{"id":3862,"date":"2022-08-02T11:28:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstandpen.com\/staging\/5861\/?p=3862"},"modified":"2022-08-03T11:09:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T15:09:15","slug":"bill-russell-didnt-tolerate-making-basketball-and-society-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstandpen.com\/staging\/5861\/bill-russell-didnt-tolerate-making-basketball-and-society-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Russell Didn&#8217;t Tolerate, Making Basketball And Society Better"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1964, Bill Russell, the best basketball player in the world, returned from a Civil Rights mission in Mississippi, the most dangerous state in the union for a Black person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mississippi was where 11 black people had been murdered in racist attacks in the year since a white assassin killed civil rights activist Medgar Evers and where civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were still missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s where Russell, risking his life, conducted integrated basketball camps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if he feared for his life, he responded \u201cI\u2019d rather die for something than live for nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if he would leave his Celtics, who had just won their 6th straight championship, to continue to participate in the civil rights movement, he said, \u201cYes, but only if it would make a concrete contribution. There\u2019d be no choice. It would be the duty of any American to fight for a cause he strongly believes in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked if he worried that his reputation took a hit because he was an activist athlete, he shot back, \u201cI\u2019m a man. If I have to be a boy to be popular, then I don&#8217;t want it. If my popularity depends on a thing like this, I don\u2019t give a damn.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was Bill Russell. A great basketball player, and an even greater humanitarian.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Russell&#8217;s Upbringing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1934, Russell\u2019s father moved the family from the Jim Crow south to Oakland when young Bill Russell was just 9. The South wasn\u2019t made for a man like Charles Russell who refused to capitulate to the demands of Black docility. <\/p><div id=\"first-3186537891\" class=\"first-content first-entity-placement\"><!-- \/22950135888\/FAP_Article_Leaderboard_Instream2 -->\r\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1700413625220-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 90px;'>\r\n  <script>\r\n    googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700413625220-0'); });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCharlie Russell was not a man who was ever going to be kept back,\u201d Russell said of his father, \u201cand because he was a man, he broke the bonds and eventually left.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell, whose mother passed away when he was only 11, was molded by a man who placed his dignity at the center of every move he made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Charlie Russell was a proud Black man, and so too was Bill Russell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, when many people were still using the word Negro, Bill Russell openly embraced the word Black. At a time when the American lexicon used the word black to mean something bad\u2013 black heart, black thoughts, Black Sox\u2013 Russell took public pride in the word. <\/p><div id=\"first-1595134292\" class=\"first-content_2 first-entity-placement\"><!-- \/22950135888\/FAP_Article_Leaderboard_Instream3 -->\r\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1700413989195-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 90px;'>\r\n  <script>\r\n    googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700413989195-0'); });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I was much younger,\u201d he told a reporter, \u201dOne of the things we have done has been to rescue the word black. It\u2019s just about out of the woods now. Yeah, we\u2019ve just about got it out of the woodpile.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his career, Russell\u2019s assertion that he would be treated fair, and that every Black teammate of his would be accorded the same treatment, made the NBA what it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a player, Bill Russell controlled the game with his length, athleticism, and his mind, putting fear in offensive players&#8217; hearts as they drove to the hoop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russebi01.html\">a career average<\/a> of 15 points and 22 rebounds, Russell won 11 championships and 5 MVPs. He was the first Black head coach both in the NBA and in all professional sports and won two of those 11 rings as a player\/coach. These accomplishments make him arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live, even if one thinks his era was dominated by a bunch of plumbers and firemen.<\/p><div id=\"first-2112683008\" class=\"first-content_3 first-entity-placement\"><!-- \/22950135888\/FAP_Article_Leaderboard_Instream4 -->\r\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1700414036595-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 90px;'>\r\n  <script>\r\n    googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700414036595-0'); });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But you can\u2019t measure who Bill Russell was by statistics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell\u2019s activism was more valuable to the league and the game than his athleticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;His home being vandalized while he was on a road trip. Feces smeared on the walls of his home..what he had to endure. The pressure to get through a day. Just one day. Bill Russell knew a pressure that no one knows now.&quot;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealMikeWilbon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RealMikeWilbon<\/a> shared the hardships Bill Russell endured. