Bill Russell, who earned 11 NBA championship rings during his career passed away at the age of 88 with his wife Jeannine by his side in Mercer Island, WA.
Bill Russell, the towering NBA legend in a league of his own, has died. He was 88.
The cause of the death is uncertain only a statement from his family surfaced on his official twitter account,
An announcement… pic.twitter.com/KMJ7pG4R5Z
— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) July 31, 2022
Russell Born in 1934 in West Monroe, Louisana, William Felton Russell later joined the basketball team at McClymonds High School in Oakland after moving to Northern California with his family.
His performance there earned him a scholarship to attend the University of San Francisco, where the 6-foot-9 Russell helped the team earn 56 straight victories and two NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956.
Russell was selected by the St. Louis Hawks with the second overall pick in the 1956 NBA Draft but was traded to the Boston Celtics the same day. The partnership would prove a fruitful one — together with head coach Red Auerbach, the Celtics won 11 championships during Russell's tenure.
Eight of those titles came consecutively from 1959 to 1966, a feat that has not been replicated again in the NBA or the other major American sports leagues.
Russell was also active in the Civil Rights Movement, having boycotted an NBA game in 1961 after a restaurant in Kentucky refused to seat him and his Black teammates, author Doug Merlino wrote in his book, The Crossover: A Brief History of Basketball and Race, from James Naismith to LeBron James.
After civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, Russell held the city's first integrated basketball camps.
