Bill Russell: the ultimate winner

The headline number is almost unbelievable: Bill Russell won eleven NBA championships in thirteen seasons with the Boston Celtics. No athlete in the history of major American team sport has won more. Russell wasn't a scorer in the modern sense — his genius was defence, rebounding and an all-consuming will to win. He redefined what a big man could do at the defensive end, timing blocks and controlling the paint in a way the league had never seen, and turned the Celtics into an unstoppable dynasty.

Before Russell, blocking shots was almost an afterthought. He made it a weapon and an art, not just swatting the ball out of bounds but keeping it in play to launch fast breaks, and using positioning and intelligence to intimidate entire offences. His rivalry with the great scorer Wilt Chamberlain became one of the defining matchups of the era — the immovable defender against the unstoppable force — and more often than not, Russell's teams came out on top.

Russell's importance goes far beyond basketball. A proud, outspoken man during the civil rights era, he marched, spoke out against injustice, and refused to stay silent when it would have been easier to. In 1966 he became player-coach of the Celtics — the first Black head coach in a major North American professional sports league — and won championships in that role too, breaking a barrier at the very top of the game while continuing to lead on the floor.

Russell died in 2022, honoured across the sport he had shaped; his number 6 was retired league-wide, a tribute reserved for the very greatest. His life is a reminder that greatness can be measured in more than one way — in the eleven banners he raised, yes, but also in the courage it took to stand up when it counted. For Russell, winning was never only about trophies. It was about refusing, on the court and off it, to accept anything less than what was right.