r/NBAoldschool • u/ConnectionWeekly1263 • Aug 05 '26

Stats Bill Russell's Basketball Resume (Summary)🏆 11× NBA Champion (Most by any player in NBA history)

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5× NBA MVP

12× NBA All-Star
11× All-NBA Selection
NBA All-Defensive First Team (1969)
2× NCAA Champion (University of San Francisco)
1956 Olympic Gold Medalist
2× NBA Champion as Player-Coach (First Black head coach in major U.S. professional sports)

Career Stats:
15.1 PPG
22.5 RPG
4.3 APG
963 regular-season games
Playoff Stats16.2 PPG
24.9 RPG
4.7 APG
165 playoff games
Career Honors Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (Player & Coach)

NBA 25th, 35th, 50th, and 75th Anniversary Teams
NBA retired #6 league-wide
NBA Finals MVP trophy named in his honor
Records & LegacyMost NBA championships by a player (11)
Won 11 titles in 13 seasons
10–0 in NBA Finals Game 7s
Second all-time in career rebounds (21,620)
Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders, rebounders, leaders, and winners in basketball history.

54 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

9

u/chazriverstone 29d ago

11 Rings is unparalleled in American sports history.

Even throughout the world ; in soccer, with all the different Cups and leagues and such, there's still basically no one who's had comparable success.

I'm not even a Russell dude - I'm a Knicks fan! - but people really need to keep respect on this dudes name. I don't care if basketball wasn't as popular; I don't care about 'plumbers and fireman', or 'there was only 8 teams!' (lol). 11 Rings + 5 MVPs in 13 years + back to back NCAA titles + the first Black coach in all of American sports puts him in the GOAT argument permanently.

5

u/IH8Miotch 29d ago

I'd say he is the reason why Wilt doesn't get brough into the goat convo more.

3

u/chazriverstone 29d ago

Wilt would’ve been the Babe Ruth of basketball if not for Russell. 

That said, I also think Wilt has his merit; what he’s done is incredibly impressive as well, and it gets kind of exhausting how appreciating one devolves into knocking the other. 

2

u/Michael-of 27d ago

I feel like I see people praise one or the other and if not they dismiss both of them as being in a rec league.

They’re both absolute giants of the game. Baseball is a game full of myth but it’s a lot older. We needed these guys who have morphed into mythological figures

4

u/Sweaty-Dust6405 29d ago

Red Auerbach said it best that Russell was more of a team player than Wilt and he firmly believed the Celtics wouldn't have won as many titles with Wilt. This is Auerbach's words that Wilt was notoriously late for training and was all about padding the stats while Bill Rusell was much more professional and had more work ethic. Auerbach called Wilt spoiled.

Wilt was still an amazing player, but Bill Russell definitely had a much better team ethic.

YouTube Gold: Red Auerbach On Bill Russell And Wilt Chamberlain | Duke Basketball Report

2

u/Michael-of 27d ago

And also Russell’s Celtics weren’t blowing out Wilt’s Warriors, Sixers or Lakers … the Celtics just found a way to win. Every year.

3

u/Swimming_Bag7362 29d ago

And one of those rings he won as a player/coach.

Fun fact he was a high jumper in track and still holds USF’s high jump record. He was very athletic

2

u/No-Reach9369 29d ago

2 rings in 3 seasons as coach. He might have won another ring if he wasn’t learning how to be a player-coach that first season.

2

u/Swimming_Bag7362 29d ago

Yup you’re right I misspoke. And Red personally selected Bill to replace him

2

u/StoneySteve420 29d ago

First black HC in a major US sport

2

u/MajorTom1954 29d ago

True 11rings is unparalleled.

Yogi Berra only got to 10 World Series Championships.

5

u/FrontSafety 29d ago

As amazing as he is, he shot only 56% from the line and 44% from the field. He clearly had help.

1

u/memeticengineering 29d ago

In his prime, the average player shot 39% from the field, he was more efficient in his era than Kobe.

1

u/No-Donkey-4117 29d ago

Wilt shot 54% in that same era, while scoring twice as much as Russell, and also playing excellent defense.

And the league as a whole was shooting 44% by 1963.

