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[Larry Bird] If it weren't for Bill Russell
winning all them championships,
would anybody be talking about the Boston Celtics? No.
Are you kidding? It's no conversation.
He was the greatest and most dominant winner
we've ever seen in the history of basketball.
And you know what's on his hands? More rings than fingers.
Eleven rings, that's… [laughs] Who else can live up to that?
We're never gonna see a winner like that again.
He would beat God. He's the Big Bang.
[Corey Stoll] He won 11 championships, two as a player-coach.
Five times, he was voted the Most Valuable Player in the NBA.
Bill Russell's legacy, pioneer of the game.
He created the most awesome American sports dynasty
that's ever existed.
Everybody in the league, when they think of Bill Russell,
they think about winning.
He could win a game without scoring. Nobody else could do that.
He's the smartest player that ever played the game.
Bill terrorized anybody that tried to come in the lane and shoot.
[Walt Frazier] Because of Russell, I don't like green, Boston clam chowder…
[laughs] …I don't like anything Boston.
[Stoll] Every team and every player in the league
tried to bring down the dynasty.
Only one ever came close.
It was a great duel and a great matchup.
These were two mythical beasts, like big titans fighting for the ring.
[Chris Paul] They were epic battles, and that's what we came to see.
Chamberlain towers over him,
Chamberlain dominates every single player he comes across, anywhere.
But he didn't have the numbers that count, and that was winning championships.
[crowd applauding]
[Barack Obama] This year's Medal of Freedom recipients
reveal the best of who we are
and who we aspire to be.
More than any athlete of his era,
Bill Russell came to define the word "winner."
Bill Russell, the man, is someone who stood up
for the rights and dignity of all men.
He marched with King.
He stood by Ali.
He made possible the success of so many who would follow.
A good thing about leaders is they lead by example.
He changed a lot of rules, and it broke a lot of barriers.
Bill was fighting for something much bigger,
and that was to belong on an equal playing field
as white America.
[rousing music playing]
[soft music playing]
[reporter] Earlier today, it was announced
that Boston Celtics basketball legend Bill Russell died at the age of 88.
[reporter 2] Tonight, he is being remembered
as an athlete and activist.
[reporter 3] Bill's actions on and off the court
through the course of his life
helped to shape generations of players for the better,
and for that, we are forever grateful.
[reporter 4] We're at the statue which was unveiled in 2013.
People have been stopping by here today, sharing stories,
really helping paint a picture of Russell's impact.
[Oscar Robertson] When Bill passed, I couldn't believe it.
But I thought back on all the great things he's done in his life
and the contributions he's made to mankind.
That's what it was all about.
[Stoll] Seven months before his passing,
Russell auctioned off his collection of memorabilia.
[auctioneer chattering faintly]
[reporter] They're all part of the 87-year-old's personal collection,
including championship rings, MVP trophies, and game-worn jerseys.
[reporter 2] A portion of the proceeds will go to Russell's charity MENTOR,
an organization dedicated to his lifelong commitment
to ensuring opportunity for all young people.
I'd like some of that collection. He's been great to me all these years.
He's a--
What he's done for civil rights in this country is unmatched.
To be able to have all 11 of his rings, nobody's outbidding me on that one.
I'd probably actually want a manuscript of one of his books, though,
like an original rough draft of Second Wind.
That'd be something special too.
950,000, online buyer.
Third and last call.
-[gavel bangs] -Sold, $950,000, online buyer.
[chuckling]
[Jeffrey Wright] A basketball game starts and ends with a clock,
and so does a basketball career.
[intriguing music playing]
[Wright] Outside of games, however,
you don't often find handy reference points
to tell you where events begin and end.
Usually, it depends on where you started from
and your point of view.
[music fades]
["Little Bitty Pretty One" by Thurston Harris playing]
[Stoll] In December 1956,
Bill and Rose Russell landed at Boston's Logan Airport.
They'd been married less than two weeks.
[Bill Russell] When I joined the Celtics, I'd never been to Boston,
ever, until I arrived there to sign with them.
[Stoll] Bill was a national champion in college
and an Olympic gold medal winner.
Now, Celtics fans hoped Bill could bring a championship to their city.
["Little Bitty Pretty One" continues]
♪ Little bitty pretty one Come on and talk-a to me ♪
♪ Lovey dovey lovey one Come sit down on my knee… ♪
[Russell] I was 22 years old, and I had not started to shave,
so I had this little goatee, we called it.
And so the first thing they asked me at the first press conference,
"When you gonna shave the beard?"
I'd never thought about it. Finally, I said, "Okay, tell you what."
"After the Celtics win their first championship,
then I'll shave the beard."
[expectant music playing]
[Auerbach] People thought, from the Olympics,
he would be in great shape, but he was in miserable shape.
He said, "I never knew this pro ball would be like that. It's really rough."
[Russell] I'd missed the first third of the season,
and I was basically out of shape
because it had been a month since I'd touched a basketball.
[Wright] I came into the league without much confidence as a shooter.
Many of my detractors said I could never make it in pro ball
because I was a bad shot from more than three feet out.
So naturally, the one thing I wanted to do was to stand outside and shoot.
I missed almost all of them, of course. When I did, people shook their heads
and said, "See what I mean? He can't play."
[spectators] Aw!
[Stoll] The Boston press questioned Russell's value to the team,
comparing his early production to another rookie,
the all-time leading scorer at Holy Cross, Tommy Heinsohn.
[Tom Heinsohn] The press didn't know what Russell was about.
People didn't think Bill Russell was gonna be a factor in the NBA.
He'd shoot a layup over the backboard. He was so inept offensively
that you could never picture what Russell could bring to a ball club.
[Stoll] There would be no respite for Russell on road games.
[Wright] There was a full house in Kiel Auditorium
on that night in December 1956.
The ball went up, and Bob Pettit of the Hawks and I jumped for it.
"Coon!" "Go back to Africa, you baboon!"
"Watch out, Pettit, you'll get covered with chocolate."
There was no doubt who the fans were yelling at.
I was the only Negro athlete on either team.
[unsettling music playing]
[Russell] After about five games, I really and seriously doubted my ability.
And I came home, and I told Rose, "I think we better get our bags ready,
'cause we won't be here very long."
[music fades]
[Stoll] Russell had moved to Boston from the Bay Area.
He went to high school in West Oakland
and attended the University of San Francisco,
the only college to offer him a basketball scholarship.
[rhythmic music playing]
[Wright] To those of us in West Oakland,
San Francisco was an exotic land.
The Bay Bridge spanned a cultural gap so wide
that the two sides had a language barrier.
I joked that I never knew the word "mother" could be used by itself
until I got to San Francisco.
And instantly, I found myself in a sea of white people.
[Russell] I walked into the rec hall. One of the freshmen walks up and says,
"Hey, boy, what do they call you?"
I said, "My name is William Russell." He said, "I'll give you a nickname."
I said, "If you do, I'll knock the hell out of you."
When I went to USF, you got maybe five Black students,
period.
And my roommate was a guy named K.C. Jones.
[music fades]
[Stoll] Bill and K.C. bonded over basketball
and helped each other make ends meet off the court.
[K.C. Jones] We didn't have that much to wear in college, the two of us.
You know, I was making $30 a month, right?
For cutting the grass or whatever it was. And Russell had nothing.
Now, we would use-- We would wear each other's underwear.
Right? That was the only thing that could fit both of us.
[funk music playing]
[Stoll] Russell decided to test his athleticism
in another sport as a walk-on.
[Wright] During the summer, I decided to go out for track.
Actually, I decided for a dual reason.
Only varsity lettermen received a button-down sweater.
I needed a button-down sweater.
Second reason was that I like to run and jump.
He decided to go for track almost as a lark,
and he just started high-jumping. He had awkward form,
jumping face-first over the bar.
[K.C. Jones] He did it different than anyone else.
He'd go back 50 yards.
And he'd take off slow and build up speed.
Now he's doing 100 miles an hour and make the jump.
[Goudsouzian] He found himself jumping 6'7", 6'8".
Turns out he was almost a world-class high jumper from the get-go.
[Stoll] When he tried to bring that high-jumping prowess
to the basketball court, his coaches were not having it.
[music fades]
[Russell] We would play at Cal Berkeley.
Their center was a preseason All-American.
The first five shots he took, I blocked.
Nobody in the building had ever seen anything like that.
So they called time-out, so we get into our huddle,
and my coach says, "You can't play defense like that."
"A good defensive player never leaves his feet."
