The Dominance of Bill Russell

Bill Russell was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  After hearing the news, I set out to dig through some old studies I had done.  I finally found what I was looking for on an auxiliary HDD.



I think that Russell is the second best player of all time-- never mind center. (No, Michael Jordan was the best individual scorer but not the best player ever.  That honor rests with Oscar Robertson.)

The league was pretty rough and tumble back in those days and a lot of stuff wasn't called. About five years or so ago I came up with a rough guesstimate that Russell averaged close to 650 blocks per season in his prime. Wilt Chamberlain probably averaged close to 500 per season in his prime.

That may seem astronomical but you have to remember that teams played at a very fast pace in those days.  Bill averaged ~42 MPG for his career and rarely missed games.  Fouls were called less frequently.  Russell was likely one of the top all-around athletes, with size, of his time.  There was no three point line so players generally took shots closer to the basket in those days and offensive players likely had less of an idea how to counteract shotblockers.  Though he could score, Russell put most of his energy into defense and rebounding.  All these factors contributed to his and his team's dominance.

Assuming that my estimation is true, provided we also account for his aging and drop-off in performance, Russell was probably somewhere around a 7.25-7.45 BLK% player.   For a bit of perspective, that would put him 3rd or 4th all-time.  Could he have blocked more?  Maybe but I feel pretty confident that if he did, it wasn't too many more.

Rebounding-wise, it is just so hard to tell because of the lack of pertinent data. That being said, I did estimate that Russell was likely a 21.0-21.5 career REB% guy. Again, for perspective, that would have likely put him 3rd all-time after Dennis Rodman and Wilt.  His prime years were probably similar to Rodman's last two years in Chicago (except not as dominant ORB%) and you were probably looking at Russ putting up 24.0-25.0 REB% during that time.

All that being said, we do know, from the historical data we do have, that the max out point for defensive rebound percentage in the modern age is about 35%. Only one player has ever had a season when he exceeded that cut-off (92-93 Rodman) but Ben Wallace came pretty close in the 02-03 season when he recorded a 34.95 DRB%. I have a hard time believing that Russell was not in the 31.0-32.0 DRB% for his career and probably inched up towards the 35% mark during his prime.

The better shotblockers change two shots for every one they block.  Be it from directly challenging the shot to the last burger causing Antoine Walker-itis and the player throwing it up before another block can happen. The elite shotblockers are truly game-changers in regards to protecting the tin.

My opinion, from what little classic games I have seen of Russell, is that Russ totally altered the game at the defensive end of the floor. He was quick enough to jump passing lanes and he had the agility and coordination to cause a ton of deflections.  He was most certainly a defensive game-changer with his shotblocking alone and he was likely an all-time great rebounder and help defender.