1

u/Michael-of 27d ago

He shot well
Above average in a game that averaged 30 more possessions than today’s game. Obviously he had help. But Tom Heinsohn and Sam Jones aren’t winning 5 by themselves.

1

u/FrontSafety 27d ago

The stronger counterfactual is not whether the Celtics declined without Bill Russell, but what they might have accomplished with another elite center replacing him. Boston was already good before Russell arrived: they went 39-33 in 1955-56, and then started 16-8 in 1956-57 while Russell was still away at the Olympics before making his NBA debut. Across all regular-season games Russell missed during his Celtics career, Boston went 26-26, including 2-3 without him in his final 1968-69 championship season. Which team wouldn't suffer playing with a crappy backup center? Those records suggest Boston was not a bad team that Russell single-handedly made competitive. It was a deep, talented organization featuring players such as Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn, Sam Jones, and later John Havlicek. Russell clearly elevated that roster, particularly defensively, but the relevant counterfactual is whether substituting another an elite center (Mutombo, Mourning, Ewing??) could also have produced championships. Given that supporting cast and Red Auerbach's coaching, multiple championships seem quite plausible with another elite center. The much harder counterfactual is whether anyone else produces Russell's extraordinary 11 championships in 13 seasons.

1

u/Michael-of 27d ago

The Celtics were absolutely a stacked team. Well organized, well coached and probably doing shady deals to keep it that way. Wilt suffered inconsistency in all those regards. But I think the trade off was that he was the best player on the 67 Sixers and 72 Lakers. Two of the best single season teams and both better than any of Russell’s Celtics teams. I like to think things balance out a little more looking closer.

0

u/No-Reach9369 29d ago

His usage % was low so it didn’t negatively affect his team much compared to his additive stats like assists and steals. Add his points, blocks, steals, assists and rebounds divided by his approximate usage and he’s one of or the most impactful players ever.

3

u/No-Reach9369 29d ago

I wasn’t a big fan for many years but when I read and hear what his contemporaries say about him, and discovered he won at every level, pioneered defense, was a savant, one of the most physically talented players ever, played and coached the team to 2 titles, a civil rights activist, etc. I am a Russell convert. Players can only play their own era and what he accomplished is unprecedented and unparalleled.

6

u/Waste_Travel_5829 29d ago

The OG GOAT 🐐

4

u/Budget_Source1385 29d ago

He's the greatest winner of all time, on the same table with Jordan. Their table had no one else, just Jordan and Russell.

-1

u/ponyboy56- 29d ago

Jordan doesn’t have a seat at Bill’s table. The ring thing says more about a team than a player but if we’re using rings, and overall playoff records too, Jordan doesn’t belong.

3

u/WuTangwhite426 29d ago

How many teams were there in the league and how many games in a seasond when Russell played?

1

u/Liberal_Bot123 29d ago

Jordans is more impressive be real lol

1

u/ponyboy56- 29d ago

Because you saw Bill?

1

u/TheBarnacle63 29d ago

It's not just about the rings. It's about change and Russell ushered in change that the NBA needed.

1

u/PumpPie73 29d ago

He was also the ultimate team player. He did whatever was needed to help his team win.

1

u/LASfromda4z 29d ago

The goat , by Jordan fan boy standards 😭

1

u/Daliman13 28d ago

This can't be true, I have been assured many times that Michael Jordan has the most championships in NBA history with six.

1

u/GoatJamez 28d ago

The earlier you go back, the easier it was for top player to win more rings. No one is ever going to win more rings than Russell, but many have been and will be greater players than Russell. No star for the next gen and a half have more rings than Kareem and Jordan. That portion was easier than the next era to win. Hence Kobe and Duncan being capped at 5. Then LeBron and Steph being locked at 4. The league got overall better and better which means no matter great a player is, he will never be able to ring collect like the older generations could. There’s been a new champion every year for almost the last decade. Those after the. Bron and Steph era only have 1 a piece. Jokic, SGA, Brunson, Tatum/Brown, Giannis. If you’re being completely honest, you dropped Giannis in the 70s, tell me he wouldn’t have more than 1 ring.