"You're jumping to block shots." I can't play that way.
So I go back out, and I try it,
and the guy shoots layups three times in a row.
So I went back to playing the way I knew how.
[exciting music playing]
[commentator] Russell, 6'10", bats it away just like that.
[Bob Ryan] Bill Russell literally invented modern defensive basketball.
He changed the game from a horizontal game,
played by mostly landlocked Caucasians, into the game that we know today.
The thing that Bill did, and you see a lot on tape,
is he didn't just swat it to embarrass the guy out of bounds.
He tried to keep it in play because it's just like a rebound.
The offense is on the outside, defense is on in.
If he could get his hand on it, one of his teammates
could get to the ball faster. That's what led to fast breaks.
[Earvin Johnson] His anticipation was off the charts.
He would go up to block it,
and either he's going to block the shot,
or he's gonna make you shoot a crazy shot
or an off-balance shot or a shot that you can't make.
[Stoll] Russell's defensive play made the USF Dons unbeatable.
[commentator] He's up for a shot. Brother, it's good.
The Dons take it away.
[Stoll] Bill Russell's Dons won 55 games in a row
and back-to-back NCAA championships.
[commentator] Bill Russell is cited as the Most Valuable Player.
-[people cheering and whistling] -[music fades]
Just watching him play
and watching him intimidate whole teams of guys in college,
it was so special.
And he was the only reason why… [laughing]
…why that team won.
But the kinds of awards and things that should have gone his way
did not.
[Russell] My junior year in college,
I averaged over 20 points and 20 rebounds a game.
I was blocking at least 15 shots a game.
I was the MVP at the championships.
I went home, to the Northern California banquet,
and they picked another player as player of the year.
As far as I could see, his only qualification was he was blond.
They knew how shaky it was.
So they told my coach to tell me, "Get up and say a couple of remarks
about 'Congratulations to this kid. I hope I can win it next year.'"
I said, "I'm not doing anything like that."
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" by The Roots playing]
[William Rhoden] To win the National Championship back-to-back
was phenomenal.
But I think that people did not like the fact
that there were three Black folks starting at San Francisco.
They'd go places and would not be allowed
to check into hotels and eat in restaurants.
What actually happened was, I left the hotel,
and I went to a restaurant down the street.
I said, "Let me get something to eat."
He said I could, but I'd have to eat in the kitchen.
So I refused, and I went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
[Wright] In 1955, two events occurred that made a lifelong impression on me.
A 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till was murdered by two white men
for a supposed affront to a white woman.
His mother insisted that his casket be open at the funeral,
so the world could see the brutality of what had been done to her son.
That same year, Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress,
was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white rider
on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
The time had come to not take it anymore.
I had had enough, and this was truly the end.
[Isiah Thomas] Being a Black teenager in the '50s,
you know, those times had to be extremely, extremely difficult.
But yet,
you put all that aside,
and you still go out on the floor and perform at a very, very high level.
[Wright] I decided that I was going to be a great basketball player.
Everything inside me poured itself into that decision.
All the anger and wonder joined together with one purpose.
[blues music playing]
[Goudsouzian] Bill Russell grew up in the Jim Crow South.
He was a child in the 1930s in Monroe, Louisiana.
The patterns of the Jim Crow South included disenfranchising Black people,
stripping them of the right to vote, the physical segregation of spaces.
It included violence, including lynching.
Jim Crow was constantly trying to reinforce to African Americans
that they were second-class citizens.
[Russell] I was aware that I lived in a totally, completely segregated place.
I think of my life, especially when I was young,
as a very sheltered life.
My folks always made sure they kept me out of harm's way.
My father knew firsthand about slavery.
I mean, he's one generation removed.
People in his family were slaves.
Slavery is the ultimate form of disrespect,
and so my father made sure that he was never treated
in any way like a slave.
One of the things that was vitally important to him
was to live a life of dignity
so that his kids would be proud of him.
My father was working in this factory, and he asked for a raise.
The boss said, "We can't give you a raise, Charlie."
"If I give you a raise, you'd make as much as the white fellows,
and I can't pay you boys as much as I pay the white guys."
And he used the N-word to my father.
Just like it was… nothing.
So my father was at home that night,
and he was talking out loud, he says,
"You know, I'm gonna have to leave here because if I stay here…
either I'll kill one of them, or one of them will kill me."
[car engine starts]
[horn toots]
["Hill Stomp" by Robert Belfour playing]
[Russell] We migrated when I was nine years old.
We moved to California.
Remember, this is a nine-year-old kid.
This is the greatest adventure he could ever imagine.
Getting on a train.
Going someplace that you have no idea what it's gonna be like.
["Hill Stomp" continues playing]
[Wright] The whole idea of moving was a shock to my brother and me.
We weren't well-traveled.
I sat next to my mother in the colored section of the train
all the way to St. Louis.
And then, for the first time in our lives,
we could sit anywhere.
["Nitpickin'" by John Williams playing]
[Stoll] The Russells' move was part of a Great Migration
of Black Americans who left the Jim Crow South
to seek better opportunities during World War II.
[music fades]
[Lawrence O'Donnell] You know, Bill talks about arriving in California as immigrants
'cause they were coming from a different country,
and they had to learn the customs of this new country,
where you could drink out of the same water fountain,
you could sit anywhere you wanted to on the bus.
[Russell] My father and mother both worked in the shipyards.
The schools were integrated, and that was a real change.
I'd never seen a basketball or heard-- I didn't even know it existed.
The kids had gotten a backboard and hoop from somewhere.
I don't know where. I'm sure they didn't buy it. [chuckles]
So, I saw these guys playing basketball.
So I joined in. I was really, really not good.
When Bill got to Oakland, his mom took him by this building.
Um, Bill said it was a funny-looking building.
She said, "You're gonna spend a lot of time in there."
Bill said, "What are you talking about?" And she was pointing at a library.
They'd never had access to a library in Louisiana.
Black people weren't supposed to be reading.
[Russell] I'd go to the library and read. And I'd read this history book.
And this one passage said,
"The slaves in America were better off than they were as free people
where they came from."
And I found that astounding.
I was ten years old, and I said, "That cannot be."
Because every person on this planet wants to be free.
[gentle music playing]
[Wright] I had my own private world, and my most prized possession
was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
I went there almost every day.
I'd check out reproductions of paintings and take them home with me.
Prints of da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Those paintings held me spellbound.
I would study a Michelangelo for hours, trying to memorize each little detail.
It took me weeks before I was satisfied that I could close my eyes
and recreate anything resembling what I saw in the reproduction.
Then I would psych myself up for an acid test,
drawing the painting from memory.
-The result always frustrated me. -[music fades]
[Wright] School was just beginning in the fall of 1946
when I came home one day to find that my mother had gone into the hospital.
It was the flu, they said, nothing serious.
For the next two weeks whenever we went to visit her, she'd laugh
and talk about how she'd had the doctors all confused.
After one of those visits, Mr. Charlie woke us out of a sound sleep
and said, "Your mother died tonight."
I was 12, and she was gone.
[melancholy music playing]
[Jeannine Russell] When his mother passed, back in those days,
the natural thing was that their aunts
would take and raise the children.
His father said, "No, I'm taking them with me."
"I promised their mom," number one. And number two,
he was not going to let anyone else raise his children.
But for Bill, it was a hard time.
[Wright] I wasn't quite the same person.
I became a loner and an introvert.
I was held back by serious doubts
that I could ever become anything without my mother.
Everybody I encountered felt that there was something wrong with me.
Worse, I agreed with them.
I was clumsy at everything.
[music fades]
[Russell] When I got to junior high school,
we used to have a homeroom league,
where each homeroom would play a 15-minute game at lunchtime,
and I was a substitute on the homeroom team.
[Russell laughs]
[Stephen Curry] I don't think anybody knew what type of player he was gonna be.
I don't even think he knew what type of player he was gonna be.
He was blessed with physical attributes that he didn't understand what he had
and how to harness it all.
[Russell] I got cut from the junior varsity in the 11th grade.
The varsity coach, who had been my homeroom teacher
in junior high school, says, "I'm glad you got cut,
'cause today, you can come out for the varsity."
[Stoll] Coach George Powles saw promise in Bill's playing,
even before Bill did.
I can remember telling Bill
to try to play all the ball he could during the summer,
because he was going to be first-string center the following season,
starting in October.
[expectant music playing]
He said, "Maybe I could play at the Boys Club."
