Bill Russell set championship records in the NBA that might never be matched. He has already won more titles than 28 teams in the league, let alone players. However, the player to genuinely threaten Russell’s championship streak was Michael Jordan. Even then, MJ fell short by 5 championships when it comes to matching Russell’s 11 titles won.
Jordan was never going to be shy about what he felt, and once openly told Russell that he was going to come after his championship record. They had this conversation on a golf course after one of Jordan’s 6 championship wins.
Russell himself had revealed that MJ and he were playing golf when the Chicago Bulls star told him that the Bulls were coming for Russell’s records. Bill had an ice-cold response to one of the greatest trash-talkers in NBA history, bluntly telling Jordan that he doesn’t think the Bulls can win 11 titles or win 8 titles in a row as Russell did.
“Yes, he’s a great player and I have the ultimate regard for him. He says to me one time when we were out in the middle of the golf course, they had just won the championship and he says ‘we’re gonna come after your record’. I said, ‘which one?. We won 11 and we won 8 straight, I don’t think you’re coming after either one.'”
Rarely do we see Jordan on the losing end of conversations like this, but when it’s Bill Russell coming out with comebacks, even Jordan couldn’t have said anything.
In the modern NBA, the closest player to reach Russell is Robert Horry with 7 titles. However, even Horry had to play for multiple NBA teams, unlike Russell, who won all titles with Boston. No team has won more than 3 consecutive titles since Russell, so his streak of 8 titles in a row also is probably going to be safe for a very long time.
