Retired Number 6 (Bill Russell)

Lore & Background

Russell led the San Francisco Dons to consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, 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 him one of only eight players in the history of men's basketball to achieve the Triple Crown. After being chosen by the St. Louis Hawks with the second overall pick in the 1956 NBA draft, he was traded to the Boston Celtics for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan.

With Russell as their starting center and defensive anchor, the Celtics won their first NBA championship in 1957 and won an NBA record eight consecutive championships from 1959 to 1966. He was a five-time NBA MVP and a 12-time NBA All-Star. 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. He was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA.

During his final three seasons (1966–1969), he served as player-coach, becoming the first black NBA coach to win a championship. He ended his playing career after helping the Celtics win the 1969 NBA championship.

Reader's Guide

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 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 the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2021, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a second time for 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 the third person in North American major professional sports to have their jersey number retired league-wide, behind Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky.

Did You Know?

• Russell was born on February 12, 1934, in West Monroe, Louisiana.
• He was cut from his junior high school basketball team and almost cut again as a freshman in high school.
• Russell's high school basketball teammate was future Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.
• Russell served as head coach and general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics from 1973 to 1977 and also coached the Sacramento Kings from 1987 to 1988.