And I… I gave him a silver dollar,
and it had to be the best dollar a guy ever spent
because he got in that Boys Club for the summer for a dollar
and played basketball all the time.
[Russell] The game turned serious, I guess, my senior year in high school.
About halfway through the season,
I started to see things and notice things.
[Wright] I suddenly knew I could do on the basketball court
what I had not been able to do with paintings.
[intriguing music playing]
I was sitting with my eyes closed watching plays in my head.
I was in my own private basketball laboratory,
making blueprints for myself.
I blocked a lot of shots.
It was fun to carry out some of the designs I had made up.
Occasionally, I'd get it right on the first go.
To me, that was like being able to slap a Michelangelo right on the canvas.
I'd say to myself, "I've got it!"
[Curry] It's such a cool concept to think about
because he could just see a play one time
and visualize it in his head over and over and over again
before he actually went out and tried it,
and it became second nature before he put the work in.
[Stoll] Russell turned those defensive designs
into blueprints for college championships
and then rolled them out on the world stage
with the 1956 US men's Olympic team.
[presenter] Here is everybody's All-American.
You went through the season undefeated,
and now you've been picked for the Olympic squad.
Are you looking forward to the Olympic trip if you make the team?
[Russell] I've been looking forward to it as long as I can remember.
[exciting music playing]
[Russell] At that time, the Olympic movement was about competing.
And it didn't make a difference where the athlete was from.
[Stoll] Russell's dynamic defense led the Americans to a gold medal victory
over the Soviet team.
One of the really big thrills of winning a gold medal,
for that one brief moment,
you know that you're the best on the planet.
And that's… that's something that you can… can really be proud of.
[Stoll] With two college championships and a gold medal,
Bill was ready to go pro.
[Rhoden] People don't realize that now, man, but the NBA was virtually lily-white.
If you look at those early pictures, it was a predominantly white league.
[Bill McSweeny] The unwritten quota system was you could have one Black player.
Then as the league went on, you could have two Black players.
One, because they had to room together anyway, but no more.
[Russell] The first Black player drafted in the NBA
was a guy named Chuck Cooper from Duquesne,
and that decision came from the coach of the Boston Celtics, Red Auerbach.
[Sanders] Auerbach did not care about the color situation.
He knew that the name of the game is to win,
and he had to make the necessary moves in order to win the games.
That means putting together the right team with the best players.
[upbeat music playing]
[Ryan] The Boston Celtics in the '50s were a perennial bridesmaids team.
They were a good offensive team
with the likes of Bill Sharman and Bob Cousy,
the preeminent backcourt of the '50s,
but still it didn't translate into winning a championship.
[Stoll] Bob Cousy was one of the first NBA superstars.
[Ryan] If you stopped the average man on the street in America in the '50s,
and you said, "Okay, here's a spot quiz. Name a basketball player,"
more people would say Bob Cousy than anybody else.
[commentator] Cousy moves off the screen. The shot is sensational.
[Bob Cousy] I was able to do some unorthodox things,
and I guess I had the imagination to complement that,
to do stuff that wasn't being done by anyone else.
They called me "Mr. Basketball," "the Houdini of the Hardwood."
[Stoll] The Celtics had an electrifying offense,
but the team played weak defense and struggled on the glass.
[Sanders] Possession was the key.
If you could get the rebounds,
you could run just about anything out there on the court.
[Cousy] Arnold had come to me a year before, the only time he did that,
and said, "There's a guy out in California. If we can get him,
-he's the answer to all our problems." -[music fades]
There was no question in my mind that we needed Bill Russell.
He had this quick reaction, this great reflex,
and the long arms. It was awesome.
-[intriguing music playing] -[Stoll] Getting Russell wasn't easy.
The first draft pick belonged to the Rochester Royals.
The Celtics had the seventh draft pick,
so Red used some trades to move up to the second spot.
But he wasn't done.
Red Auerbach, always finding an angle, a way to get what he wanted,
he went to the owner of the Celtics, Walter Brown,
who was a major stockholder in the Ice Capades,
which was an incredibly successful form of entertainment
that could sell out an arena anywhere.
Walter Brown, nudged by Red Auerbach, went to the owner of the Rochester Royals
and said, "I tell you what I'm gonna do for you."
"We'll send you the Ice Capades for as many shows as you want.
All you have to do is agree not to draft Bill Russell
with the number one pick."
And Bill Russell was traded for the Ice Capades.
And that was all Red Auerbach's doing.
[Stoll] Red had managed to acquire Russell,
but as the rookie struggled to meet expectations,
Russell himself started to question his fit with the team,
until one pregame meeting with Red.
[Russell] He says to me, "Come to the game early."
"I want to talk to you about something."
So, we're sitting in Boston Garden,
and the guys are out putting the floor up and the baskets up and all that,
and he says, "I want to tell you something."
"I don't have any idea and don't care how many points you make."
"I just want you to help us win ball games."
"Well," I said, "Your salary is going to be determined by these two eyes."
Not that you should give up a shot or anything like that,
but don't worry about any stats.
Just worry, "Did we win, or did we lose?"
That's where it's at.
[Russell] Now, that relieved a lot of pressure
off of he and I, and after that,
Red began to see what kind of impact I could have
with rebounding and defense.
[exciting music playing]
In the transition game, you need someone to control your defensive board,
to rebound effectively, and that's what Russ did.
[Russell] See, the key to fast break, is defensive rebounding and outlet pass.
[Cousy] When the ball would go up, I'd position myself off to one side,
the closest side, waiting to get his pass,
so I could get my ass downcourt and start the fast break
because I knew he was gonna get every rebound.
[Russell] The other team would shoot. By the time the jump shooter landed,
we were shooting a layup going the other way.
[exciting music continues]
[Bill Walton] His job was, get the rebound,
block the shots, deflect the passes,
and then turning it right around in the other direction
and letting the rest of the guys rush up the court
like the oncoming tide.
[spectators cheering]
Well, Bob, it must feel good,
being the greatest ballplayer in the game today,
to have a guy you know can get the ball. How does that feel to you?
Well, of course, most of the basketball fans
that have watched the Celtics play know our offense
has always been predicated on the fast break,
and we've never had a really big man to get that.
Even at this point, I think as far as rebounding, passing, defense,
there's no question as to the superiority of Russell.
[gentle music playing]
[Wright] I owe it all to my wife.
There were times I wondered, but not Rose. She never stopped talking to me.
After practice and even during practice breaks,
she'd encourage me.
She'd do the same thing after games at home.
The only time she couldn't was when we were on the road.
I really missed her pep talks then.
[church bells ringing]
[Wright] When I married Rose in 1956, I was 22, fresh from the Olympics,
and didn't have the slightest idea what I was doing.
I knew only that Rose accepted and cared about me,
apart from the basketball, which was a great breakthrough for me.
[Stoll] The Celtics finished on top in the Eastern Division
for the first time in team history.
[crowd cheering]
Now they would face the St. Louis Hawks for the championship.
[music fades]
[commentator] In Boston, a capacity crowd sees the NBA championship struggle
between the St. Louis Hawks and the Boston Celtics.
[exciting music playing]
Russell in the pivot.
It was a great series.
Bill Russell… the tougher the game, the better he played.
I went in for four layups. He blocked the first two,
and I missed the next two looking for him.
[music fades]
[Stoll] The series, and Russell's rookie year,
came down to the final minutes of game seven.
[Johnny Most] Late in the fourth quarter, game is tied up.
Russell drives right to left, lays it in. That breaks the tie!
Now Macauley with the ball, top of the circle.
Down low to Pettit, he drives, gets fouled by Russell.
He'll go to the line with a chance to tie up the ball game.
He's ready. He dips, he shoots. It's around the rim and in!
In that game, there were two of the greatest plays I've ever seen.
The first one, Russell made.
[Most] The game is tied, time is running out,
and downcourt come the Celtics. On the left, Cousy.
[Heinsohn] Cousy threw him a long court pass.
He had to catch it and stuff it
all at the same motion. He wasn't able to make the basket.
[Most] No good! Rebound to Martin. Martin up the middle of the court.
Now, they've got the ball, St. Louis,
and in one pass, got it to a guy who, in one dribble,
was gonna go for a layup and win the ball game.
And this guy Coleman was out in front of everybody.
[Most] Jack Coleman bruising down the lane,
and it's gonna be a breakaway.
I put my head down, and I was digging as hard as I could.
[commentator 1] Bill Russell coming down the floor.
[Heinsohn] And Russell went by me like a blur.
