Bill Russell Quotations

What's more important than who's going to be the first black manager is who's going to be the first black sports editor of the New York Times.

I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.

My father once told me that anyone who worked for three dollars an hour owed it to himself to put in four dollars' worth of work.

The most important thing to me is the friends that I've made.

People say it was the greatest individual rivalry they've ever seen. I agree with that. Let me assure you that if either Wilt's or Russ' coach had ever told one of them he couldn't guard the other guy, he would have lost that player forever.

The morale and the camaraderie that we had for one another earlier in the year is starting to come under duress because of all the losses. Some of the guys are feeling the pressure now from the last year when they were not successful.

We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us—anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.

We overreached our decision power. Sometimes our decisions have to fit the reality of the outside world.

Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.

The magic to a great meeting is all of the work that's done beforehand.