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KwBZR4B2H4\">pic.twitter.com\/KwBZR4B2H4<\/a><\/p>&mdash; First and Pen (@firstandpen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/firstandpen\/status\/1554218842397835266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, the league understands that it is Black and embraces that blackness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It no longer tries to hide from it with racial quotas, like in Russell\u2019s day. That&#8217;s because men like Bill Russell made the league understand early on that it was going to be a Black league, which meant treating the Black players with dignity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Standing Up And Standing Tall<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before Russell, the league treated Black players like second-class citizens, and teams had no problems scheduling games in the South, even if it meant the Black players stayed in segregation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1958, when the Celtics played a \u201chome\u201d game in Charlotte, and Russell and his Black teammates, along with the Black players from the Minneapolis Lakers, including Elgin Baylor, had to stay in a segregated facility, Russell became irate and vowed never to play in the South if he had to stay in segregation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because Russell called out the league and insisted on being treated with dignity, league owners promised to deal with the situation at their next meeting in January. They added a non-discrimination clause that stipulated teams would no longer play in the South unless all players were treated equally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two years later when Black teammates faced discrimination before a game in Kentucky, Russell led a boycott of Black players from the Celtics and St. Louis Hawks of that night&#8217;s game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Russell later said of the situation, \u201cFor a great number of years colored athletes and entertainers put up with these conditions because we figured they\u2019d see we were nice people mostly and, in most cases, gentleman, and they\u2019d say, \u2018These people aren\u2019t so bad.\u2019 I\u2019m not insulted by it. I\u2019m just embarrassed. I\u2019m of the opinion that some people can\u2019t insult me. But it was the greatest mistake we ever made, because as long as you go along with it, everybody assumes it\u2019s the status quo. The way I feel about it, if I can\u2019t eat, I can\u2019t entertain.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Off the court, like few athletes of his generation, or even athletes after, Russell stood tall. Not because of his 6\u201910\u201d frame, but for his willingness to stand up for what is right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To Russell, too many Black players of his generation were in what he called the \u201ctwilight zone.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s between two different worlds\u2014white world and black world,\u201d as he put it. The black athletes in this position, he said, \u201cslips in between there and, he \u2018thinks white.\u2019 And all he wants is to get what he can get.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They worried about being liked and not upsetting white people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The all-time great rebounder, however, believed that Black people had to grab white people\u2019s attention for real change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s like the story of the old man who starts every day by hitting his mule over the head with a club \u2018to get his attention.\u2019 We have got to make the white people too uncomfortable and keep it uncomfortable, because that is the only way to get their attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Refusal To Be Tolerant<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell was effective because he didn\u2019t care what people thought about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He couldn\u2019t stand words like \u201ctolerance,\u201d because to him, if a white person said he was tolerant, that simply meant whites found him okay to deal with because he didn\u2019t rock the boat. If a white person was tolerant, that meant that they were okay with the status quo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell wanted radical change, not toleration.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He didn&#8217;t have the \u201ctwilight zone,\u201d as he said most black athletes had. He admired the few guys like Jackie Robinson that upset the white sensibilities because they didn&#8217;t play nice. \u201cI used to love to read how Jackie Robinson was \u2018surly\u2019 and over sensitive\u2019 because he had the audacity to think he was a human being.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Russell spoke out against injustice on and off the court, white people around him asked him to be grateful for what he had. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Russell swatted that suggestion away as if it was a Jerry West layup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI tell them to go to hell.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because he insisted on better treatment for himself and his people, and never held his tongue, white people called him ungrateful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s because Bill Russell refused to give an inch, on and off the court, that basketball and society are better off. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SOURCES:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRussell Would Give Up Basketball for Rights,\u201d <em>Chicago Daily Defender<\/em>, July 20, 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bill Russell, <em>Go Up for Glory<\/em>, 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI Owe the Public Nothing,\u201d Saturday Evening Post, January 18, 1964.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhere the Negro Goes From Here,\u201d Sport, September 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1964, Bill Russell, the best basketball player in the world, returned from a Civil Rights mission in Mississippi, the most dangerous state in the union for a Black person. Mississippi was where 11 black people had been murdered in racist attacks in the year since a white assassin killed civil rights activist Medgar Evers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,741],"tags":[812,22],"class_list":["post-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","category-vandy","tag-bill-russell","tag-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bill Russell Didn&#039;t Tolerate, Making Basketball And 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