Celtic legend Bill Russell is arguably the most valuable player ever in NBA history, and perhaps even in all of team sports.
He died Sunday at age 88. following the deaths of Celtic legend teammates Tom Heinsohn, John Havlicek and Sam Jones in recent years. Only almost 94-year old Bob Cousy has outlived them all.
Russell’s teams won more championships than anyone else in North American sports with 11 in 12 trips to the NBA Finals. And this was by a marginal high school player who shared the 15th and last jersey on his high school team with another player at one point, a player who got one scholarship offer to his hometown school of San Francisco, and a player who could not shoot outside five feet with any accuracy.