[Most] He lays it up. It's blocked by Russell!
What a play by Bill Russell!
[Russell] That would have given them the lead
with three or four seconds to go.
[Most] All right, it's 113-113 after one overtime of play…
The next great play was Alex Hannum.
With one second left, they called time-out.
[commentator 2] Jim Loscutoff sinks a foul.
The Celts lead by two, but the Hawks have time for one shot.
[Most] The Hawks huddle around player-coach Alex Hannum.
[Pettit] Hannum said, "I'll throw the ball the length of the court."
"I'll hit the backboard."
"Pettit, you go up and catch it and put it in. Make the…"
Well, he threw a perfect pass.
[Pettit] I went up and never came down. Just caught it and shot it in the air.
Son of a gun worked. Except I missed the shot.
[Most] And the ball game ends on that note!
And the Celtics win their first World Championship.
And for yours truly, the first one I've ever announced.
-[cheering] -[thrilling music playing]
[Russell] We were happy, our first championship.
The Red Sox hadn't won in years and years. The Bruins hadn't won.
The Patriots did not exist then.
And so after the game,
Red says, "Let's say we shave the beard off."
I'd forgotten about it till we got in the locker room,
and the trainer brought out the razor and shaving cream.
That night, I really became part of the team.
[music fades]
[cars honking]
[Stoll] Coming off a triumphant rookie year,
Bill and Rose decided it might be safe to put down roots in the Boston area.
They bought a house in the town of Reading.
Reading is a suburb of the city, relatively working-class, conservative.
Russell lived in Reading throughout his Celtics career,
but he never felt entirely settled and welcome there.
Sometimes he would complain about harassment from some locals.
They might be followed around town.
Vandals would tip trash cans around his home.
[tense music playing]
[Karen Russell] When I first moved to Reading, Massachusetts,
we were the first Black family in town.
Every time my dad would leave town,
the "raccoons" would come and knock over the garbage.
My mom would wake up in the morning, and there'd be garbage all over the yard.
My dad went to the police station and said, "When I'm out of town,
somebody's messing with my wife, knocking our garbage cans over."
They're like, "Well, we can't do anything about the 'raccoons.'"
[Russell] So, I went to the state government
and got a gun permit.
[Karen] And suddenly, the raccoons never came back.
[Goudsouzian] Boston was supposed to be a racially liberal city.
It had the reputation dating back to the 19th century
as the "Athens of America."
But what Russell found was this provincial culture,
where many working-class whites resented any Black presence.
Boston was
the least
liberal city in the NBA when I got there.
Not that he needed to go to Boston to experience racism.
This was the '50s in America.
[all chanting] …four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate!
Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate!
[Stoll] Russell tried to find solace from the nation's violent racial fissures,
not simply in playing the game, but in ritualizing winning.
[triumphant music playing]
[Stoll] The Celtics marched through the 1957-'58 season,
turning Russell's 22 rebounds per game into easy points.
They seemed poised to land another NBA title.
[music fades]
[spectators cheering]
Hi, basketball fans. It's Johnny Most high above courtside,
and welcome to the 1958 World Championship series
between the Hawks and the Celtics.
[Stoll] In the second half of game three, with the series tied,
Russell jumped to block a shot and fell wrong,
tearing tendons and chipping a bone in his ankle.
[tense music playing]
We didn't wish Bill any bad luck,
but I'm certain that we were not unhappy that he'd sprained his ankle. [laughs]
[Russell] I got a severe sprain, and I couldn't play in a couple of games.
[Stoll] Russell made it back for game six in St. Louis,
with the Celtics trailing three games to two,
but he was still hobbled by that bad ankle.
[commentator] Pettit in low.
Over Tom Heinsohn, good for two.
Pettit on a drive, and even Bill Russell can't stop him.
Macauley with the basketball. And it's all over!
The championship belongs to the St. Louis Hawks
behind Bob Pettit's 50 points.
[Russell] We lost in six games.
But we knew that was the difference between being poor and being broke.
See, being poor is a state of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation.
And we knew that was a very temporary situation.
So the next year, we've just got to go out and try to win as many games as possible.
We were all competitors, starting with Arnold.
[yelling] …carry the ball, Mendy! One time, huh?
[groans]
[Russell] Red was pretty intense.
[Cousy] He didn't want us to shake hands with the opponent before the game.
[laughs] We hated them!
Arnold maybe took it to the next level,
but he didn't want us to coexist,
other than to beat their ass.
[Stoll] That next year, in the 1958-'59 season,
the Celtics finished with the league's best record.
[Russell] We could play any style of basketball.
We could run with anybody.
We could pound it down in the half-court with anybody,
all with equal facility.
[music fades]
[Stoll] Red filled out the squad with a young team
that he hoped would build together.
["Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong playing]
[Wright] After the '57 draft, Red called me up and announced,
"I drafted Sam Jones out of North Carolina Central University."
"How about this guy, Russ? You think he can he do good for us?"
I said, "Who the hell is Sam Jones?" "He's a Schvartze."
That was colloquial Yiddish for a Black person.
"I thought you'd know about him."
I said, "Listen, Red, I don't know all of them."
Know him or not, though, there was no doubt that Sam Jones
was going to be a big-league basketball player.
[laughs] Sam just always seemed like an old man to me.
Sam Jones doesn't get the recognition that he deserves as a player.
Guys who understand the game know Sam was just clutch.
You don't know where he's going to go,
but you know he's gonna find a bank shot for you.
You didn't want to go up against him at all. [laughs]
[Russell] He'd never hesitate to take the shot, and he'd never miss.
[music fades]
[spectators cheering]
[Stoll] Red also made a move
to reunite Bill with his college roommate, K.C. Jones.
["Melting Pot" by The Roots playing]
[Walton] Reporters were always on Red's case about playing K.C.
They'd say, "What do you put him in for? He doesn't do anything for the team."
Red would hit on his cigar, blow the green smoke out,
and say, "Hey, K.C. Jones, the only thing I know
is that every time I put him in, our team goes ahead."
[commentator] Interception by K.C. Jones, and here come the Celtics.
[Russell] K.C., I think, was the best defensive guard I've ever seen.
["Melting Pot" continues]
[Stoll] Red fostered a team culture around players' quirks,
allowing them to be themselves.
He was building more than a winning franchise.
This was a band of brothers.
We were family, and we were fortunate enough
to keep that nucleus together.
[Russell] We rooted for each other, and we pulled for each other,
and we did everything we could to make each other successful.
He loved his teammates,
and in a lot of ways, they were a second family.
[Russell] We were affectionate towards each other.
The best way to be affectionate is to be humorous.
[Ryan] If you talk to people who know Bill Russell,
the first thing you think about is the cackle. It's a cackle.
[cackling]
[comical music playing]
[Monroe] You know, he's arrogant as can be.
You know, he's Bill Russell!
But he could also be that crazy guy who laughs and jokes with you
and has fun.
You could hear him cackling with that famous laugh of his.
His laugh was infectious, unique.
Genuine.
[all laughing]
It was like a… [mimics Russell cackling]
When I first heard that cackle, I said,
"Wha… Is he laughing at me or…"
"What's he doing?"
[cackling]
When you get him to laugh, you know you're in good shape.
[cackling]
[Russell] Between my laugh and my throwing up, Red used to say
I was gonna drive him out of basketball.
[music fades]
[Russell] Sometimes, I got to the game, and I just threw up.
For me, it was essential that I get nervous.
Certain people are so intense
that they have to find a way to release that intensity
in order for them to relax and perform.
After I did it, I was okay, and it looked worse than it sounded.
[cackling]
[funk music playing]
I remember one game we were warming up.
I said, "Gee, you know,
Russell forgot to vomit." So I called the team off the court.
I said, "Everyone back in the locker room."
I turned around, I said, "Russell, go vomit."
He went and vomited, and we went out, and we won.
We'd hear him go in, and we thought, "Thank God he went and threw up!"
Because we knew he was ready. He was going to have a giant game.
[music fades]
[Stoll] At the end of the '58-'59 season,
the Celtics had another shot at the championship.
[Springer] The first confrontation between the Celtics and Lakers
occurred in 1959
when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis, so that one's kind of forgotten,
but that was the beginning of the Celtic reign over the Lakers.
[commentator] Boston has won three in a row,
so this is do-or-die for the Lakers.
[Stoll] In game four, Russell kept everyone else off the glass,
securing 30 rebounds.
[commentator] Bob Cousy is off for the basket
as Boston puts on more pressure.
