The G.O.A.T.

Ase,

Your support for Russell is quite understandable and justified.  Russell was always there and seemed to always stand for the right things.  For the same reason, Jim Brown may still be considered the G.O.A.T. of all football players. I am mindful that when Ali refused induction to the Armed Services, Russell and Brown convened the Ali Summit in Cleveland of prominent black athletes who supported Ali's position.  One of the prominent black athletes was a sophomore from UCLA by the name of Lew Alcindor, the man who would later become Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the NBA's only six time MVP and the NBA's still all-time scoring leader. 

Recently, Kareem was asked about the activism of the modern black athlete and the one athlete he particularly singled out for his activism was Lebron James.

https://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2018/06/kareem_abdul-jabbar_encouraged.html


So, it may be that even in regards to social activism, Lebron must be considered one of the all-time greats. And even if social activism is to be considered as part of the package, he still is in running for being the G.O.A.T.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

P.S.  Bill Russell, along with Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, Jim Hines, and MC Hammer, are alumni of McClymonds High School, a tough inner city high school in West Oakland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClymonds_High_School

One of the great stories this Spring is the news that 97% of the 2018 McClymonds High School graduating class will be going to college next Fall. 

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/05/17/97-percent-of-mcclymonds-graduating-class-heading-to-college/

Sometimes things can change ... if we really want them to.

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Brothers (and Interested Sisters),

Basketball discussions, like "integration" and superhero comic character analysis, is another one of my touchstones. So once more I can't help but lift my self-imposed hermitage.

Submitted for your consideration: When evaluating the "best" of all time, should the analysis transcend the purism of skills, abilities, and statistics and also include the dimension of social and political circumstances and impact? 

For example, to me, the greatest boxer of all time was indeed The Greatest, Muhammad Ali. Did he lose? Yes. In his prime, could he have taken Johnson, Marciano, Dempsey, Louis, or Tyson? Only IBM's Watson knows. But compare the complete character and meaning of Ali to someone like Mayweather and it ain't even close. Ali is the reason black athletes now command millions. Notwithstanding his illness, Ali, like Bill Bradley, could have become a US Senator when he left the ring. Ali's boxing career became a platform and metaphor for the civil rights movement, the anti Vietnam War movement, and a unanimous Supreme Court decision affirming religious rights and freedom. Should a GOAT be measured by more than his or her sports metrics? Is athletically thriving despite adversity like Jesse Owens, Tiger Woods, Billie Jean King, and Venus Williams to name but a few something to be  mused in the context of a GOAT?

Jackie Robinson probably wasn't the GOAT baseball "player", but there are other much deeper reasons regarding why #42 is retired and immortalized in MLB and is enshrined on the wall of all of its stadiums. Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige were better players. But Mr. Rickey presciently chose Jackie because he knew that he had to be a different kind of GOAT under all of the conditions and barriers that existed at the time. So the GOAT, from that perspective, transcended the realm of athleticism and entered one of an ethereal kind of sports existentialism.

In that regard, Bill Russell is famously reputed to have said: "I play for the Celtics, not Boston". To me, that one simple statement of consciousness alone sets him apart from the Michael/Kobe/LeBron GOAT herd. This was a remarkable thing for a black man to believe and openly say at a time and in a city that was the last to place a black man on their MLB roster (and also did not allow blacks to work in Fenway Park); responded in a survey conducted during Russell's tenure that the reason attendance to Celtic games was down was because there were too many black players; who's police chief now posits Red Auerbach as a major civil rights icon; and that still throws trash at a black opposing player on the baseball field. Also, during Russell's career, there was no mass SM hype, superfly clothes, or cable sports packages; no multi-zillion dollar contracts; no Nike sponsorships with Spike Lee ads; and no oxygenated bariatric chambers, yoga and ballet instructors, or zen training guides. You just balled. Not saying other GOAT candidates are soft or out of touch, but their social, media, financial, and celebrity cushions were not there for Russell. Could they have achieved GOATdom during Russell's time and under his circumstances? It's like understanding and accepting, in the context of their respective times, why Jesse Jackson could never be the civil rights GOAT over Reverend King.

Notably, Russell also became a player-coach in 1966 during a time when quarterbacks, pitchers, and coaches were all predominantly white domains and vocations. These were the "thinking" positions, and blacks athletes were hired primarily for their brawn, not their brains. Hence, Russell was recognized not only for his physical abilities but also for his intellectual basketball acumen. He was one of the best defensive players and strategists who ever played basketball.  As the saying goes: Offense makes nice highlights, but defense wins championships. Can't score, can't win. Russell had 11 of them to prove that point. He turned defensive shot blocking into an art form focusing upon not fouling, keeping the ball in bounds (and actively directing it into a fast break), and not committing a goal tend. Coached from college to defend flat footed, Russell brought the art of defensive jumping and offensive rebounding to the game to create a more dynamic and aggressive defensive approach. The NBA did not officially begin recording blocked shots as a statistic until the 1973-74 season. However, pundits say Chamberlain or Russell would be one and two, respectively (with Russell being a better quality blocker), when listed beside Olajuwon, Abdul-Jabbar, and O'Neal. The objective, Russell would say, was not to block every shot, but to psych your opponent into thinking that you could. You could say that Russell (and Chamberlain, in all fairness) influenced the creation of a whole new official NBA statistical category.

