RIP Bill Russell

The NBA of TigerBlog's youth was a vastly different entity than the one of today.

For starters — actually for starters, in the middle and at the end — there was no three-point shot. The ability to get three at a time would start with the short-lived but wildly fun American Basketball Association, and it's unlikely that those who came up with the idea had an sense of what it would do to the NBA game of the 21st century.

When TB was a kid, the idea of seeing a three-on-one fast break end with a 23-foot jump shot was unthinkable. The game then was mostly about getting the ball inside, and as such it revolved around some of the greatest centers who ever played.

Any list of the greatest NBA big men has to start with three players: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. They were three different types of players, but they were dominant in every sense of the word. 

As you might have read, Bill Russell passed away over the weekend at the age of 88. His death was termed "peaceful" in the statement by his family, which seems somewhat fitting to the man who always seemed to be larger than life. 

Abdul-Jabbar's sky hook was the most unstoppable shot in basketball history. Chamberlain was an athletic freak that the game had never before seen (he was the conference champion in the high jump three times while playing basketball at Kansas and would have been an Olympic decathlon champion had Fred Samara coached him). 

As for Russell, he was the consummate team player, one who played basketball in a way that was almost artistic. He was famous for his shot-blocking ability, which more often than not ended up starting a fast break the other way, as opposed to throwing it out of bounds. 

He won two NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco, an Olympic gold medal in 1956 and then an astonishing 11 NBA titles with the Boston Celtics, the last two of which came as a player-coach in 1968 and 1969. 

TB will have more on the 1969 NBA finals in a second. First, here are some highlights of Russell to give you an idea of how he played:

He could score; he could dribble; he could pass; he could defend. Does that sound like the kind of center that someone you know would love?

Yes, it does. Pete Carril, to be exact.

Maybe that's why one of Carril's best quotes ever was this: "I want my centers to behave like Bill Russell."

The style of basketball that Princeton played under Carril came to be known as "The Princeton Offense," something that often made the Hall of Fame coach bristle. "It's not my offense," he'd say. "I got it from the Boston Celtics."

And the key was a center who could do everything. Carril's teams at Princeton featured a long list of such players, ones whom he taught to "behave like Bill Russell."

Oh, and as for the 1969 NBA finals? 

That year was Russell's last year as a Celtic, and the seventh game of the finals against the Los Angeles Lakers (a team with Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West) was his final game ever as a player. Boston won that game 108-106, and Russell had six points, 21 rebounds and six assists. That's a line that Carril, who was then the Princeton coach, must have loved.

Ah, but who was the Lakers' coach that year? That would be none other than Butch van Breda Kolff, who coached Princeton before Carril (and coached Carril at Lafayette) and led the Tigers to the 1965 NCAA Final Four. In that game, van Breda Kolff famously left Chamberlain on the bench as his team tried to come back from nine points down in the final minutes. Led by West, the Lakers almost did.

When the lead was cut to two, Chamberlain, who had come out of the game as the comeback began with a knee injury, motioned to van Breda Kolff that he was ready to come back into the game, only to have van Breda Kolff tell him to sit down (with an expletive or two thrown in). 

That would also be van Breda Kolff's final game as Lakers' coach.

So rest in peace Bill Russell. Basketball is at its best when players behave like he did.