struggle to obtain the same degree of visibility and sponsorship opportunities as male athletes, whose accomplishments frequently dominate mainstream sports coverage. According to Cheryl Cooky's TEDx talk, a professor in American studies, gender, and sexuality at Purdue University, the marginalization of female athletes in mainstream sports media and sponsorship opportunities
39550-432: The team utilized a strong defensive approach to the game, forcing opposing teams to commit many turnovers , which led to many easy points on fast breaks . Russell was an elite help defender who allowed the Celtics to play the "Hey, Bill" defense: whenever a Celtic requested additional defensive help, he would shout "Hey, Bill!" Russell was so quick that he could run over for a quick double team and make it back in time if
39776-410: The then-independent Stanley Cup . The NHA's teams reorganized as the National Hockey League in 1917, and the West Coast circuit died out by the mid-1920s. By 1926, the NHL had expanded to ten teams in Canada and the northeastern and midwestern United States. However, the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s and Canada's entry into World War II, greatly reducing the league's player pool, led to
40002-439: The third person in North American major professional sports to have their jersey number retired league-wide, behind Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky . William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, to Charles Russell and Katie Russell in West Monroe, Louisiana . Like many Southern towns and cities of that time, Monroe was segregated and the Russells often struggled with racism in their daily lives. Russell's father
40228-432: The time period considered to be the "African-American civil rights" era, the predominant use of protest was nonviolent, or peaceful. Often referred to as pacifism, the method of nonviolence is considered to be an attempt to impact society positively. Although acts of racial discrimination have occurred historically throughout the United States, perhaps the most violent regions have been in the former Confederate states. During
40454-515: The trade. In addition to Macauley, who was the Celtics' premier player at the time, he wanted Cliff Hagan , who had been serving in the military for three years and had not yet played for the Celtics. After much debate, Auerbach agreed to give up Hagan and the Hawks made the trade. During that same draft, Boston also drafted guard K. C. Jones , Russell's former USF teammate; in total, the team drafted three future Basketball Hall of Famers in 1956: Russell, Jones, and Heinsohn. The Russell draft-day trade
40680-472: The turn of the century, nor did a single nursery school exist – even as the Second Great Migration was causing overcrowding. Existing schools tended to be dilapidated and staffed with inexperienced teachers. Brown helped stimulate activism among New York City parents like Mae Mallory who, with the support of the NAACP, initiated a successful lawsuit against the city and state on Brown 's principles. Mallory and thousands of other parents bolstered
40906-414: The unanimous Supreme Court ruling, many states began to gradually integrate their schools, but some areas of the South resisted by closing public schools altogether. The integration of Southern public libraries followed demonstrations and protests that used techniques seen in other elements of the larger civil rights movement. This included sit-ins, beatings, and white resistance. For example, in 1963 in
41132-433: The vast majority of hockey players, early American professional leagues imported almost all of their players before Canadian leagues began to form in the wake of a mining boom, depriving the U.S. leagues and teams of talented players. Two distinct circuits formed: the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in western Canada and the northwestern U.S., and the National Hockey Association of central Canada, both of which competed for
41358-405: The vast majority of media, his autograph was among the most difficult to secure of any professional athlete of his time. Russell had a cordial relationship with many of his teammates, with the notable exception of Heinsohn, his old rival and fellow rookie. Russell ignored Heinsohn's request for an autograph on behalf of his cousin and openly said to Heinsohn that he deserved half of his $ 300 Rookie of
41584-402: The wake of black pioneers Earl Lloyd , Chuck Cooper , and Sweetwater Clifton , and he was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. During the final three seasons of his career (1966–1969), he served as player-coach of the Celtics, becoming the first black NBA coach to win a championship. Russell ended his playing career and left his position as Celtics coach after helping
41810-440: The white or Caucasian race. While many whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward black people, many other whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions, a process known as white flight . From the 1930s to the 1960s, the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) issued guidelines that specified that a realtor "should never be instrumental in introducing to
42036-428: The white-dominated Democratic Party maintained political control of the South. With whites controlling all the seats representing the total population of the South, they had a powerful voting bloc in Congress. The Republican Party —the "party of Lincoln" and the party to which most blacks had belonged—shrank to insignificance except in remote Unionist areas of Appalachia and the Ozarks as black voter registration
42262-414: The whole team decided to fend for themselves in a closed college dorm , which was later called an important bonding experience for the group. Decades later, Russell explained that his experiences hardened him against abuse of all kinds, saying: "I never permitted myself to be a victim." Racism shaped his lifelong paradigm as a team player, about which Russell said: "At that time it was never acceptable that
