Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution
2006; American studies; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2153-6856
Autores Tópico(s)Race, History, and American Society
ResumoWe see each other as men, said Bill Russell, explaining the 1969 National Basketball Association championship of the Boston Celtics. We judge a guy by his character.1 Russell had just concluded his glorious career, winning his eleventh NBA title in thirteen seasons and ensuring his status as the greatest winner in the history of American team sports. His defensive mastery, moreover, transfigured the game's patterns, compelling a faster and more athletic sport. But Russell's legacy stretches deeper and wider. It concerns the emerging link between basketball and blackness, both in terms of cultural style and political import. It intersects with the achievements of the civil rights movement, the impulses toward racial brotherhood, and African-American self-pride. It touches upon Russell's explanations of his team's success: manhood and character. Russell did not desegregate the NBA, but he integrated it. He became the first black superstar the first to generate copious publicity, the first to alter the sport's texture, the first to shape a team's championship destiny. Moreover, in the midst of the civil rights movement, Russell presided over basketball's model of successful racial integration. As the Celtics won title after title, Russell exchanged public praise and private loyalty with his white teammates and coach, and other blacks became critical cogs in the Celtics machine. He further embodied sport's cherished values of selflessness, integrity, and intelligence in his perpetual triumphs over celebrated rival Wilt Chamberlain. In 1966 Russell became the first AfricanAmerican coach of any professional American sport,
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