Why Bill Russell finally, quietly accepted his Hall of Fame ring 44 years later

Bill Russell received a ring from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame recently in a small ceremony in Southern California, a long overdue tribute that sparks obvious questions and complicated answers.

Why didn’t he have a Hall of Fame ring in the first place? Has something changed? What was the ceremony like? Who all was there? Where were all the reporters? Who presented it to him? How did Mr. Russell react?

The details are hard to come by, but they’re all about people in the present doing what they can to acknowledge mistakes of the past.

Ann Meyers Drysdale and Jerry Colangelo help provide context. Alonzo Mourning adds gravitas. And Gary Payton is Gary Payton.

And they’ve come together to make sure Bill Russell knows how much we all appreciate everything he did on the court and the stances he took off of it.

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'He had not been ... for a long time'

The way Bill Russell saw it, he shouldn’t have been the first.

Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, Earl Lloyd, Reece “Goose” Tatum, Marques Haynes, “Wee” Willie Smith, William “Pops” Gates …

All of these men and countless others came before, so why should Russell have been the first black player selected for the basketball Hall of Fame? Sure, the New York Rens had gone in as a team. And Bob Douglas was in as the squad’s owner and coach.

But the hall had been inducting classes every year since 1959, and by 1975, there were no black players individually recognized? Not one?

Fine.

Russell might be the first, but he wasn’t going to sit up there and grin and accept recognition that felt more like a slap in the face.

So, he didn’t.

It’s taken more than 40 years to get it fixed.

“In 1975, when Mr. Russell was elected to the Hall of Fame, he chose not to attend his own enshrinement,” basketball Hall of Fame president and CEO John Delova said.

"He felt there were early African-American pioneers who should have been recognized before him. So, he decided with that stance that he was not going to attend the event.

"To my knowledge, he had not been to the Hall of Fame for a long time. From ’75 to probably 2010 or so."

'A very exclusive club'

You can’t have a basketball Hall of Fame without Bill Russell.

He’s the greatest winner in the history of American team sports. The guy’s got two NCAA championships, an Olympic gold medal and 11 NBA titles in 13 years, including eight in a row and two as a player-coach.

As an individual, he was MVP five times and a 12-time All-Star.

If Russell isn’t involved, then the whole thing lacks credibility.

Colangelo stepped in a few years ago to see whether he could help make things right.  

"I can remember, I’m going back now four or five years ago, I was with Bill at a restaurant next to the Hall of Fame in Springfield, and we were talking about his situation and our desire to really get him back in the fold," Colangelo said.  

"It’s a very exclusive club. And to have one of the greatest of all time not participating or not being a part of what’s happening is our loss. And in my opinion, a loss for him. We were just working closer to bringing him acceptance."

Russell started coming around more.

He presented Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming when they went into the hall in 2016. He did the same for former Suns executive Rick Welts in 2018.

"Eventually," Delova said, "we got around to the point where at last year’s enshrinement, we got a ring made, but the timing didn’t work out."

'He made a difference'

Russell is famously, painfully modest.

Maybe that’s why he’s allowing people to show him the respect he deserves? Maybe he just doesn’t have it in him to disappoint them by declining?

Just as long as they didn’t make too big a fuss over it.

And so a small group — including Hall of Famers Ann Meyers Drysdale, Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton — gathered on Nov. 15 at a ritzy home near Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California, to give Russell his Hall of Fame ring.

There was a charity golf tournament going on outside, and the select group slipped off into a side room and put Bill Russell in a chair up front.

He picked Mourning to present to him.

"It sent chills up my spine, understanding the history of why he did not receive it," Mourning said.

He respected Russell’s wishes and didn’t say much.

"I basically spoke to the fact that we all as Hall of Fame members appreciate his contributions and his greatness," Mourning said.  

"It was short. It wasn’t anything long."

Mourning first met Russell about 30 years ago. His coach at Georgetown University, John Thompson, played with Russell in Boston and put them together.

Mourning, who won a championship with the Miami Heat, has seen Russell as a mentor ever since.

"Not only was he the greatest winner in sports — at all levels — but he has to go up there with Muhammad Ali as one of the greatest humanitarians, as well," he said.

Meyers Drysdale, a Suns broadcaster and executive with the Phoenix Mercury, has known Russell for decades, as well. She remembers Russell telling stories about how poorly he was treated as a black man in the 1950s and ’60s, and how he refused to accept it.

"There can be no neutrals in the battle for human rights," Russell wrote in "Go Up for Glory," his 1966 autobiography. "If you are for the status quo, then you are against the rights of man, because you are afraid to rock the boat.

"Baby, I rocked the boat … there have been backlashes of it ever since."

But in his Twitter post telling the world that he had received his Hall of Fame ring, he made a point of saying, "Good to see progress." He was talking about Chuck Cooper, who went into the Hall in September.

Cooper in 1950 was the first black player drafted into the NBA. He was the first black Celtic.

"There’s a lot to him," Meyers Drysdale said of Russell.

"He made a difference," she added. "He made a difference in this country."

'That's just Bill'

You might think this is all a big deal, because it is a big deal.

Just not to Russell.

I made attempts to contact him for this story, but he doesn’t do many interviews. 

And besides, it’s not his reputation to get too high about this sort of thing.

The room was quiet during the presentation. Everyone recognized what was going on. And no one wanted to spoil it.

Russell had a huge smile on his face.

"To witness Bill get that ring," Payton said. "It was history."

Payton, an analyst for 'The Warmup" on NBA TV, knows Russell fairly well. He’ll tell you that greatest Celtic isn’t too impressed by too many things — not even the ring ceremony.

"Afterward, I went and sat next to him, and Bill was acting like nothing was happening … He was on his phone, playing solitaire. That's Bill, you know what I’m sayin'?"

It’s important to Payton that Russell and all the members of his generation get their due.

"I always tell kids, and people in this generation, I don't care what you think about your game, you're game ain’t like that. Your game ain't start like that. People came before that paved the way for what you’re doing. Get up. If you see Dr. J, if you see Bill Russell … all these dudes, man, if you see these types of guys, man, Jerry West, man, get up and shake their hand and tell them, 'Hello. How're you doin'? I’ve idolized you.' And even if you don’t, go YouTube 'em."

Follow Greg Moore on Twitter @WritingMoore