42488-400: The world. The rise of indoor American football from the late 1980s allowed smaller-scale professional football to be viable. Baseball originated before the American Civil War (1861–1865). First played on sandlots in particular, scoring and record-keeping gave baseball gravity. "Today," notes John Thorn in The Baseball Encyclopedia, "baseball without records is inconceivable." In 1871,
42714-468: The young Russell had an extraordinary instinct for the game, especially in the clutch . Russell eagerly accepted the offer. Sports journalist John Taylor described the scholarship offer as a watershed event in Russell's life because Russell realized that basketball was his chance to escape poverty and racism, and he swore to make the best of it. Russell graduated from McClymonds in 1952. Russell started college at USF in 1952. He averaged 20 points per game on
42940-442: Was Serena Williams with a $ 29.2 million annual income; the highest-paid male player was Lionel Messi with a $ 127 million annual income. In association football, the average wage for women worldwide is $ 35,000, while for men it is $ 410,730. Attendances in women's leagues also tend to be lower than in men's, and there are fewer corporate sponsors, as well as less money from broadcasting rights. Widespread gender discrepancies hamper
43166-413: Was Zlatan Ibrahimović of A.C. Milan who received a salary of €25.9 million after income tax and which also includes Ibrahimović's bonuses and endorsements . Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona is the world's second highest-paid player receiving a salary of £29.6 million (over US$ 45 million) a year after income taxation and which also includes the incomes of Messi's bonuses and endorsements . In
43392-580: Was $ 3,440,000, the median salary was $ 1,075,000, and the minimum salary had grown to four times the inflation-adjusted average salary in 1970 ($ 480,000). In the Indian Premier League in 2019, players earn an average of $ 101,444, and a median salary of $ 72,450, per week. The top-paid players in international cricket in 2017 across the (at the time) 10 Test cricket nations earned anywhere from $ 90,000 to $ 1,470,000 (when looking only at contract and match fees). Civil rights movement 1954–1959 1960–1963 1964–1968 The civil rights movement
43618-431: Was 12 years old. His father gave up his trucking job and became a steelworker in order to be closer to his children. Russell stated that his father became his childhood hero, later followed up by Minneapolis Lakers superstar George Mikan , whom he met when he was in high school. Of Russell the college basketball player, Mikan said: "Let's face it, he's the best ever. He's so good, he scares you." Russell's older brother
43844-473: Was Cousy, who declined the invitation, stating that he did not want to coach his former teammates. Third choice Tom Heinsohn also said no because he did not think he could handle the often surly Russell, whom he proposed as a player-coach. On April 16, 1966, Russell agreed to become head coach of the Celtics, and a public announcement was made two days later. Russell became the first black head coach in NBA history, and he commented to journalists: "I wasn't offered
44070-405: Was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges used by the NAACP and others. In 1952, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), led by T. R. M. Howard , a black surgeon, entrepreneur, and planter organized a successful boycott of gas stations in Mississippi that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. Through
44296-424: Was a social movement and campaign in the United States from 1954 to 1968 that aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation , discrimination , and disenfranchisement in the country, which was most commonly employed against African Americans . The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, and had modern roots in the 1940s. After years of direct actions and grassroots protests,
44522-404: Was a way of life, a culture. However, not everyone agreed with this notion. James Forman, former SNCC (and later Black Panther) member, and nonviolence trainer was among those who did not. In his autobiography, The Making of Black Revolutionaries , Forman revealed his perspective on the method of nonviolence as "strictly a tactic, not a way of life without limitations." Similarly, Bob Moses , who
44748-401: Was also an active member of SNCC , felt that the method of nonviolence was practical. When interviewed by author Robert Penn Warren, Moses said "There's no question that he ( Martin Luther King Jr. ) had a great deal of influence with the masses. But I don't think it's in the direction of love. It's in a practical direction … ." (Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren). According to a 2020 study in
44974-491: Was arrested, Rosa Parks did the same thing. Parks soon became the symbol of the resulting Montgomery bus boycott and received national publicity. She was later hailed as the "mother of the civil rights movement". Parks was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and had recently returned from a meeting at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where nonviolence as a strategy was taught by Myles Horton and others. After Parks' arrest, African Americans gathered and organized
45200-534: Was cut from the junior varsity basketball team as a junior in high school, Powles gave him a spot on the varsity team and bought him a yearlong community center membership. Since Russell's previous experiences with white authority figures were often negative, warm words from Powles reassured him. Frank Robinson , a future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame , was one of Russell's high school basketball teammates. Russell soon became noted for his unusual style of defense. He later recalled: "To play good defense ... it
