NBA legend Bill Russell recently passed away at the age of 88 years old. Most of us didn’t even get a chance to see Russell play during his days with the NBA. But from the stories that we have heard about him and his impressive simply prove that Bill Russell was one of the best players to ever play in the league.
He donned the jersey of the Boston Celtics and led them to 11 NBA Championships. It’s obvious that Russell was a Celtic for life, and seeing him in a different jersey would just feel wrong.
Well, that didn’t stop Jack Kent Cooke, the former owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, from trying to get Bill Russell to sign for his team. By that time, Russell was already retired from the NBA and had moved on to the next phase of his life. But we have seen players come out of retirement, and no one would have been surprised had Bill done the same.
However, the problem for the biggest winner in NBA history wasn’t coming out of retirement. Instead, it was to even think about playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
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“They had a ceremony for Jerry West. They had me sitting next to Jack Kent Cooke, who owned the team at the time. About a week later, I get a call. Jack Kent Cooke wanted to talk to me. So, he says, ‘Bill, I’ve been thinking about it. What we’re gonna do is have you come out of retirement and play for the Lakers.’ So I say, ‘Don’t you have a guy named Wilt Chamberlain playing center for you?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘How’d he feel playing back-up center?’ … I said, ‘Jack, I’ll never play basketball again, but, if I were, it would only be for the Celtics.’”
The Lakers and the Celtics have a long-running rivalry in the NBA. The matchups between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were a primary reason behind that amazing rivalry.
Had Russell joined the Lakers, he might have won another ring in his career. But that decision would have ruined his legacy with the Celtics. Thankfully, Russell never joined the Lakers and stayed retired.
