Top 100 NBA Players: #14

Bill Russell

(Kalb: #4, Simmons: #2, BBR: #4)

Bill Russell is usually on the short list of players considered to be the best of all time, and you can see that each of the other rankings I have referenced above had him among the top 4 players of all time, but I've chosen to rank him significantly lower. I mean no disrespect in ranking him this low, but when you look at the facts, it just makes sense.

As I described earlier in my biography of Oscar Robertson, Russell played in an era of inflated statistics, so when you look at his career averages of 15.1 points and 22.5 rebounds per game, you must remember that those numbers are much higher due to the faster pace of the game and the lower shooting percentages that produced more available rebounds. If you adjust his stats for deflation to today's rates, his career numbers would be 12.1 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. That would still place him among the greatest rebounders of all time, but makes him quite average offensively.

In order to be considered one of the all-time greatest players, a player needs to be exceptional in multiple facets of the game, whether it is offense, defense, longevity, or winning. Russell was a subpar offensive player, shooting just 44% from the field and 56% from the line for his career, and his longevity was just average at 13 seasons. Russell is, however, one of the game's greatest defensive players, and if blocked shots had been counted during his career, it may have been possible to rank him higher, but there is no way to prove what he did during those years.

When it comes to winning, there was no one better. In his 13 seasons in the NBA, he won 11 NBA Championships. The two times he didn't when occurred when he was injured and unable to compete or worn out from his first season as both a player and a coach. Of those 11 title teams, Russell was the best player on 8, the famous 8 consecutive titles that covered most of the 1960's. During their first title run the Celtics were still Bob Cousy's team, and by the time they won their final two titles they had become John Havlicek's team. The Finals MVP award did not exist during his career, but if it had, he would have deserved to win it eight times, and in recognition of that the NBA renamed the Finals MVP award after him in 2009.

There are only 4 players in history who can claim they were the best player on at least 3 consecutive title teams: George Mikan, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, and Shaquille O'Neal. There are only a few others who can even claim they were the best on 3 total, such as Bird, Magic, Duncan, and Havlicek. Besides those titles in the NBA, he also won a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics, as well as 2 national championship in his final two years at the University of San Francisco. So despite his shortcomings on the offensive side of the ball and his average longevity, Russell will always have a place among the game's greats.

The question of Russell vs. Drexler seems almost silly, but I have already shows that Russell was slightly overrated and Drexler was vastly underrated, so when you compare the two, they're actually closer than you think. They were both very good defensive players, with the slight edge going to Russell, and Drexler's 15 seasons give him the longevity edge over Russell. Drexler was a far better offensive player than Russell, averaging over 20 points per game for the majority of his career, a number that Russell never matched in a single season. But Russell still gets the edge here for his winning ways, since Drexler's title came after he became Olajuwon's second banana, while Russell led his team to championships nearly every season.