Thread by @readjack

Happy 87th Birthday to a great man and leader and the greatest winner American team sports have ever seen. Salute to you, @RealBillRussell!

Nobody wins like Bill Russell.

🏆🏆'55-'56 NCAA champ
🥇'56 Olympic gold
#2 overall pick, 1956
🏆'57 NBA CHAMP
❌'58 NBA Finals runner-up
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 '59-'66 NBA CHAMP
Replaces Red Auerbach as head coach while still playing
❌'67 East finals
🏆🏆 '68-'69 CHAMP

Retires

To win the way Bill Russell won, you have to LOVE winning and hate losing. The pursuit of victory must never dim. The joy of victory must never fade. Look at these three celebrating their 7th title together. They look like they've only won their first.

https://twitter.com/readjack/status/1331586930753069056

What was Bill Russell like as a player? Here is Wilt Chamberlain explaining why Russell is the greatest center ever, including over himself.

https://twitter.com/readjack/status/1227728907551506432

Want to understand Russell's greatness and impact? Read his '69 All-Star blurb, his final season:

* "The most valuable player in NBA history"
* "With money on the line perhaps best in game"
* "One of the greatest psychological influences in history of sports"

Bill Russell won five NBA MVP awards and did so when players voted for the award. He won in 1962, probably the toughest MVP race in league history. This was the year Wilt scored 100 and averaged 50-26, Oscar averaged a 31-point triple double and Elgin had 38-19 while in the Army.

Bill Russell, Most Valuable.

In 2013, I had the honor of interviewing @kaj33. Here is an excerpt I've never published. We were talking about NBA history and I said I was showing my @truestardotlife students Dream Team clips. Kareem told me to show them @RealBillRussell clips — one in particular: "Block Art."

Here is "Bill Russell, Block Art" — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's personal favorite youtube clip of the great Bill Russell.

Full:

https://twitter.com/readjack/status/1360471438738784258

Here is another unpublished excerpt from my 2013 interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in which he talks about how he emulated Bill Russell on the court.

"I wanted to be like Bill Russell, and have people worried about where I was on the court at all time."

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

https://twitter.com/realbillrussell/status/1360132309035278336

The game is the game.