bill russell won eight championships in a row.
bill russell won eight championships in a row.
how many championships in a row did bill russell win?
eight
in russell's penultimate season of 1967–68, his numbers slowly declined, but at age 34, he still tallied 12.5 points per game and 18.6 rebounds per game (the latter good for the third highest average in the league). in the eastern division finals, the 76ers had the better record than the celtics and were slightly favored. but then, national tragedy struck as martin luther king was assassinated on april 4, 1968. with eight of the ten starting players on sixers and celtics being black, both teams were in deep shock, and there were calls to cancel the series. in a game called as "unreal" and "devoid of emotion", the sixers lost 127–118 on april 5. in game 2, philadelphia evened the series with a 115–106 win, and in games 3 and 4, the sixers won, with chamberlain suspiciously often defended by celtics backup center wayne embry, causing the press to speculate russell was worn down. prior to game 5, the celtics seemed dead: no nba team had ever come back from a 3–1 deficit. however, the celtics rallied back, winning game 5 122–104 and game 6 114–106, powered by a spirited havlicek and helped by a terrible sixers shooting slump. in game 7, 15,202 stunned philadelphia fans witnessed a historic 100–96 defeat, making it the first time in nba history a team lost a series after leading 3–1. russell limited chamberlain to only two shot attempts in the second half. despite this, the celtics were leading only 97–95 with 34 seconds left when russell closed out the game with several consecutive clutch plays. he made a free throw, blocked a shot by sixers player chet walker, grabbed a rebound off a miss by sixers player hal greer, and finally passed the ball to teammate sam jones, who scored to clinch the win. boston then beat the los angeles lakers 4–2 in the nba finals, giving russell his tenth title in 12 years. for his efforts russell was named "sports illustrated"'s sportsman of the year. after losing for the fifth straight time against russell and his celtics, hall-of-fame lakers guard jerry west stated, "if i had a choice of any basketball player in the league, my no.1 choice has to be bill russell. bill russell never ceases to amaze me."
bill russell
bullet::::- 2nd-highest playoff career average (24.5) – record held by bill russell









































bullet::::- 2nd-most consecutive seasons with 1,000+ rebounds (10) – record held by bill russell









































bullet::::- 2nd-most rebounds in a half (31 vs. the boston celtics on november 24, 1960) – record held by bill russell









































bullet::::- 2nd-most rebounds in a quarter (17 vs. the syracuse nationals on february 5, 1960) – record held by nate thurmond, 2nd place is shared with three performances by bill russell









































bullet::::- 2nd-most rebounds in a 3-game nba playoff series (69 vs. the syracuse nationals in 1961) – record held by bill russell
list of career achievements by wilt chamberlain