45426-417: Was discovered and retrieved from the river. After Emmett's mother, Mamie Till , came to identify the remains of her son, she decided she wanted to "let the people see what I have seen". Till's mother then had his body taken back to Chicago where she had it displayed in an open casket during the funeral services where many thousands of visitors arrived to show their respects. A later publication of an image at
45652-438: Was elected President of this organization. The lengthy protest attracted national attention for him and the city. His eloquent appeals to Christian brotherhood and American idealism created a positive impression on people both inside and outside the South. The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine students who attended segregated black high schools in Little Rock , the capital of the state of Arkansas. They each volunteered when
45878-453: Was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 (being one of only four players to receive all three honors), and was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. In 2009, the NBA renamed the NBA Finals MVP Award in his honor. In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell
46104-409: Was established in 1946 and three years later became the modern National Basketball Association . The NBA was slower to establish dominance of the sport than other sports in the United States, as it would not do so until 1976, when it absorbed four teams from the American Basketball Association . Professional basketball has the advantages of much smaller rosters than other professional sports, allowing
46330-454: Was founded in 1909. It fought to end race discrimination through litigation , education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), when the Warren Court ruled that segregation of public schools in the US was unconstitutional and, by implication, overturned the " separate but equal " doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. Following
46556-461: Was held in November and December in Melbourne , Australia. Avery Brundage , head of the International Olympic Committee , argued that Russell had already signed a professional contract and was no longer an amateur (as nominally required at the time), but Russell prevailed. He had the option to skip the tournament and play a full season for the Celtics, but he was determined to play in the Olympics. He later commented that he would have participated in
46782-417: Was instituted, each team had one "Designated Player" slot with a salary cap charge of $ 400,000, but no limit on actual salary paid. Since then, the number of Designated Players per team has increased to three, with each counting for $ 530,000 of cap room in 2019. The league's average salary was about $ 283,000 per year in 2015, but the median salary was then closer to $ 110,000. MLS' minimum player salary in 2019
47008-476: Was later called one of the most important trades in the history of North American sports. Due to his Olympic commitment, Russell could not join the Celtics for the 1956–57 NBA season until December. The 1956–57 Boston Celtics season saw the debut of a starting lineup made up of five future Hall-of-Famers: center Russell, forwards Heinsohn and Frank Ramsey , and guards Bill Sharman and Bob Cousy . Russell's first Celtics game came on December 22, 1956, against
47234-437: Was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the U.S. as a result of white race riots against blacks that took place in more than three dozen cities. Urban problems such as crime and disease were blamed on the large influx of Southern blacks to cities in the north and west, based on stereotypes of rural southern African-Americans. Overall, blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced systemic discrimination in
47460-412: Was of him, being coach of an organization in which blacks and whites coexisted in harmony. In the 1967–68 NBA season , the 34-year-old Russell averaged 12.5 points per game and 18.6 rebounds per game, the latter of which was good enough for the third-highest average in the league. In the Eastern Division finals of the 1968 NBA playoffs , the Philadelphia 76ers had the better record than Boston and were
47686-408: Was often defended by Celtics backup center Wayne Embry , the press speculated that Russell was worn down. Prior to Game 5, no NBA team had ever come back from a 3–1 deficit. The Celtics rallied back, winning Game 5 122–104 and Game 6 114–106, powered by a spirited Havlicek and helped by a terrible Sixers shooting slump. In Game 7, 15,202 Philadelphia fans witnessed a home-team 100–96 defeat, making it
47912-662: Was often supported by courts, including by the Supreme Court in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , which upheld the doctrine of separate but equal . At the culmination of a legal strategy pursued by African Americans, in 1954 the Supreme Court struck down the underpinnings of laws that allowed racial discrimination as unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education . The Warren Court made further pro-civil rights rulings in cases such as Browder v. Gayle (1956) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), banning segregation in public schools and public transport, and striking down all state laws against interracial marriage . Following
48138-416: Was once refused service at a gas station until the staff had taken care of all the white customers first. When he attempted to leave and find a different station, the attendant stuck a shotgun in his face and threatened to kill him if he did not stay and wait his turn. In another incident, Russell's mother was walking outside in a fancy dress when a white policeman accosted her. He told her to go home and remove
