Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history for 75th anniversary

Ranking the 75 best players in NBA history: No. 3 – Bill Russell

On NBA 50 at 50 List

Career: 1956 – 1969

Achievements: 11-time champion; five-time MVP; All-NBA (11x); All-Star (12x); All-Defense (1x*)

*All-Defense teams first instituted in 1969, the final season of his career

Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and ’60s did something that no team has replicated across any sport at any time, winning 11 titles in 13 seasons. They absolutely dominated the league for over a decade, with a smothering defense and the game’s most relentless competitor in Russell.

In an era where many of the best players were high-scoring centers, his calling card was defense, and he shut down each of those prolific centers in turn. He is hurt by the lack of defensive accolades during his career: steals and blocks weren’t recorded until he had retired, and neither was Defensive Player of the Year awarded until 1982-83. The ceiling on how many “DPOY” awards he would have won is sky-high.

Even playing in an era where numbers are elevated due to pace of play and shooting inaccuracy, the fact that Russell averaged 24.9 rebounds per game in the playoffs is insane: he fought for every rebound on every possession across 165 playoff games. He was generally fighting for those rebounds with other Hall of Fame players such as Wilt Chamberlain or Bob Pettit, but he still won the battle inside.

Despite never having elite scoring numbers he won MVP five times, as all of his contemporaries understood his impact on the game and on winning. Again: 11 titles in 13 seasons. The lack of a Finals MVP award (it was first awarded in 1969, his final season) again undercuts his accomplishments. Jordan currently has the record with six; would Russell have blown through that number? Bill Russell has a claim to being the best defender in the history of the game, and no one can match his championship success. That’s why they named the Finals MVP for him after all.