Bill Russell is one of the greatest players of all time, and there’s no doubt that he is the winningest superstar of all time. There’s no question that Bill Russell’s time with the Boston Celtics will never be forgotten.
Despite his achievements, it seems as though Bill Russell didn’t need any recognition from the outside world. In fact, in an interview, he once revealed that he asked Red Auerbach not to retire his number with the Celtics because he didn’t require “any validation”.
I asked Red not to retire… I don’t need any validation. I played… that experience was enough to last me for a lifetime.
Though he states that he doesn’t need any validation in this interview, the league has since decided to recognize what he did both on the court and off the court. In fact, Shams Charania has revealed that the league will be retiring Bill Russell’s No. 6 across the NBA.
The NBA will retire the No. 6 league-wide honoring the late, legendary player and activist Bill Russell.
Bill Russell becomes the first player in NBA history to have his jersey retired across the league. All NBA players will also wear a patch on the right shoulder of their jerseys during 2022-23 season, and every arena’s court will display a clover-shaped logo with No. 6.
Players who currently wear No. 6 – such as Lakers‘ LeBron James – will be grandfathered.
Bill Russell is now immortalized forever, and after the current players who wear No. 6 retire, no one will wear Russell’s legendary number. This was a fantastic way to commemorate one of the best superstars that we’ve ever seen.
Perhaps one day, we will see a superstar who can win 11 titles in 13 years, just like Bill Russell. However, as of right now, no one has come close to doing that, and we just have to marvel at how much winning Bill Russell has done.