Celtics win 118 to 113.
Auerbach's team first to clean sweep the title playoffs.
[Stoll] The Celtics domination in the 1959 Finals
proved the team had truly arrived
and put Bill back on top as a champion.
[triumphant music playing]
[Russell] At that time, I was in love with my career.
I just loved it, absolutely every minute of it.
["I Love the Way You Love Me" by Marv Johnson playing]
♪ The sweet things you do to me Like holding my hand… ♪
[Russell] That was a marvelous, wonderful time for me.
♪ You always understand ♪
-♪ And I love the way you love ♪ -♪ I love the way you love ♪
♪ It makes me feel so fine ♪
♪ I love the way you love ♪
♪ Because I know you're mine, all mine ♪
♪ I'll never do you wrong I'll never make you cry ♪
♪ If you stop loving me I know that I'll just die ♪
♪ Because I love ♪
-♪ I love the way you love ♪ -♪ Yeah, it makes me feel ♪
-♪ It makes me feel so fine ♪ -♪ So fine ♪
-♪ And I love the way you love ♪ -♪ I love the way you love ♪
♪ Because I know you're mine, all mine ♪
♪ Folks tell me now and then… ♪
[Stoll] That year, the NBA's MVP award went not to Russell
but to Bob Pettit of the Hawks.
But in Boston,
it was becoming clear that Bill Russell was the most valuable Celtic.
[pensive music playing]
I always knew he was a good rebounder. I knew he was a good passer,
but I didn't know he was a leader.
A lot of people didn't know this, but he was so dedicated to winning
and to the team structure.
The bottom line was he was a winner.
And so, he felt that he should get a certain amount of respect
just based on what they were able to accomplish as a team.
Bob Cousy had been a leader, but there's no question who became the leader.
[Russell] Bob came there, you know, he was the star of the team.
He could have said, "Hey, listen, I'm the star."
But what he said was, "Let's do it."
-[interviewer] Together? -[Russell] Yeah.
[Cousy] I was the man when he got to Boston,
and then he became the man,
but the media didn't really give him the credit for being the man.
[Stoll] Before a road trip, Bob Cousy suffered a sprained ankle.
We go on a road trip. We play five games in a row.
Russell wanted to show he could do it without Cousy.
He must've blocked 9,000 shots. It was unbelievable.
[commentator] LaRusso goes up, and Russell blocked it!
[Auerbach] We win all five.
We come back into Boston. The headlines, "Will Cousy play tonight?"
["Dirty Water" by The Standells playing]
♪ I'm gonna tell you a story ♪
♪ I'm gonna tell you about my town ♪
[O'Donnell] Growing up in Boston,
this Russell-Cousy team
was the only winning professional sports
in my neighborhood.
♪ 'Cause I love that dirty water ♪
♪ Oh, Boston, you're my home… ♪
[Stoll] Celtic fandom grew, but appreciation of Bill did not.
[Ryan] Bill Russell did not get the full… uh, total approbation
he deserved in this town for the simple reason that he was Black.
It was just that simple.
[Russell] The writers were totally and completely disrespectful.
[Rhoden] When you had this all-white press,
with all its biases,
dealing with, particularly, this first and second wave of Black men,
it was… it was awful.
[Leigh Montville] There were some hardcore all-white guys
who used a lot those words in private.
And I'm sure that affected their writing in public. And it was nasty.
[Rhoden] "Black athletes were ignorant. Only thing they could do was play."
"They weren't intellectual. They could run and jump."
[tense music playing]
They referred to the balcony,
for instance, in Boston Garden as "N-word heaven."
You'd hear these things in the press box.
[Ryan] There aren't many Black players in the league yet.
It was a game of white guys and white writers and white audiences.
And this town was not "ready" for Bill.
His car broke down in a rainstorm, and people drove by.
Obviously, they knew who he was. He's Bill Russell, for goodness' sakes.
People were driving by and heckling him rather than stop to help him.
Imagine if Larry Bird's car broke down.
There would be a parking lot of people begging to help Larry.
[music fades]
[Stoll] If Russell encountered headwinds in the streets of Boston,
he was about to face a tempest on the court.
[reporter] Last season, the Celts won their second NBA championship,
but trouble is brewing for them.
[spectators cheering]
[reporter] Trouble in the form of Wilt Chamberlain,
who makes even Russell look short. Wilt the Stilt is 7'2".
[tense music playing]
Well, I was fortunate.
I started playing against those guys you call pros
back when I was in late junior high school and early high school.
So I used to try to beat them to death.
So I knew that I could probably do fairly well in the pros,
even at that early age.
[Dominique Wilkins] Wilt Chamberlain, probably one of the greatest athletes
that ever lived, in any sport.
This man was a super athlete
in a 7'2" body and 270 pounds.
[Zirin] Wilt Chamberlain was basically Shaq before Shaq,
if Shaq was also an Olympic-level athlete.
When you're seven foot, over 250 pounds,
I expect to see you in the post dominating.
[Paul] If there's no Wilt,
there's no Magic, no Bird, no MJ. There's none of that.
[music fades]
[Stoll] Wilt's first basketball job offer, though, wasn't with the NBA.
-["Sweet Georgia Brown" playing] -[man] With their new attraction,
the Harlem Globetrotters draw 20% more fans in 1958.
[man 2] The colorful famous troupe, founded by Abe Saperstein,
claims countless fans all over the earth.
[Chamberlain] When you're a kid, I mean a Black kid at that,
the Harlem Globetrotters are like heaven.
[Stoll] Wilt accepted his role as straight man to the Globetrotters antics.
[Chamberlain] They sent me a photostat copy of a check for $100,000.
They were offering me $100,000 to play with them on tour for six months.
Guys like yourself make that all the time, but me? Hey.
$100,000, I would have jumped off the Empire State Building.
["Sweet Georgia Brown" continues]
For my grandfather and his generation,
the Harlem Globetrotters were something to be proud of.
They came around. They toured the country. They always beat the Washington Generals.
But there's a critique among, especially, intellectual Black people
that these guys are clowns.
That, in fact, they're an extension of Mantan Moreland
and the other Black Sambo characters.
For a percentage of the Black audience, they go from being heroes
to actually undercutting Black achievement.
[Stoll] In 1956, Bill Russell had gotten his own lucrative offer
from the Globetrotters while he was still in college.
[George] The Trotters approached Bill Russell,
"You want to make money, come with us!"
Russell being Russell's like, "Oh, hell, no."
[Russell] My father said, "My son will never play for the Globetrotters."
"Because he's the best basketball player in the world."
"He is not a clown."
[George] "Why am I going to sign up when I'm an Olympic athlete?"
"I'm a winner."
"I don't need to do this to validate myself."
[Stoll] Wilt wasn't looking for validation either.
After Wilt's year with the Globetrotters was up,
he entered the NBA in 1959 with the Philadelphia Warriors.
[reporter] Basketball fans are waiting to see how you're going to do,
especially against, uh, players like Bill Russell.
Do you feel that you are ready for this?
I think, in the long run, I'll be able to handle myself
man-to-man with almost anyone in the league.
[dramatic music playing]
[Stoll] The Warriors were coming off a losing season,
but Wilt gave them the winning edge.
[Russell] When Wilt first came into the league,
he came in and made these fantastic numbers.
[Stoll] He averaged 37 points and 27 rebounds a game,
and Philadelphia was suddenly a contender.
[commentator] Wilt the Stilt is all fired up.
[Baylor] Could score every time he wanted to.
He was the strongest guy in the league, jumped higher than anyone in the league.
Once he got the ball going to the basket, no one could defend him.
It was impossible.
[Russell] I first encountered him in the regular season. It was in Boston.
[Stoll] The Garden sold out months before the game,
and the stands filled up before warm-ups.
[dramatic musical flourish plays]
[spectators cheering]
[Sam Jones] When Philadelphia went out on the floor,
excitement just went up.
[spectators cheer loudly]
It was deafening. I looked at his hands, and I knew.
I said, "This guy can hold a basketball like a baseball."
We knew we were gonna have a problem, and Russell was gonna have a problem.
[expectant music playing]
[Russell] I thought he was at least five inches taller.
And I'm wondering now, "Do I look him in the eye, or do I not look up?"
So I said, "Well, I'll just look straight ahead."
So I'm looking at his chest.
That ain't gonna cut it. [cackles]
You got two of the greatest guys in the same era
going up against each other for the first time.
