At the start of the 2022-23 season, the NBA retired the number 6 across the league in honor of legendary player Bill Russell. Bill Russell dominated the NBA during the 1950s and 1960s while fighting for civil rights and racial equality in America at the time. According to the NBA, he was also “the only NBA player to win 11 championships and the league’s first Black head coach” (Wright, 2022). The event of his jersey retirement was honored throughout the season with players wearing a commemorative patch on the right shoulder of their jerseys and every NBA court displayed a clover-shaped logo with the number 6. The NBA also helped spread the legacy of Bill Russell on social media as well on other media outlets like television and radio.
The media helped highlight Bill Russell as a civil rights icon that paved the way for countless Black players across all sports. Many former players, like Oscar Robertson for example, spoke on the hardships that Bill Russell had to go through and the harsh treatment that he received while playing in the city of Boston. ESPN shared that years after he retired from basketball, Bill Russell received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011 for his civil rights activism.
Lebron James is one of the greatest all-time players in our game today that wore the number 6 for the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers and he also respected the NBA’s decision to retire the number.
Bill Russell was a trailblazer for the sport of basketball but also worked alongside other great civil right activists that played different sports at the time like football player Jim Brown, legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, and others. The retirement of his jersey number can also go hand in hand with the MLB and the retiring of Jackie Robinson’s iconic jersey number 42. Both Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell made historic achievements in their respective sports as well as a significant impact on the civil rights movement. Bill Russell was also the first Black person to be inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Bill Russell passed away at the age of 88 and NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated that “permanently retiring his No. 6 across every NBA team ensures that Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognized.”
Sources: ESPN. (2022, August 1). Bill Russell’s impact on and off the court. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml79v_0wHVw
NBA. (2022, August 11). Bill Russell’s No. 6 jersey to be retired throughout NBA. Retrieved from https://www.nba.com/news/bill-russells-no-6-jersey-to-be-retired-throughout-nba
Wright, M.C. (2022, July 31). Celtics legend, 11-time NBA champion Bill Russell dies at 88. NBA. Retrieved from https://www.nba.com/news/celtics-legend-11-time-nba-champion-bill-russell-dies-at-88