To me, Russell was (and remains) the GOAT to basketball in the way that Ali was the GOAT to boxing. In addition to dominating their respective sports, their social and political presence transcended mere athletic glory. Russell was grace, dignity, professionalism, and literate brilliance on and off the court. He defied and spoke out against black stereotypes. He wasn't all about personal glory when playing a team sport. He didn't allow the shoe companies or sponsors to dominate or dictate his career or his statements. He made other great players even greater. He spoke up and out against racism, injustice, and the maltreatment of black Americans, particularly in Boston. He fearlessly called out Boston's hypocrisy for loving the Celtics' championships, but hating the black men who helped win them. He demanded, and received, a contract for $100,001 after Chamberlain signed a $100,000 contract. At 29, he participated in the Cleveland Summit in support of Ali. At 84, he took a knee in solidarity with black NFL players while sporting his Presidential Medal, thus making a simple photo statement countering the false narrative that the NFL anthem protest is against the American flag or American troops or is in any way against America, but is against American racial unfairness and injustice. He had at one time even purchased land in Liberia. He wasn't a spoiled on-the-court crybaby (James), a self-serving egomaniac (Bryant), or a corporate child labor enriched megalomaniac (Jordan). Also, he has the eleven rings and trophies to certify his claim to GOAT-ness, as many as Jordan and Bryant combined.

Addressing an aside, there certainly is a reason why Jerry West is (and someone like Oscar Robinson is not) the NBA logo. Just look at the racial composition of NBA All Star rosters over time and it becomes apparent. In 1969 when the NBA logo was conceived, America was not ready to displace Captain America with the Black Panther, despite the latter's comparatively superior skill set. White NBA stars could be mediocre in natural talent and were lauded; black players had to be superhuman. But the logo likeness of the player who would represent the league was a whole different matter, especially since no blacks participated in the decision to determine who's form would represent the logo for what was becoming a predominantly black sport. 

But that task was assigned to Alan Siegel, a marketing guy. And his marketing perception of the NBA logo was West's "symmetry" as a representation of the game. Think Oscars, especially Best Director, where a white Academy sets the standards for representative film making. Think current Amherst President, and despite the fact that black men have been graduating from our alma mater for 150 years before implementing coeducation, there has never been a black one. Sterns and Silvers get $10 million a year or more to manage a plantation cartel where all of the owners are white and most of the workers are black. Sound familiar? Where was the black NBA Commissioner who was also a player (and not just a lawyer like Silver or a Harvard B-School grad like Mark Tatum) when the representative logo decision was being made? Why not Russell or Chamberlain dunking the ball? Or Oscar or Elgin taking a J? I guess the ticket buying and commercial watching demographics wouldn't stand up to that. Like the Boston fans said about why they did not attend Celtic games, too many black players.

Kudos to Bob Bellinger for concisely chronicling the historical black impact on American professional basketball from the minstrelsy of the Globetrotters, through the furnace and forge of the ABA, and into shaping and crafting the modern NBA. Although Chuck Taylors morphed into Air Jordans, the first black NBA team owner didn't emerge in the league until 2002.  Sixteen years later, there is still only one majority black NBA team owner. The NBA gives you that Cadillac Records (Siegel, Stern, Silver - picking up a pattern here?) kind of feeling. Nice that Curry has a $200 million contract, but his team is worth $2 billion to its owner. If white men could jump, would black men own their sports franchises? Still such a long way to go.

Getting back on point, if we employed a purely overall "total package", skills, and accomplishment based analysis, I, too, would have to go with 'Bron, even above players like Magic, Sir Charles, and Doctor J. Over the span of fourteen years, King James has spent 65% of his career in the NBA Finals. James has carried two different teams into eight consecutive Eastern Conference Championships (not to mention a 2007 ninth, albeit brief, Finals appearance against the Spurs). It is a Russell-esque feat to behold. If the Cavs had built better teams around him (it took at minimum both Kyrie and Love to defeat a pre-Durant Golden State), he would have more rings (presently, George Hill couldn't hit a clutch free throw and JR Smith couldn't even remember the score in the closing seconds of a winnable Game 1 in this year's NBA Finals). James is in the continuing process of shattering just about every NBA and Playoff record that has ever been set. And, at 33, he probably has at least 5-7 more years to play based upon his rigorous physical conditioning and maintenance (yes, his $1 million oxygenated bariatric chamber is really a thing). That's my alternate opinion if the GOAT was just about athletic abilities and achievement.

But then isn't, and hasn't, the American sports landscape always been about somewhat more than just who are the best and most winningest teams and players in the game? Take a good look at the John Carlos/Tommy Smith '68 Olympics photo. Watch Ken Burns' "Baseball".  Consider the disgraceful treatment that Jesse Owens suffered while at the '39 Berlin Olympics and even after returning home from them. Or just ask Colin Kaepernick who's been blackballed from a job, or even the Warriors and the Eagles who ain't going to the White House. Perhaps all of these events and people might not agree with the old adage about what happens on the field staying there. As a GOAT, especially a black one, what happens off the field might be significantly more important than actual game day performances.

Having said all of that, I feel better now, and can go back to my hut to watch Game 3.

Ase '75

"I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies." 

- Bill Russell