[tense music playing]
[Stoll] Chamberlain got his points,
treating Russell like he treated every other center in the league,
but Russell held his own.
[Steve Smith] In our era, you double-team somebody that big.
All the clips I saw, I saw Mr. Russell guarding him one-on-one, by himself,
so he had to use angles, he has to use physics.
Uh, I think Russell recognized that he was not going to be able
to stop Chamberlain unless he did some unusual things.
You see Bill positioning himself,
you know, trying to deny the ball.
And at the same time, you see the calculations in Wilt's mind,
trying to counter what Bill is doing.
[Russell] I knew that I could not stop him.
But I could put some speed bumps. That's the best I could come up with.
I think I had over 20 points and over 20 rebounds.
And I thought he had a really good game, well over 20 rebounds and 30 points.
And we both got a lot of blocks and things.
I think, that game, Chamberlain had all the numbers,
except one, winning.
[spectators cheering]
[music fades]
[upbeat music playing]
[Stoll] In the early '60s, the NBA hoped to attract more fans
with preseason tours of exhibition games.
In 1961, the Celtics and the Hawks
agreed to a matchup in Lexington, Kentucky.
And it was sold out!
First time they'd ever put 10,000 people in that stadium.
-[music fades] -[Stoll] The morning of the game,
the Celtics checked into the Phoenix Hotel.
But Lexington, like most cities in the South, was still a segregated city.
[Sanders] We went downstairs in the hotel,
and people behind the counter told us,
"We don't serve Negroes in here."
[Russell] We were in the same hotel. Just couldn't get the same thing to eat.
So I decided,
and the other guys decided to go along with me, not to play.
So, I told Red we were leaving.
He says, "Well, wait a minute. Let me see what's going on."
[Cousy] Arnold gets on the phone,
calls the manager of the coffee shop, and says, "Hey, they're guests!"
"You've got to serve everyone who's a guest."
So we went back down, and they said, "We've been authorized to serve you."
Russ said, "We're just kidding. We don't really stay in the hotel."
[laughs] That's when they said, "Well, then we can't serve you!"
"We don't serve Negroes in the hotel."
So we ended up just packing and leaving.
-[somber music playing] -[Russell] I told Red
I wanted the Celtics to play the game, and to understand clearly,
the Black guys said, "We're not gonna play under these conditions."
I called the guys on the other team
and said the Black guys on the Celtics are not gonna play tonight.
And so, the Black guys on the other team, they decided not to play also.
[Stoll] An all-white version of the Celtics vs. Hawks
played in Lexington that night.
[Harry Edwards] There were those in the media who were screaming
that they should be suspended, that they should be fined,
that they had let their teammates down, that they were stealing money
because they were picking up a paycheck for a game they didn't play.
And Bill made it very clear.
"And if it happens again, we're gonna do the same thing again."
He's still part of this first wave of Black players.
He's aware of the racial weight, you know, that's on his shoulders
about representing not just himself but a community.
[Renee Montgomery] Athletes now have taken that torch and are carrying it.
We have our own platforms now.
We would have tweeted it there at the restaurant.
Like, "Wait, y'all ain't trying to serve us? Wait a minute."
We would have got it right out there to Twitter right away.
I'm a spoiled brat.
I don't know what it means to go to a hotel, and they say,
"Oh, you can't sleep here. You gotta sleep in the back."
I don't know what it means to go to the water fountain,
and it says "whites only."
Most of the guys, especially ones playing now,
can't even go through one-tenth of what he went through.
The irony is that at the same time they're experiencing racism off the court,
Black players are getting more prominent in the world of basketball.
[Goudsouzian] By the early 1960s,
the NBA is arriving in the American sports mainstream.
It's about to usher in this era of great commercial growth.
One of the key factors for that is the arrival
of these great African American superstars.
-[funk music playing] -[Russell] Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor.
These guys were really great basketball players.
The addition of so many great Black athletes coming into the league
continued to make it just flourish.
[George] These guys are bringing elevation to basketball.
I call it the Black athletic aesthetic. "How do I express myself within the game?"
[funk music continues]
[Goudsouzian] At the same time, there's this public fascination
with this new rivalry between the two great Black centers.
The papers and the fans and everyone played this up.
And it was a great matchup.
[George] The NBA used Russell and Wilt to market the game, and it worked.
They brought people into the games.
You call it hype, we call it publicity, in order to get crowds.
Both cities were sold out automatically.
Well, it was good for the press.
It was good to draw people. But we didn't care what they wrote.
All we wanted to do was win.
Playing Chamberlain wasn't easy.
Wilt had only played a couple of years, but he was the most dominant player ever.
[rhythmic music playing]
[Erickson] He would just take over games.
[Russell] He averaged 50 points a game that season.
That's his average, 50, every game.
[Cousy] Can you imagine averaging 50?
I did that once in my entire 13 years, and it took me four overtimes to do it!
[Stoll] And in a game against the New York Knicks in March 1962,
Wilt outdid himself,
setting a record that most agree will never be broken.
He scored 100 points.
After that game, every night, they were looking for 100 points.
[music fades]
[Stoll] As far as the public was concerned,
Wilt's only challenger was Bill Russell.
The media played up that narrative,
and the pressure was on the two titans to deliver.
[tense music playing]
[Russell] It seemed to me, every Sunday,
we'd be on national TV, exposed.
And so that if I went out and I had an ordinary game, I'd get killed.
I mean, he'd go for 60 or 65.
[Paul] Wilt and Bill had that rivalry.
You can't compare that against guys in today's game. It was a different time.
[Rhoden] People couldn't decide who was the good guy, who was the bad guy,
because Chamberlain was much more gregarious.
He was much more accessible.
More kind of, "What we like with our Negroes."
Then in this corner,
you've got Bill Russell, kind of a more ominous Negro.
"We don't kind of know even if he likes us." [laughs] You know?
[tense music continues]
[Stoll] At the end of the 1961-'62 season,
Wilt tried once again to prove
that he could pull the Warriors over the finish line
and dethrone the Celtics.
[Springer] Bill may have been the superstar of his time,
but he approached it as if he was just one of five guys on that court.
Wilt was just, "I'm Wilt Chamberlain. I'm here. I'll score 100 points."
"You guys do what you want. I'll win it for you."
It was a different approach.
[Stoll] Both strategies were effective.
Bill's team ran the Warriors off the floor in the opener,
but in game two,
Wilt's unstoppable scoring evened the series.
[Russell] What I had to do was discipline myself
to never get into a numbers game with him.
[Sanders] In that series, Russell would come in the dressing room.
He'd say, "I'm really gonna deal with Wilt."
"Now, it's going to take a lot out of me to do this,
but what… [chuckles] …what you guys better do is get a lead."
[tense music playing]
[Sanders] After trying to steal the ball from Wilt, jump in front of him,
play behind him, pull the chair out from him,
and trying to force himself to the basket,
there was not much left that he could do on the court.
But let me just say this. After Russell had done his magic,
Wilt was like an angry man.
[commentator] Little fight going on. Chamberlain in the middle right there.
[Sanders] And he would end up scoring 35 points,
but half of those games, we would win.
[Karen] His individual statistics may not shine in comparison with Wilt.
But at the end of the day,
he always thought that it didn't matter how you played the game,
how many points you got,
as long as, the end, you could say, "We won."
[Russell] When it got to be three and three,
it's anybody's ball game.
[dramatic music playing]
[Stoll] With the 1962 Eastern Division series tied,
game seven would sharpen the contrast between Chamberlain and Russell.
[Heinsohn] Chamberlain was awesome.
But Russell had the competitiveness of a lion.
Whatever it took to win, this man could pull out of himself.
It would come down to one or two plays at the very end.
[O'Donnell] And here's the ridiculous thing.
In Boston,
we were completely confident in Bill Russell. [laughs]
[Most] Man, what a ball game this is so far!
[Stoll] With 13 seconds left and the ball game tied,
the Celtics had a chance to end it.
[Most] Cousy drives to the right, comes back out towards the middle.
Heinsohn, he goes baseline. The shot is no good.
[O'Donnell] The shot wouldn't fall. Philadelphia gets the ball.
[Stoll] Now it was the Warriors' chance.
And they had only one plan. Get the ball into Wilt's hands.
[Most] What a play by Russell!
[commentator] And that was a mark of how much he wants to win it.
It'll be Boston ball.
[Stoll] With the series on the line,
Bill knew who to trust with the final shot.
[Most] Sam Jones taking a long shot.
Wowee!
