Bill Russell

Bill: Chris Hayes had a great game, just a fantastic game. He did a great job defensively for us too. It was a good win for us. Reedley is a very tough place to play.

Bill: We played extremely well. Lamar Burton did a good job of distributing the basketball. Leslie and Ricardo Jenkins hit the boards really hard and we did a good job defensively.

Bill: I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.

Bill: John Jones is a great initiator for us on the defensive end. He and Marques Jones did a good job of allowing us a time to get some guys with rest and also maintained the high intensity level.

Bill: What I think Columbia does is they just play real hard. I think that's what really helps their style.

Bill: We've put ourselves in the driver's seat, now we've just gotta take care of business.

Bill: We couldn't sustain it. And they got a lot of kids that can shoot. We just couldn't close out well enough.

Bill: To say that there was hard competition and therefore excusing him, excuses him from doing his job. If there is difficult competition, it is his job to compete.

Bill: I had signed a letter of intent to go to a college near by home in Pittsburg, Kan., on a basketball scholarship, but Monty and scout John Keenan convinced me to sign with the Dodgers. It was the right move, for sure.

Bill: Long-range planning is not possible. It's a short-range planning situation.

Bill: The morale and the camaraderie that we had for one another earlier in the year is starting to come under duress because of all the losses. Some of the guys are feeling the pressure now from the last year when they were not successful.

Bill: I think what has happened to our basketball team, we've been badly distracted. They're not reading too many positive things in the paper.

Bill: If it's proven in a court of law she was wronged, she can sue for millions because this is defamation of character.

Bill: We have done her injustice since the word go.

Bill: The last five or six days, I've been running. The last two days, I've been running pretty hard. Everybody's got to be someplace.

Bill: The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.

Bill: What's more important than who's going to be the first black manager is who's going to be the first black sports editor of the New York Times.

Bill: Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.

Bill was elected to Naismith Basketball Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975.

Bill is a twelve-time NBA All-Star.

Bill is a five-time NBA MVP.

Bill was able to win 11 NBA Championships in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics.

Bill's jersey number is 6.

Bill's weight is 220 pounds.

Bill's height is 6'10".

Bill was traded to the Boston Celtics on April 29, 1956.

Bill was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks in the 1956 NBA Draft, 3rd overall.

Bill went to college in San Francisco.

Bill went to high school at McClymonds in Oakland, California.

Bill is only one of four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship back-to-back. The other three are Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson and Billy Thompson.

Bill only played varsity basketball in his senior year at McClymonds High School.

Bill is the father Karen Russell, a lawyer and television pundit.

Bill is left-handed.

Bill is the brother of playwright Charlie L. Russell.

Bill was offered a place in the legendary Harlem Globetrotters after College but declined the offer.

Bill has 21,620 career rebounds, second in NBA history only to Wilt Chamberlain's 23,924.

Bill only had two teams that prevented him to win an NBA championship, the 1958 St. Louis Hawks and 1967 Philadelphia 76ers.

Bill was basketball teammates was Frank Robinson at McClymonds High School.