Bill Russell was 6' 9".......He was not! the tallest player in the NBA..He played against some of the greatest teams...and greatest center's EVER!...And to all the people who know nothing about Basketball!....if all you need is height...How come Yao Ming is'nt winning championships?...he's the Biggest man in the NBA...he's 6" taller then Shaq!
2007-03-30 06:50:35 · 18 answers · asked by Alpha Wolf(Bringer of Rain) 5 in Sports ➔ Basketball
Overfed...I love Basketball!...Now go get a haircut...Hippie!
2007-03-30 07:01:23 · update #1
Great Answer(laughing)...Chad......(Rolling my eyes)..."That's just the way it is"......come on Chad!.....Think about it for a while then come back!
2007-03-30 07:04:19 · update #2
Tony your neck tie is cutting off the circulation to your grape!......you little Hater you!....This is America!.....we don't care if you commit adultry!...we just want winner's....God Bless the U.S.
LOL.....
2007-03-30 07:10:51 · update #3
Tyranasoures....Bill Russell won championships with AND! Without Great Player's......and the Last Time I checked Scottie Pippen was top 50 player alltime...and MJ never had a winning season without him!
2007-03-30 07:14:08 · update #4
James.W...I mean.."Jdwj767"...I mean "Stats and bullsh!t"...I mean "Queen of the world."..I mean Juelz the Rat!"...I mean "mellisa"...I mean "wheel chair basketball"...I mean " killing baby goats"...I mean " the white supremecist"...I think I left out some of your 24 yahoo Id's......Oh! well...Kobe at 28 vs MJ at 28.....RAY! can see Kobe is better....Georgiaaaaa!
to easy..LOL
2007-03-30 07:23:06 · update #5
Lil - Yo...I'm the biggest Laker / Kobe fan around......But Russell is the greatest winner ever!...is'nt that what it's about?...Winning?
2007-03-30 07:26:05 · update #6
DF...Good answer......And thanks to Bill Russell fighting racism! and paving the way for NBA the player's Past and present!...Bill Russell played during the toughest! time that's what really made him special!
2007-03-30 07:34:50 · update #7
Wow!....john D ...Just when I thought YOU! could'nt get any Dumber!...you go and open your soup cooler!....Russell in his prime was a 20ppg..20rpg..10bpg...6apg...5spg player!.....the greatest leader...sh!t I think he even was a player/ coach for some of those championship teams....and your comparing him to Sall's.......what is your major malfunction?.......take that hat off your head and smack yourself with it ..to make sure your awake!...at least your not talking about grown mae's "nut's"...I'll give you a thumb's up for that!
2007-03-30 07:47:30 · update #8
Zero....you bring up some good points...
But some of your points ...can be looked at many ways...Bill Russell played against ...what may be the greatest athlete ever!..in Wilt Chamberlain....Was'nt Wilt a olympic track star also?..(maybe not sure)...anyways.....Jordan was rail thin....he did pretty good against the Mailman...so did Rodman and the Piston's(sorry Isiah..)..Plus your pop's said Bill was a freak of nature!....But are the athlete's today better then the athlete's in the 80's.?..70's?....who knows...All I know is Bill dominated and won championships....he is the greatest winner..period...is'nt that what the mission is?....... to win?...know matter how..just win...Bill was the best at it!
2007-03-30 12:34:49 · update #9
Zero ...your right..Players today are soperior to the athletes even as short as 10 years ago!...Look at KG...and T - Mac...when they came in the league ...then look at Lebron! and D Howard...the Kids today have incorperated alot more physical training into their regimen.....and 10 years from now it's going to be even scarier!...good points!
2007-03-30 14:57:03 · update #10
Size is not everything in basketball. In my opinion, I agree with you that Bill Russel is the best there was. Wins may not prove that to some, but you can't argue for one second with his consistency. He was a born winner, and he proved that over, and over, and over...
