I don't agree with retiring his number everywhere. But, I don't think it's dumb. Bill Russell represents winning at a level that MJ/Kobe/LeBron couldn't achieve. He also represents perseverance at a much more difficult time in America. I don't really see a reason to fear someone coming close enough to his cultural significance to warrant the same treatment.
And I am sorry, but this post is dumb. Is this decision from Silver about winning or basketball excellence? Negative. That is a minuscule sliver of what Bill Russell brought to professional sports. Reducing Bill Russell to Jordan/LeBron/Kobe is akin to reducing Muhammad Ali to Frasier/Norton/Liston... Absurd.
It's a nice gesture. Personally, I think it's a little bit of a stretch and kind of lowers the threshold for what it takes to get a jersey retired league-wide. He doesn't have the historical/cultural impact of Jackie Robinson and is not synonymous with his sport like Gretzky is with hockey.
if the nba says so, then i guess it makes sense. jordan, lerbon, mergady, kobe, yao, and curry should be retired league wide too. most likely green, cade, and wembymama's numbers will be retired league-wide once they retire because they'll be super awesome. if they run out of double digits, they can always go to 3 digit jerseys.
The sixes. Zaid Abdul-Aziz 1973 George Johnson 1974 Tom Henderson 1980-1983 Walter Berry 1989 Avery Johnson 1992 Elmer Bennett 1997 Carlos Rogers 2000-2001 Tito Maddox 2003 Bonzi Wells 2007-2008 Earl Boykins 2012 Terrence Jones 2013-2016 Tyler Ennis 2017 Bobby Brown 2018 Gary Clark 2019-2020 Kenyon Martin Jr. 2021-2022
Collecting Bill Russell cards is not actually all that easy. There just aren’t that many Bill Russell cards for his career. And barely any signed cards. His rookie has gone for as high as 600k, compared to the grail of Mikan who is near 1 Million now. in 2019, the value of the card was only 24k. Major jump. His autographed cards are rare too, but only go for bout 6k. The Russell Rook:
Number "6" would be retired, but would "06" still be available for players? Just like when Carmelo wore "00" and Lillard wore "0" on the Blazers.
I feel like the people who think this, have it in their mind that Russell was some benchwarming scrub that lucked into all his accomplishments. 5x MVP, 11x NBA champ, 1x gold medal. Regarded as one of the best players ever. Played an a very racial-conscientious era, all for one of the most racist cities in America. Dude may not have Robinson's impact or Gretzky's overall greatness, but it's hard to find a player in NBA history who embodies both, to a degree. If there was anybody in NBA history who deserves to get his jersey retired, I think you start with Russell.
Adding a "0" in front may be a way to game the system. But I've heard that 0_ is actually short for 10_. Since you can't have three digits, you drop the hundred. But then what do you do with numbers beyond 109? *shrug*
There's an infinite abyss between being a bench-warming scrub and having your jersey retired league-wide. For the record, I'm aware he was not a bench-warming scrub. I just don't think his impact on history or to the game of basketball was transformational enough to prevent any future players from wearing his number. I think it's Jordan for similar reasons as Gretzky. And even then, I'm not 100% sold.
I don’t love the idea of ever retiring a jersey number league wide. But if the NBA was gonna pick 1 person to do it with, I think Bill Russel makes the most sense
If I remember correctly, he didn't like to sign autographs. I saw an interview with him talking about it. It made sense when he explained, he would rather shake your hand and talk for a minute then sign his name.
This is not the first nba number retired all across. #69 is as well. David Stern wouldn’t let Rodman use the number, so technically it’s untouchable.
