If I told you that a basketball player averaged 22.5 rebounds per game, then you’d probably be quite impressed. If I told you that same basketball player averaged 15.1 points per game on just 44% shooting, then you’d probably ask what high school this player plays for? The thing is, this was the NBA, not high school, and the player was Bill Russell. Russell’s offensive shortcomings become even more apparent when considering that only 21% of NBA players were taller than 6’ 7 when Russell entered the league. Russell was, of course, 6’10, and quite likely the most athletic player in the league. I’m routinely struck by two questions when looking at Russell’s stat line: 1). How can an NBA player pull down 22.5 rebounds per game and only shoot 44% from the field, and 2). How watered down does a league have to be for one player to average 22.5 rebounds per game? The quality of play early on in the NBA was closer to a high school basketball game than it was to today’s NBA. By all means, celebrate the early superstars, but the last four decades of basketball have been so much more competitive that Russell’s accomplishments in the 1960s are no more impressive than what a perennial all-star accomplishes today, and that’s being generous.   

One of the easiest logic traps to succumb to as a sports fan is to romanticize athletes who competed in small and competitively weak leagues during their infancies. Take the early days of the NBA, for example. There were anywhere from 8-10 teams in the NBA from 1951-1967. That means that a player only needed to be better than 40-50 other starters to win an NBA MVP award, and NBA teams only needed to be better than 7-9 teams to win an NBA Championship. For the last three decades, the NBA has had ~ 30 teams. That means a current MVP winner must be better than 149 other starters to win an MVP, and an NBA team must be better than 29 other teams to win an NBA Championship. Additionally, current NBA teams have to win 16 playoff games to win a championship, while only eight games were needed to win a championship for much of the 60s. So, when you’re looking at Bill Russell’s 5 MVPs, and 11 championships, make sure to acknowledge that it was three times easier for him to win an MVP and a championship than any player who has played in the last 30 years, and twice as easy as a player from the 70s and 80s. Also, be sure to note that there were virtually zero international players in the NBA, no athletic players taller than 6 ’9, and unofficial race quotes limited the black population in the league to less than half (it has been at 70%+ since the late 70s). There is nothing wrong with claiming that Bill Russell was one of the greatest players in the early days of the NBA. However, we start to lose touch with reality when we conflate the statistics, awards, and accolades that were achieved in the weakest era the NBA has ever seen, with those achieved in a robust, highly competitive, fully globalized league. 

Now that we’ve established that Russell played on easy mode, let’s get into his statistics to see if he cooked on easy mode. Let’s pretend that Russell didn’t play in the smallest, weakest era in NBA history. In fact, let’s take his competition level at face value.  If he truly should be included in the GOAT discussion, then Russell on easy mode should’ve cooked like an Iron Chef, right? Well, that’s not exactly how it went down. Russell never finished in the top 10 in scoring, nor did he lead the league in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) or Win Shares. He only finished in the top 10 in free throw attempts just once and the top 10 in field goal % just four times, despite being an athletic marvel. In fact, Bill Russell’s entire legacy seems to be tied to the fact that he was a strong rebounder, yet he led the league in rebounding just five times. Other players who led the NBA in rebounding five times, and did so in a significantly more competitive era with three times as many players to battle for the league lead against? Dennis Rodman, Moses Malone, and Dwight Howard. Heck, Andre Drummond led the league in rebounding four times. Perhaps the most telling element on Russell’s resume is that he was selected as a 1st Team All-NBA center just three times. Other centers to be named 1st Team All-NBA center more than three times? George Mikan, Neil Johnston, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Dwight Howard, and Nikola Jokic. 

Bill Russell should be celebrated as one of the first great players in the NBA, and his Boston Celtics superteams should be lauded as the first great dynasty of the NBA. It’s not unreasonable to crown him the second greatest player from the first three decades of the NBA. In my opinion, that list looks like this (debuted by 1960): 

1). Wilt Chamberlain

2). Bill Russell

3). Jerry West

4). Oscar Robertson

5). Elgin Baylor

6). George Mikan

7). Bob Pettit

8). Bob Cousy

9). Paul Arizin

10). Dolph Schayes

However, any discussion that tries to compare these players with modern day players needs to begin squarely with the elephant of all caveats, which is how weak the competition level was and how much easier it was to win championships and awards due to the small size of the league. Most of the players on the list above have been vastly overvalued by many publications and list-makers because the curators of those lists don’t take into account the most fundamental consideration for all GOAT lists: competition level. Russell was great… in his era. The whole matrix starts to fall apart when we try to apply that same statement across all eras.