One of the greats who helped build basketball on and off the field William Felton “Bill” Russel was a basketball player that played center for the Boston Celtics from 1956-1969 where he achieved greatness and made a legacy for himself going down as a legend. He played a very important role as an African American basketball player in the hardest of times he fought for racial inequality both on and off the court. He was abused and treated unfairly by being denied entry in hotels where he would stay for the away games and restaurants he would go to but was denied entry in almost every one for the color of his skin. But these events sparked the first player boycott in October 1961 because two teammates from the Celtics Sam Jones and Tom Sanders were refused of service in a hotel café in Lexington Kentucky because the color of their skin and he spoke with the coach about the issue and they decided to fly back and not play their preseason game against the St. Louis Hawks. He was the one of the first people to use his type of platform to speak on these important issues. Russel also took part in an important point in history at the march in Washington with Dr.Martin Luther King Jr where he delivered his I have a dream speech to the crowd and was another strong hit to the battle against segregation. Russel even stated that Dr.King offered to give him a chance to speak on this situation during the speech but Russel declined wanting Dr.King to speak his mind and not let anyone interrupt. Russel continued to show appreciation for important causes by making an appearance in the likes of the Cleveland summit where Muhammad Ali made his decision to not serve in the military when they were asking him to for the Vietnam war. For all these important causes that he showed his support in, Bill Russel was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also awarded a sculpture by artist Ann Hirsch. After everything he accomplished he stayed an advocate till this day including being part of a stand with Colin Kaepernick by taking a knee and even spoke about the Milwaukee Bucks as the team was not playing their game against the Orlando Magic after the shooting of Jacob Blake.