The Celtics also picked up Tommy Heinsohn and K.C. Jones, Russell's college teammate, in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late because he was leading the U.S. to the Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the league's best record.
The Celtics won the NBA championship - their first of 17 - in a double-overtime seventh game against Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks. Russell won his first MVP award the next season, but the Hawks won the title in a finals rematch. The Celtics won it all again in 1959, starting an unprecedented string of eight consecutive NBA crowns.
A 6-foot-10 center, Russell never averaged more than 18.9 points during his 13 seasons, each year averaging more rebounds per game than points. For 10 seasons he averaged more than 20 rebounds. He once had 51 rebounds in a game; Chamberlain holds the record with 55.
Auerbach retired after winning the 1966 title, and Russell became the player-coach - the first Black head coach in NBA history, and almost a decade before Frank Robinson took over baseball's Cleveland Indians. Boston finished with the best regular-season record in the NBA, but its title streak ended with a loss to Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division finals.
Russell led the Celtics back to titles in 1968 and '69, each time winning seven-game playoff series against Chamberlain. Russell retired after the '69 finals, returning for a relatively successful - but unfulfilling -- four-year stint as coach and GM of the Seattle SuperSonics and a less fruitful half season as coach of the Sacramento Kings.
Russell's No. 6 jersey was retired by the Celtics in 1972. He earned spots on the NBA's 25th anniversary all-time team in 1970, 35th anniversary team in 1980 and 75th anniversary team. In 1996, he was hailed as one of the NBA's 50 greatest players. In 2009, the MVP trophy of the NBA Finals was named in his honor.
In 2013, a statue was unveiled on Boston's City Hall Plaza of Russell surrounded by blocks of granite with quotes on leadership and character. Russell was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 but did not attend the ceremony, saying he should not have been the first African American elected. (Chuck Cooper, the NBA's first Black player, was his choice.)
In 2019, Russell accepted his Hall of Fame ring in a private gathering. "I felt others before me should have had that honor," he tweeted. "Good to see progress."
"I cherished my friendship with Bill and was thrilled when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Silver said in his statement. "I often called him basketball's Babe Ruth for how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner and consummate teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever. We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Jeannine, his family and his many friends."
His family said that arrangements for Russell's memorial service will be announced in the coming days.