Boston Celtic icon and legend Bill Russell is known for winning 11 championships in his career. He is single handedly the most successful winning basketball player in NBA history. No one player past or present has had as many titles while playing the game. However, there is something the great Russell himself did not know that he revealed in an interview.
With all of his championships and his team being so consistent, Russell did not know for a long time that his Celtic team won eight straight championships. He did not know about it until he read about it in a game program about 20 years ago.
“It might seem strange but I did not know our Celtic teams won eight championships in a row until about 20 years ago when I read about it in a game program. Our focus was always on that particular season, always one year at a time. The year we played had nothing to do with the previous year or the next year. That’s just the way it was,” said Russell, according to NBA.
Despite the Hall of Fame center not knowing his team won that many championships in a row, he does have an interesting outlook on why his teams were a force to be wrecking with. His philosophy is that his team did not have a player in his 13 career who lead the league in scoring so it would not be a hard transition for other players to join the Celtics and pick up where another player left off.
“In my 13 years, the Celtics never had a player who led the league in scoring. As a result, when someone retired, it allowed another player to step into that slot, which enabled for a high level of consistency,” said Russell, reported by ESPN.