48364-499: Was over, they had a Northern California banquet, and they picked another center as Player of the Year in Northern California. Well, that let me know that if I were to accept these as the final judges of my career I would die a bitter old man." He is said to have made a conscious decision to put the team first and foremost, and not worry about individual achievements. On the court, Russell's experiences were far more pleasant. He led USF to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 , including
48590-490: Was playwright Charlie L. Russell . During his early years Russell struggled to develop his skills as a basketball player. Although he was a good runner and jumper and had large hands, he did not understand the game and was cut from the team at Herbert Hoover Junior High School. As a freshman at McClymonds High School in Oakland, Russell was almost cut again; as he saw Russell's raw athletic potential, coach George Powles encouraged him to work on his fundamentals. After Russell
48816-406: Was said to be a "stern, hard man" who initially worked in a paper factory as a janitor, which was what sports journalist John Taylor called a typical "Negro Job"—low-paid and not intellectually challenging. When World War II broke out, the elder Russell became a truck driver. Russell was closer to his mother Katie than to his father, and he received a major emotional blow when she suddenly died when he
49042-411: Was said to have won the "pennant;" the two pennant winners met after the end of the regular season in the World Series. The winner of at least four games (out of a possible seven) was the champion for that year. This arrangement still holds today, although the leagues are now subdivided and pennants are decided in post-season playoff series between the winners of each division. Baseball became popular in
49268-444: Was so tight that George Halas carried equipment, wrote press releases, sold tickets, taped ankles, played and coached for the Decatur club. As opposed to today's standard 17-game schedule, clubs in 1920 scheduled their own opponents and could play non-league and even college squads that counted toward their records. With no established guidelines, the number of games played—and the quality of opponents scheduled—by APFA teams varied, and
49494-400: Was strictly an amateur sport throughout the 19th and most of the 20th century. In 1995, the game's international administrators allowed professionals to participate for the first time. The related sport of rugby league evolved directly out of rugby union's opposition to player payments; it has allowed professionalism in its game since its inception in 1895. Professional athleticism has been
49720-410: Was suppressed. The Republican lily-white movement also gained strength by excluding blacks. Until 1965, the " Solid South " was a one-party system under the white Democrats. Excepting the previously noted historic Unionist strongholds the Democratic Party nomination was tantamount to election for state and local office. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington , president of
49946-457: Was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1955, averaging 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game . Besides basketball, Russell represented USF in track and field events. He was a standout in the high jump and according to Track & Field News was ranked the seventh-best high-jumper in the world in 1956, his graduation year, despite not competing in Olympic high-jump competition. That year, Russell won high jump titles at
50172-403: Was the $ 14 million paid to former Swedish international Zlatan Ibrahimović , who played for the LA Galaxy in that season. Ibrahimović was signed to his 2019 contract under MLS' Designated Player Rule , which was instituted in 2007 for the express purpose of attracting international stars. Now-retired English star David Beckham was the first player signed under its provisions. When the rule
50398-455: Was their sixth consecutive and seventh title in Russell's eight years with the team, a streak unreached in any U.S. professional sports league. Russell later called it the best team of his era and the best defense of all time. In the 1964–65 NBA season , the Celtics won a league-record 62 games and Russell averaged 14.1 points and 24.1 rebounds per game, winning his second consecutive rebounding title and his fifth MVP award. On March 11, 1965, in
50624-424: Was to preserve the peace, deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the black students from entering the school. Faubus defied federal court orders, whereupon President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened. He federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent them home. Then he sent in an elite Army unit to escort the students to school and protect them between classes during the 1957–58 school year. In class, however,
50850-533: Was told back then that you had to stay flatfooted at all times to react quickly. When I started to jump to make defensive plays and to block shots , I was initially corrected, but I stuck with it, and it paid off." In an autobiographical account, Russell said that while on a California High School All-Stars tour, he became obsessed with studying and memorizing other players' moves, e.g., footwork such as which foot they moved first on which play, as preparation for defending against them, which included practicing in front of
51076-506: Was unconstitutional. The federal government filed a friend of the court brief in the case urging the justices to consider the effect that segregation had on America's image in the Cold War . Secretary of State Dean Acheson was quoted in the brief stating that "The United States is under constant attack in the foreign press, over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various practices of discrimination in this country." The following year, in
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