[commentator] Time has run out, and the Boston Celtics have done it again!
[cheering]
Bill Russell used to say, "If you want to be a champion by yourself,
son, go play tennis."
"But if you want to win as a family, you need to associate yourself
with your teammates."
["Last Night" by The Mar-Keys playing]
[Stoll] To hang their next banner,
the Celtics had to defeat a familiar but improved foe.
The Lakers relocated to Los Angeles from Minneapolis
and boasted a pair of rising stars.
Well, my name is Jerry West,
and, uh, what I used to do was, um…
What's that crazy sport where you dribble the ball?
Basketball, yeah.
[commentator] Hot Rod Hundley
behind his back to the trailer, Jerry West.
West up for the shot, and he's got another one.
[Russell] Jerry was a great player. One of the great offensive players
that was equally good as a defensive player.
Jerry West was the number one draft choice,
one of the greatest shooters of all time, one of the hardest players of all time.
He was known in Los Angeles as Mr. Clutch.
At the end of the game, you get the ball to Jerry, and it was as good as gold.
[spectators cheering]
[percussive music playing]
[West] Playing against the Celtics did not concern me at all.
I felt that they had to compete with me for a change.
We also had Elgin Baylor, who was really fun to watch.
[Russell] There's never been a better forward than Elgin Baylor.
People don't remember how great Elgin was. He was unstoppable.
Elgin was Dr. J before Dr. J. He was Michael before Michael.
[Stoll] In game five of the '62 NBA Finals,
Baylor carried his team,
scoring 61 points, a Finals record.
You have confidence in yourself that you can pull it off, get it done.
And I think all the great players had that confidence.
[Stoll] The decisive seventh game drew a sellout crowd at the Garden.
[tense music playing]
The 1962 seventh game against the Lakers is always referred to as the Selvy game.
[Stoll] With five seconds remaining and the score tied at 100,
the Lakers had possession.
[Ryan] Selvy was the other guard with Jerry West.
And I'm guarding Selvy at half-court,
and Selvy whips away from me into the corner.
He'll make that shot nine out of ten times.
[commentator] Three seconds, two, Selvy shoots!
-It is no good, rebound… Overtime! -[spectators exclaim]
[commentator] Bill Russell has gone down on his knees on the floor
from the emotion.
[Stoll] In overtime, an exhausted Russell
managed to score six points
to give the Celtics a slim lead.
[commentator] Now, Baylor. And the foul, I think, is on Frank Ramsey.
He leaves the game with 23 points. Gene Guarilia comes in.
[Russell] We had this guy Gene Guarilia, who never got in the game.
Never got to play.
So, Red's got no choice. He puts Guarilia on Elgin.
[commentator] Baylor. Guarilia guarding him.
Baylor turning, shooting, missing. Rebound, Russell!
Baylor with Guarilia guarding him. A tip-in attempt by Selvy.
Rebound, Sam Jones!
[Russell] What happened was, the guy was so scared he couldn't move.
When Elgin faked, he didn't move, he didn't react. He just stood there.
Completely shuts Elgin down.
[commentator] Out, no good. Rebound action. Foul called.
Foul's on Baylor. That's all for Elgin Baylor.
A standing ovation at Boston Garden for Elgin Baylor.
[spectators whistling]
[commentator] Bill Russell will go over and shake the hand
of a great basketball player,
Elgin Baylor.
[Stoll] With the game under control, Cousy ran out the clock
with his iconic right-handed dribble.
[commentator 2] He's eating up the clock, time ticking away,
and the ball game is over!
For big Bill Russell, 30 points
and 40, I repeat, 40 rebounds.
A tremendous basketball game.
[Stoll] In the locker room, there was the traditional beer-soaked celebration.
The fifth championship for Russell,
and the Celtics had become the dynasty.
[mellow music playing]
On one level, for Russell, by the 1960s, he's kind of living the American dream.
A home in the suburbs,
he's got three young children, he's got a doting wife,
he's got a good job, he's got a nice car.
All these sort of accoutrements of sort of a life of general prosperity.
[Stoll] Bill and Rose were starting to feel more at home
in the white suburb of Reading,
and Reading was rightfully proud of its most famous citizen.
In the spring of 1963, the town threw the Russells
a testimonial banquet to show their appreciation.
[Kenneth Latham] Be it resolved
that this annual town meeting of March 1963
decrees that a day be designated as Bill Russell Day.
Bill, we're honoring you and Rose and your family tonight
here in Reading for what you are, not just a basketball player,
but as a sportsman, as an athlete, as a father, as a family man…
[Newt Morton] As a lifelong resident of this town,
I like to think that one of its outstanding characteristics
is neighborliness…
Mrs. Russell, it has been an extreme pleasure,
and I deem it an honor…
A credit to his race, the human race.
[Curtis] …and break bread with both you and Mrs. Russell.
[Latham] And now it's your turn at the mic.
[Russell clears throat] Thank you very much.
Yes, I'm nervous again tonight. I'm really nervous.
I think I'd rather play Chamberlain ten times than face this once.
[guests chuckle]
[Russell] I don't even know where to start.
But I say that, in all sincerity,
it's a little bit too much for me
to see so many wonderful people here tonight.
It makes me feel like my life hasn't been a complete waste.
I honestly thought that no one even noticed that I was here. [laughs]
And this is something I'll always remember,
and I only hope I can lead a life
that will make you always feel this way about me.
And I appreciate it very much. Thank you.
[guests applauding]
[Goudsouzian] Russell was touched.
He felt, "I'm finally being welcomed in my hometown."
Weeks later, he decides, "We're committing to Reading."
"We've outgrown our home. It's time to look for another home in Reading."
He's looking at some of these statelier homes on the west side.
[Wright] Less than a month later,
a rumor got out that I wanted to buy a house in another part of this town.
And the neighbors objected like hell.
As an athlete, a celebrity even,
you're a great guy to have in the town, as long as you don't stay close to me.
My wife Rose came home in tears
as she watched residents sign a petition against the sale.
"We better forget that house," Rose said to me.
"They don't want us here."
"I bought that house, and I'm the one making the mortgage payments."
"I don't care what anyone else thinks," I said.
"What about our children? Who will play with them?"
"What will our white neighbors say to them?" Rose said.
[somber music playing]
"I'm thinking about our kids."
"I couldn't look them in the face if I put up with that kind of behavior."
I wouldn't let anyone tell me where I'm going to live.
As Russell's winning these titles and he's getting more prominent,
he knows that his winning wasn't about to protect him from racism.
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" by The Roots playing]
[Wright] I had been reacting to white cultural bias
virtually all my life.
It was everywhere.
It's a whole new way of life.
[Wright] In libraries, on television shows, on people's faces.
[man] We have a good chance of success.
[woman] You feel just as good as you look.
[man 2] Can't be popular unless you know how to dress.
[woman 2] And that's the real beauty of it.
[Wright] There were few things white people could do
without revealing prejudice that was offensive to me.
I spent a lot of time trying to combat bias in all forms.
I was always on defense, just like in basketball.
I ached for some offense.
The evolution Russell went through is very typical
of a lot of striving Black people
who worked hard, who then had to begin to think,
"I should use the platform I have
to protest against what's happening to my people and to me."
"Is there more for me to say about this than me just achieving?"
This is the beginning of a full-scale attack
on the system of segregation and discrimination.
[Stoll] By 1963,
as the Civil Rights Movement gained strength,
Russell deepened his commitment to the struggle.
["Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" continues]
[Goudsouzian] There's a big rally, and Russell leads a march
from Roxbury, a Black neighborhood, to Boston Common.
♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪
♪ Turn me around, turn me around ♪
♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪
♪ I just keep on walkin' Keep on talkin' ♪
♪ Marching on to freedom land ♪
[Stoll] A few months later, the Mall in Washington, DC,
would be the site of the biggest march in the nation's history.
[faint singing and chatter]
[reporter] They came with white sympathizers
from every point on the compass.
Their primary aim, a full program of civil rights.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America
until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
[Russell] The March on Washington, I stayed in the same hotel
as Reverend Martin Luther King.
And so we met in the lobby and had a brief conversation.
He invited me to go on stage when he made the big speech.
And I respectfully declined.
And the reason I declined was they had worked for a couple of years
to put that thing together, and I hadn't done anything.
And it would not be right for me to go on stage
and say, "Hey, listen. This is what we've done."
So I sat in the first row.
We remember it as a picnic, but at the time, it terrified people.
They had paratroopers surrounding the city.
