Bill Russell was the NBA’s king of championship rings – and far more important matters

If a person can somehow be widely adored while being simultaneously underappreciated, they must be truly great. The late NBA legend Bill Russell was a truly great person.

In the time since Russell’s death was announced by his family on Sunday, tributes have poured in from around the world. Among them was an eloquent eulogy from former US president Barack Obama in which he writes, “As tall as Bill Russell stood, his legacy rises far higher –both as a player and as a person.” Obama would know: he presented Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. And yet, despite the outpouring of kind words in his memory, Russell may still be the most underappreciated icon in NBA history.

Before recognizing his wider impact, it’s worth laying out Russell’s basketball credentials. To begin with, Russell is the winningest player in NBA history and it’s not even really close. During his 13 seasons in the league, he led the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA championships, including eight consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966. No other team has ever won more than three consecutively.

Russell, of course, would never claim that he won those championships – the Celtics won them. He was the consummate team player who took pride in performing the glamourless but productive duties which ultimately won games. Russell once wrote, “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.” Even opponents seemed to notice how nice it looked to play with Russell: he was named the regular-season MVP five times during the era in which the award was determined by players’ votes.

Russell’s fortes were his rebounding and (especially) his defense. He played in an era before Defensive Player of the Year awards