Eleven-time NBA champion Bill Russell will be honored with the NBA’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award, an Associated Press report states. The Hall of Fame center will be presented with the award during the NBA’s award show on June 26.
With five NBA MVPs to his name, the Celtics Hall of Famer is a living legend with an endless resume of historic achievements. Not only has Russell remained a visible representative of the Boston franchise and league in general’s sustained success, he lays claim to the title of being the first player to win an NBA title, an NCAA crown and an Olympic gold medal.
Per the Associated Press, Russell was also the first African American to coach a team in one of the major professional sports leagues.
Across 13 NBA seasons as a player, Russell averaged 15.1 points, 22.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
There’s more from around the NBA:
- Quickly swept up in the excitement of a possible trade between the Sixers and Celtics is the fact that Markelle Fultz signed a multiyear shoe deal with Nike. Fultz announced the deal over Twitter.
- Both Suns forward Marquese Chriss and Nuggets guard Will Barton will sign with Aaron Goodwin of Goodwin Sports, Chris Haynes of ESPN tweets.
- Although he had a meeting with Maccabi Tel Aviv, former Cavaliers head coach David Blatt will remain with his current Turkish League team Darussafka Dogus next season, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia writes.
- Former Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni will be the new head coach of Liga ACB club Saski Baskonia, Dario Destri of Sportando relays. Prigioni had recently been linked to an assistant coaching position with New York.
- The Clippers have hosted 2012 second-round pick Tornike Shengelia for a three-day workout, international basketball reporter David Pick tweets. Shengelia last saw action with the Nets and Bulls as a 23-year-old during the 2013/14 campaign. He currently plays for Saski Baskonia in Spain.
Imagine someone averaging 22.5 rebounds a game over the course of an entire career nowadays…that blows my mind no matter what era it happened in
Yea that caught my eye too. Truly remarkable.
They played a lot faster of a pace back then. It would be like averaging 17 rebounds this day in age. Still awesome though.
Good comment. The pace of play thing is legit. Same goes for the the Big O’s triple double season. The pace of play and mpg for key players was a lot higher back in the day. Still super impressive and Russell has been and still is an extremely important part of the league.
Well…. it’s like rebounding versus Villanova. Everyone he played against was shorter for the most part. Mikan also 6’10” was done by the time Russell came into the league.
In the game 7 vs the Lakers where he had 30 points and 40 rebounds. 1 guy was over 6’8. And Ray Felix who was that guy, was at the end of his career literally, last game played and a terrible rebounder. He was a great rebounder no doubt, but look at all the RPG leaders, Wilt is the only 7fter grabbing boards from that time.
Wilt, Nate Thurmond, Walt Bellamy were more formidable than any competition today.
All I can picture is the Greek freak sending scoop layups into the 12th row.