HOWEVER, MJ was and is the epitome of the perfect athlete in the NBA. Bill Russel's game existed inside the paint, and not much further out than 10 feet, and even then, he would back down to a few feet away. Jordan had a phenomenal outside game, the ability to drive like noboides business, could pass, hit the jumper, and more. Jordan was all around considered the best (though not necessarily MY opinion) over Bill Russel in part because of the level of competition in the 80's and 90's, versus the competitions in the 50's and 60's.
That's the argument as I see it, and though I don't necessarily agree with it, I understand the point.
There are too many great players to pick one as the best, but if you want the purest winner in the game, you choose Bill Russel. You want an all around shooting guard, you choose MJ. You want a PG that can (and DID) play every position, you choose Magic Johnson. You want (IMO) the purest shooter to play, I choose Larry Bird.
I could go on and on, but to just sum it up, Bill Russel is the truest winner to ever play the game.
2007-03-30 08:48:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Are you comparing big men to playmakers? Bill Russell was 6' 10' had long arms and very good jumping ability. Equivalent to 7 footers. I am a Michael Jordan fan and Chicagoan, but the real playmaker was Magic Johnson. Too bad his libido got the best of him. Very sorry about Bo Jacson too. Johnson was a 6' 10" guard. At that height every shot is an open look. Best passer with tons of vision in entire league. Jordan's only edge probably was in the steals catagory. I could be wrong on that though. Kobe does not begin to compare against Magic. Kobe lacks competion. he can dunk over most other Europeans or the nintendo raised Americans that play today. Lets go to the Elementary schools to find talent today. Has the USA been better than 3rd of 4th in the world the last 10 years. We'll give you seven attempts to make your circus dunk - present NBA dunk contest. Jordan was a great player in a very compettitive time and he was a great face on basketball. And he never had teamates like - 1. Magic, Jabbar,Worthy. Scott, Green, Cooper. 2. isiah, Lambier,rodman ,Dumars,Aguire 3. Bird, Parish,McHale,Walton,D. Johnson,Ainge. Jordan had stacy King, Bill wettington, steve kerr, luc longley. That's the difference!
2007-03-30 07:54:27 · answer #2 · answered by Gian D 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Here's why Russell will never be considered the greatest:
1 He played before any of us (people less than 60 years old) could watch. All we have are clips and recounts.
2 Playing in a different era where the guys weren't as good athletes (for example, picture a rail thin 6-9 Russell next to a yoked up 6-9 Malone. Outside of conditioning, those days had no non basketball workouts)
3 (My dad gives me this) Russell was a freak of nature a (along with Wilt) at the time. No, he was not the tallest in the NBA, but he could jump out of the gym compared to 95% of the other guys in the league. Dispute this if you will.
4 (Again from my dad) 20-20 games being HUGE... Russel l was apparently very limited offensively. Most of his points did not come from sets for him but instead from offensive put backs. The offense in Boston was guard dominated by Sam Jones Havlicek and the Cous.
That said, Bill Russell was one of the smartest players ever to play. One of the best defensive ever, too. One of the 3 greatest centers ever.
But the greatest player ever? Hard to fing ANYONE to back that one (ask people in Bos and theyll say Bird)
Just so you know, that era WASNT EVEN CLOSE to the era of best centers. That would be late 70's early 80's(Jabbar, Walton, Moses Malone, Parish, Bob Lanier, Artis Gilmore)
Dunno who said that about height, but height can GET YOU IN THE LEAGUE (Yinka Dare) but can't get you success in the league.
THE ADDENDUM
He is a winner. Abso. But here's where we differ... some would argue that Russell wasn't even the best player on his team because he was limited offensively. Some would say Cousy with all the points and assists. (Kinda like Kobe and Shaquille without the bitching and moaning).
Cmon now... you know Jordan didn't ever match up on Malone.That's a bad analogy. Now Rodman was 6-8 230 of muscle will and nastiness, so yeah... he did match up on Malone. And the Pistons had guys like RIck Mahorn.
But that's not my point. Point is... look at the training regimens for guys starting in HS (weights, resistance training, verticle shoes, etc) and going through the pros. Look at all the guys with documented 35-40+ verticals. No, we'll never know for sure, but with all the superior training available to EVERYBODY, I'll take today athlete heads up in ANY SPORT against the athletes of the past.
