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Bill Russell, NBA legend and Boston Celtics great, dies aged 88

thenationalnews.com

Bill Russell, 11-time NBA champion and the first black coach for any US professional sports team, has died. “Bill Russell, the most prolific winner in American sports history, passed away peacefully today at age 88, with his wife, Jeannine, by his side,” his family said in a statement.

During his prolific NBA career with the Boston Celtics, Russell won 11 championships, was named to the All-Star team 12 times and was named the league's most valuable player five times.

He won a gold medal for the US during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Bill Russell: 11-time NBA champion. Five-time MVP.

Member of the 25, 50, 75 Greatest Ever Anniversary teams. Two-time NCAA champion. Olympic Gold Medalist. And two NBA championships as the first Black head coach in North American pro sports history.

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Bill Russell’s life and legacy were unlike any other in NBA history: 11-time NBA champion, twice as a player/coach (the first Black head coach in any major American professional sport), someone who changed the game using his athleticism and high IQ on defense, but more important than all that he was a civil rights icon who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and stood up to racism in Boston and around the nation at the height of the civil rights movement.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) will retire the number 6 jersey worn by Boston Celtics great and civil rights icon Bill Russell, who died late last month, the league said on Thursday.
In his 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Boston Celtics, Bill Russell, who has died aged 88, won 11 championships, a record unmatched in team sports. But his place as one of the most influential American athletes of the 20th century, behind only Muhammad Ali and perhaps the baseball player Jackie Robinson, is based on more than his implacable will to win, and his intelligence in allying his skills to his teammates’ to facilitate that process.

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