They stockpiled plasma. They thought it was gonna be a bloodbath.
To go to the March on Washington took a little bit of courage.
I think that the era that Russell played basketball,
the world is in a different type of turmoil.
It wasn't "lose your job." It wasn't "lose your career."
It was "lose your life."
I've had threatening calls, people calling me,
saying that they were gonna kill me, saying they were gonna blow my home up.
I said, "Well, whenever my time comes, I'm ready."
Medgar Evers had dedicated nine years of his life to the war against racism.
Now, he is dead in battle.
Thirty-seven years old, a veteran of World War II,
a martyr now to the Negro struggle to end segregation.
[protestors chanting indistinctly]
[Russell] When Medgar Evers got shot,
we had a memorial service for him in Boston, at the Boston Common.
[faint singing]
[Russell] And I sat next to Charlie Evers, his brother.
I told him, "If there's anything I can do, here's my home number."
He calls me the next summer and says, "We've taken a hit, morale-wise."
"Why don't you do some basketball clinics in Jackson, Mississippi,
to show somebody from outside cares?"
[pensive music playing]
[protestors chanting indistinctly]
In Mississippi in 1964, we're still talking about bloodshed.
We're talking about… I mean, it was awful. Awful.
If the White Citizens' Council, the Ku Klux Klan,
and the… some group for the preservation of the white race.
I forget the name of it exactly. They didn't want no part of this.
And if they have their way,
you know, they said they don't mind killing a few people.
And Charlie says to me,
"You know we're not gonna let anything happen to you."
I was like, "Okay."
He had announced to members of the team
that he was going to go down to Mississippi.
Somebody said, "Well, that's a pretty dangerous place."
Somebody… Cousy or Sharman or somebody spoke up and said,
"Bill, you'll be okay. Just keep a low profile."
[laughing] You know, here's a guy who had just won an NBA championship,
MVP, all this kind of stuff, 6'9", Black, with a goatee,
go to Mississippi during Freedom Summer and keep a low profile.
He said, "That's when I really knew I was in trouble."
[pensive music continues]
Mr. Russell, what brings you to Mississippi?
Well, Mr. Evers here asked me to come down a few days ago,
and I've known him for quite some time, so I was very glad to come down.
I've been following what's been happening here,
and this is very much a part of my life.
Uh, one of the purposes for me to come,
I'm going to conduct basketball clinics.
Do you think your presence here will help alleviate the trouble?
I'm hoping. I'm not, uh, hoping to make things worse.
Do you think you'll get some white kids to play basketball with Negro kids?
I think so. I don't see why not.
My kids play with white kids.
-Ain't nobody got hurt yet. -Not yet.
-Nice to meet you. -Thank you.
[Stoll] Russell conducted his clinics in Jackson
despite threats on his life.
Since it was too dangerous to travel outside the city,
Russell was forced to cut his Mississippi trip short.
Still, he had walked into the belly of the beast
and taken a very public stand against racial terror.
[melancholy music playing]
[Wright] The civil rights movement of today has become stagnant.
We all overlook the fact that the responsibility is on us
to undo within the next two or three years what it took three centuries to create.
We must undo a whole thinking process,
and we have only two or three years to accomplish that goal.
There must be more understanding of the ones who really fight the battle.
It is the people,
the whites and the Negroes, who inhabit the battleground
day after day and night after night, who are the true warriors.
Human rights is just as complex as any other political problem.
The only element on which we can all agree
is that the problem must be solved.
[Stoll] Amidst America's cultural turmoil,
the Celtics faced a seismic shift.
Bob Cousy, the Houdini of the Hardwood,
the team's captain and its most popular player,
was suiting up for his last season.
[tense, dramatic music playing]
[Russell] The year that Cousy was gonna retire,
he told us, "This is my last year."
We wanted to make sure his last year was a championship year.
[Stoll] The 1962-1963 season was a celebration of Bob Cousy,
with tributes in every city the Celtics played.
[Sam Jones] Signs were all up over the Garden,
"We love you, Cousy." "We're going to miss you, Cous."
We were hoping that Cousy could go out a winner.
I perhaps had wanted the championship as badly as I wanted the first.
[Stoll] The team did everything that season
to deliver one more championship for Cousy.
They made it to the Finals,
where a familiar and angry foe awaited them.
[commentator] The Celtics are gunning
for an unprecedented fifth World Championship in a row.
[Stoll] The Celtics failed to sew up the series in Boston.
Now they carried a three-two series lead to Los Angeles for game six.
[Cousy] Well, it was only dramatic because of the circumstances,
my last year, the end of a career, the World Championship on the line.
[Stoll] If Cousy was nervous about the last game of his career,
he didn't play like it.
[commentator] Cousy knocks it to Russell.
[man exclaims]
[commentator] Long pass to Sanders. Look at that play!
[Stoll] Cousy played a strong first half,
propelling the Celtics to a commanding lead.
[commentator] So that's the end of the first half of play with the score…
[Stoll] The Celtics machine, perfected by Cousy and Russell
over the past seven years, was working without a hitch.
[commentator] Krebs guarding Russell, and Baylor…
[Stoll] Then, early in the fourth quarter with Boston ahead 92 to 83,
Cousy went down.
[commentator] Cousy is hurt!
Coming from one side to the other, looks like he hurt his left ankle.
That'll be a crushing blow to the Boston Celtics.
[Cousy] First time I was hurt seriously in 13 years.
I wanted to end it, if at all possible, on the floor.
[commentator] It certainly appears to be a most serious injury,
the way he's going off…
We all recognized that without Cousy, we're gonna have some problems.
[tense music playing]
[commentator] West goes down the middle and gets it!
Russell guarding Baylor, but Baylor made it!
[Russell] Without Bob Cousy, we started losing our rhythm,
and we got killed.
We knew we were playing the best team, the better team,
but we thought we were going to win. We had an opportunity.
[commentator] Red Auerbach pacing along the sideline.
[Stoll] With only four minutes remaining, the Celtics were ahead by just one point
when the unbelievable happened.
[dramatic music playing]
[commentator] Bob Cousy is coming back!
[Cousy] Buddy LeRoux, our famous trainer, iced it down to the point
where I felt I could go back into the game and finish it out.
[dramatic music continues]
[Stoll] The reenergized Celtics cemented their lead.
And in the final seconds, the ball was in Cousy's hands.
-[commentator] A second to go. -[siren blares]
[commentator] Cousy throws it high in the air,
and the Boston Celtics are World Champions!
That's the end of the game.
[cheering and whistling]
[Stoll] Their sixth championship in seven seasons.
[Cousy] I'm very, very fortunate in my 13 years,
and God certainly granted my last wish.
-Well, I'll say-- -What a way to go out. Oh my God!
I love it, wonderful.
[Russell] I have always considered Cousy a near-perfect teammate.
[Cousy] Grabbing Russ and hugging him,
you want to share your joy with someone that's close to you.
[dramatic music continues]
[Cousy] In this regard, I can only say, if I had it to do over again…
[sniffles] …I just couldn't imagine playing anywhere but Boston.
[applause]
I've been asked many times this year
what I will miss most about no longer playing. [sniffles]
[Russell] When Cous retired, and he's giving his speech, breaking up,
and then everybody starts crying…
[man] We love you, Cous!
[spectators applauding and cheering]
[Russell] Somebody yelled out, says, "We love you, Cous."
I thought it was a great moment. I said to Red, he was standing next to me,
"I'd never go through that shit."
[cackles]
["Turiya and Ramakrishna" by Alice Coltrane playing]
[Wright] We were special friends but limited ones,
and I had too much respect for him
ever to get sucked into the jealousy others tried to promote between us.
Still, I can't say that I was ever close to Cousy.
There is simply too much competitive pressure
in professional sports to share your hope and fears
with somebody in the same business.
[Stoll] For Russell, the fears were starting to outweigh the hopes.
He was frustrated by the lack of progress in civil rights
and wondered if the game had any value.
[Wright] Through it all, I was confronted with the never-ending search
all Negro males must go through for their manhood.
But I was the world champion.
The pressure continued.
The games had to be played.
The opponents had to be faced.
A guy walks up to me. I was in Boston. The guy says,
"What are you guys gonna do now you don't have Cousy to carry you?"
So, I said, "Well,
it'll be difficult. We got to make an adjustment."
"But do yourself a favor
and call the Boston Globe or WBZ
and find out who the MVP of this league was the last three years."
[Russell cackles]
[projector whirs and clicks]
[dramatic music playing]