LOVE the debate...
2007-03-30 09:35:17 · answer #3 · answered by AgentZero 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
MJ is a good player but not the best. Kobe Bryant is clearly the best and thats that. Kobe has averaged 31.0 points per game. After Chamberlain scored 100, Kobe scored 81 pretty close to wilt and has broke the record for 2nd highest NBA scorer ever. Yes, I know people call him a ball hog, but he is actually not! If he passed more often, the lakers will ALWAYS lose because he is the only person on the team that can actually score!
Please tell me, can Bill Russell drop 81, win a dunking competition or be a all-star MVP?? If not, Kobe can and already did! Steve Kurr (a sports reporter) agrees with me too! He even said KObe Bryant is the most complete offensive player in the whole history of the NBA!
2007-03-30 07:16:59 · answer #4 · answered by lil-yoel24 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The answer to your question ( after LMAO at all your edits...) is that Michael Jordan is NOT the greatest .
Bill Russell did what it took to win championships, even sacrificing scoring stats in order to help his team win.
Michael Jordan would have never dreamed of sacrificing ANY of his stats for the better of his team.
In response to "Agent Zero"....yes, the athletes of Jordan's era were bigger and stronger, but not necessarily tougher or more athletic than players of the 1960's.
Bill Russell averaged more minutes per game than Jordan did, and the players back then didn't have the luxuries of private jets and first class hotels. And they played more back to back games then when Jordan played.
Chances are that the players of Jordan's era would find it much tougher to play in the 60's than vice versa.
Also, there is no doubt that Russell was the best player on the Celtics throughout their dynasty. Every player on the Celts has said that. And look at what happened after Russell retired...dropped from 48 wins to 34, and missed the playoffs.
2007-03-30 20:37:15 · answer #5 · answered by Hoopfan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of what he did for the league. Bird, Magic, Doc, Kareem and all the other old skoolers from the 80's were washing up MJ came in and was the saviour for the game. Ticket sales were up, not to mention everywhere he went the places sold out. Like the sheep from Mary had a Little Lamb everywhere MJ went the folks were sure to go. He was the face of the league, he took the torch from those greats and we are still looking for someone else to take it and move the game to another level. Kobe, DWade, LeBron and a couple more are trying to grab that torch, but havent got close. Yet, thats why he was the greatest.
2007-03-30 07:13:11 · answer #6 · answered by DFatOne 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Not that All Star MVP actually means anything (just ask Ralph Sampson or Tom Chambers), but Russell did win an all star MVP in 1963, with 19 points and 24 rebounds in 37 minutes of play... Russell was on the court mostly against Chamberlain, who himself had 17 pts and 19 rebounds in 35 minutes of action.
They don't make 'em like that any more.
Russell was the smartest player who ever played the game...that's a huge part of why he was so dominant.
2007-03-30 07:44:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Here for the free two points but I would like to chip in with what has been pointed out for some time, it's easy to become the "greatest winner" if you have double digit numbers of HOF team mates. Guess we should pretend that Cousey, Sam Jones, Heisolm among others doesn't exist right?
2015-06-27 08:59:10 · answer #8 · answered by Random Guy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
John Salley won 4 NBA championships. Does that mean he is better than Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and any other player that has won less than 4 (which includes Kobe)? Greatness is not measured in championships, it's about much much more than that. So when you come back from "Kobe's the best" la la land, we'll be here to explain why MJ was and IS the G.O.A.T. in the NBA.
To the guy above me- Since when is winning the All-Star Game MVP award a big deal. Did they start trying and no one told me. WHO CARES! Also MJ had a 30.1 CAREER avg. Kobe will decline.
2007-03-30 07:36:27 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because Michael Jordan didn't have hall of fame teammates for his entire career like Russell did. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think 6 of Russell's teammates are hall of famers now, and Aurebach as well. Not to slight Russell though, he seemed to be way ahead of his time like Wilt was. And I guess your second question was about height? Being taller helps, but you also have to have skill and athleticism. That's why giants like Shawn Bradley and Manute Bol never dominated.
2007-03-30 07:07:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