Introduction: On August 12, 2022, the NBA officially announced that it will permanently retire the No. 6 jersey in the league next season to commemorate the 88-year-old NBA star Bill Russell who died of illness on July 31, 2022. Bill Russell also became the first player in history to have his individual jersey retired from the league. Why did Bill Russell enjoy such a special award? Today we're going to talk about this great NBA star: Bill Russell.
1 Lord of the Rings
In the NBA, the world's highest level of basketball hall, those stars who are sought after by thousands of fans are like the heroes who cross the rivers and lakes and fight the sword, and almost everyone has their own nicknames, such as the flyer Jordan, the black Mamba Kobi, the little emperor James, the big shark O'Neal and so on.
Bill Russell is no exception, known worldwide as the Lord of the Rings. The nickname has nothing to do with the British writer Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or the movie The Lord of the Rings, and Russell is known as the Lord of the Rings because of the fact that during his thirteen-year career, he led the Boston Celtics to eleven championships, including his eight-game title triumph from 1958 to 1966, which he never saw before, and two championships as a player and coach at the end of his career. In all, Bill Russell alone has eleven championship rings.
The championship ring is the yearning of all NBA players, because the championship ring is a symbol of the championship. But there is only one champion, in the NBA, a place where talents gather, the difficulty of winning the championship can be imagined, and many excellent athletes can not get a championship ring in their lifetime. So The Lord of the Rings is the most appropriate description of Bill Russell, and this nickname also fully demonstrates Russell's excellence as a basketball player.
As for Bill Russell's other accolades in basketball, we won't go into detail, because Bill Russell's greatness is not limited to basketball.
2 great, not just about basketball
Racial discrimination is a long-standing problem in the United States, and it was in the 1950s that Bill Russell entered the NBA in the 1950s, when racial discrimination was at its worst. No matter how unstoppable he was on the court and how high his achievements were, Russell, as a black man, would still be treated unfairly in every way, especially in Boston, one of the most racially discriminated cities in the United States at that time. But in the face of discrimination and injustice, Russell did not choose to back down, but chose to speak out firmly for the human rights of blacks.
In 1961, Russell launched a strike because his teammates were turned away by a local bar and coffee shop. In addition, in the face of Boston fans shouting their in the stands and asking him for autographs after the game, Russell refused and confessed that he was playing for the Celtics, not for the city of Boston. His remarks will no doubt irritate the nerves of the racists, who falsely accuse Russell of being the real racists. Some extreme Boston fans, even after Russell retired, broke into Russell's home, smashed Russell's trophy and defecated openly in his home. And Russell unceremoniously said that Boston was a "racist flea market."
After the murder of Medgar Evers, a prominent American human rights activist in 1963, Bill Russell was determined to do something, so he contacted Charles Evers, the brother of Medgar Evers. Then he went to Mississippi, where Russell opened a basketball camp where there were black children and children from several white families, and Russell used the sports he did best to bring black children closer to white children. In the eyes of extremists who believe that white supremacy is a naked provocation, Russell is at risk of being attacked by these extremists at any time. But Russell did not flinch, just like on the court, at this moment, he is still unstoppable.
3 achievements and success, followed by others
On February 14, 2009, in recognition of Bill Russell's contributions to the development of basketball, the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Trophy was officially named after Bill Russell. After this, the elderly NBA celebrity appeared more in front of the world, and through speeches and other ways to raise funds, set up a foundation, contribute to charity In 2011, 77-year-old Bill Russell visited the White House at the invitation of Obama, the first black president in American history, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom here. This is a unique moment in American history.
Today, the NBA is the sports league with the closest ties to black practice in the United States, and more and more black players, like Bill Russell, are speaking out for human rights.
Conclusion: It has been said that the end of a person's life does not lie in the moment when he stops breathing, but in the moment when he is forgotten by all. And the future NBA will never have the No. 6 jersey again, because this number will be remembered and remembered along with its owner, Bill Russell.