Bill Russell really is the Most Underrated Player Eva

if only he grew his beard longer... he could be great like a player i know

 

Unfortunately, as time goes by and the game changes Russell's legend shrinks. His dominance in winning 11 out 13 championships is so stupefying to people that it isn't recognized as dominance at all, but as circumstance. Him being the first player to recognize the impact defense makes on winning. Him being drafted by the Celtics and forming a duo with talent hound Red Aurebach. Him playing in a developing league. Blah, blah, blah.

 

i think he's rated right where the general consensus feels he should be, which is usually top 5

 

Overrated by some.

 

Career 44% FG as a Center and 56% FT is a big mark on him IMO...average PER (#102) compared to other GOATS. Low OWS compared to other goats(not even ranked top 250). The most important thing going for him other than the rings is the dominance in defensive win shares(#1) and rebounding.

 

Weren't there like 10 teams in the league then , . . . . and he had like 80% of all the HOFs from the time on his team?


Rocket River

 

This dude was better on D than some Olajuwon years yet people do tend to forget him when picking in Fantasy Drafts.

 

He played who was put in front of him but Like I said . .. he literally played in an era where
the average player was not as physically impressive and did not have the skill set or athleticism of todays player

Rocket River

 

He's usually Top 5 when ranked... while being a pathetic shooter.

 

While it's not popular, I have him as my GOAT and I have a pretty good argument for him over Jordan, Kareem, LeBron etc.

 

He seems underrated now because if you had a draft of all players in their primes he's not going top 10.

 

As i've said in a couple of other threads, you can throw this data out of the window. Players were measured barefoot back in the day and then they were measured in shoes. On top of that you have tons of wrong measurements or rounded down measurements such as Bill Russell being a hair short of 6'10 BAREFOOT but rounded down to 6'9. He's almost as tall as Tim Duncan and he's old as **** now. Jerry West being 6'1 but claims he's 6'4 and is taller standing next to 6'4 listed DWade and just short of 6'6 listed Kobe Bryant and West is an old man that could have lost an inch by now.
Bill Walton listed at 6'10 but he's as tall as 7'2 Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Kevin Love being listed at 6'10, a full 3 inches taller than his 6'7 barefoot height, same with Blake Griffin. DeMarcus Cousins being listed at 6'10.75 and being rounded up to 6'11, but Durant being slightly taller than him, and people say Durants a 7 footer but listed at 6'9. Reality is Durant is a legit 6'11.
Many more cases. Players today wear the biggest soled shoes and stuff their socks for the highest measurement to up their draft stock. NBA also now seems to round UP.

There's already so many decades of bad measurements that there is no point in going back to legit official barefoot/medical measurements.

Same thing for weight. Weights were rarely ever updated from rookie training camp weights. That's why you have LeBron outweighing guys like Karl Malone and David Robinson and almost as much as Wilt Chamberlain. It's ridiculous. Kevin Durant outweighs David Robinson? 10lbs lighter than Karl Malone and Charles Barkley? OKAY. Karl Malone looks like he's got 30-40 lbs of muscle and mass on LeBron James. David Robinson looks like he could snap Durant in half. Wilt Chamberlain was well over 300 by the middle of his career but the data won't tell you any of this.

Throw the data out.

 

Since no one has mentioned the pace of play back then,...
Article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/441840-bill-russell-an-overrated-nba-legend
Lastly, let’s consider the pace of the game. During the late 1950s and 1960s, NBA teams played in a run-and-gun style offense. The early 1960s was the highest scoring environment in NBA history. In 1961-62, the average team scored 118.8 ppg, the highest in the league’s history.


Furthermore, the average team in the 1962 season had an average of 152 ball possessions. Conversely, over the past two decades in the NBA, teams have averaged about 90-100 possessions per game. Given that this difference gave players during that era 50 percent more opportunities to score, this would give Russell an adjusted scoring average of about 10 ppg in today’s game. And that’s without considering having a 16-foot foul lane and competing against taller players.
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All the angry Bostonians in the comments >

 

russell played in a very archaic and primitive version of basketball and the nba. that's not his fault but it's still the reality.

offense and defensive strategy was very simple in those times. he was simply the first player to actually understand the importance of defense & rebounding in basketball.

the celtics also only had to play 1 series before making the finals which kinda makes his championships look funny to me.

he has a great legacy but as a player if there was an all-time draft, i'm not sure he would even be taken top 10 by most GMs tbh.

 

Something people don't mention enough:

Bill coached the Celtics for 3 years and won 2 NBA championships. He tied an Olympic gold medalist at a non-olympic high jump event.

There are plenty of pitfalls though:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/441840-bill-russell-an-overrated-nba-legend

 

The Russell Celtics were the first superteam. They started all that.

 

Five time MVP. So, it's not like he hasn't received recognition for what he did on the court. I would not call him underrated.