NBA, Celtics Honor Russell

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain went one-on-one again Wednesday night, 30 years after they last battled on an NBA court.

Their confrontation was verbal and good-natured, and again Russell came out on top as many of the NBA's greatest players turned out to honor the Hall of Fame center who led the Boston Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons.

"The man is greedy," Chamberlain said with a smile before the carefully orchestrated show, which lasted nearly three hours. "He has 11 rings and 10 fingers."

And two ceremonies at which his uniform number 6 was retired.

The first came on March 12, 1972, in an empty Boston Garden before a game that afternoon. His number was raised to the rafters with just a few people participating, the way he wanted it done.

The second came Wednesday night in a show, emceed by Bill Cosby with thousands of paying spectators at the FleetCenter. And plenty of other basketball legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, Julius Erving, Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek were in attendance.

Russell and Celtics vice chairman Red Auerbach re-raised the banner bearing Russell's number.

Then Russell told the audience, "I am terribly, terribly embarrassed.

"The things that I did with my team were what I thought I should do and the life that I led is the life that I thought I should lead."

Football great Jim Brown also was there.

"He is a person of great character," Brown said of Russell. "If you can't stand the brutal truth, don't talk to Bill Russell."

Of Russell's 11 titles, seven came against Chamberlain-led teams.

"He's an integral part of my career," said Russell, 65. "He made me better and I made him better."

Together, they made the game of basketball better.

Abdul-Jabbar said the tribute to Russell is overdue now that Michael Jordan has left the game.

"People really haven't appreciated him. Maybe this time it's appropriate," he said. "Because of the extraordinary dominance of Michael Jordan, people have gotten pretty myopic about what happened in the '50s and '60s.

"Seven championships in a row. That says it all."

NBA commissioner David Stern said, though, "we've always had a good historical perspective on Bill Russell.

"I'll step out on a limb and say in a couple of 100 years, no one is going to win 11 championships in 13 years."

Russell said he didn't want his number retired in 1972, but Auerbach, his former coach, insisted.

Russell said he agreed to do it again Wednesday so he could be linked publicly with teammates whose numbers also hang on banners from the FleetCenter rafters and to raise money for the National Mentoring Partnership, a group that arranges for adults to guide youngsters.

A proud, private man, Russell Boston's first black sports star lived in the largely wite Boston suburb of Reading, where his house was vandalized. He was perceived by many as aloof and didn't sign autographs.

"I never had any problem with the fans," Russell said Wednesday. But how did he feel about others in the Boston area?

"The opposite of love is not hate," he said. "The opposite of love is indifference."

None of the players at Wednesday night's ceremony hid their admiration for Russell, a defensive wizard who averaged only 15.1 points per game to go with 22.5 rebounds but measured his success in victories and titles.

"I admired Bill when I was in high school," Abdul-Jabbar said. "I could not have had the career that I had if it had not been for people like Bill who showed us how to do it."

"He had to be the first guy to play above the rim," said Erving, who spent a lot of time up there.

Russell retired after the 1968-69 season. In his last game, Chamberlain outscored him 18-6 and outrebounded him 27-21. But the Celtics won that seventh game of the NBA Finals 108-106, giving Russell his final championship.

"One of the best things that happened to me was Wilt coming into the league," Russell said. "I realized if I didn't improve, I'd be embarrassed every night."

And on Wednesday night, they were together again as Russell finally had his number retired in front of thousands of cheering spectators.

"It's a wonderful testament to the fact that legends don't die," said Dave Cowens, who replaced Russell as Boston's center. "They come back."

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