{"id":1321502,"date":"2021-02-18T15:06:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T20:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1321502"},"modified":"2023-06-10T18:31:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T22:31:46","slug":"why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Isn't Bill Russell Ever in the NBA GOAT Conversation With Michael Jordan or LeBron James?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When it comes to the NBA's GOAT, there always seems to be a certain <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/boston-celtics\">Boston Celtics<\/a> player left out of the conversation. Michael Jordan and LeBron James are always at the top of the list, but there's much more to NBA all-time greats than those two. Why is <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/bill-russell-secures-8th-straight-title-in-red-auerbachs-final-game-boston-celtics-championship-history-moment-no-13\/\">Bill Russell<\/a> hardly mentioned regarding the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-or-lebron-james-who-do-nba-players-think-is-the-goat\/\">NBA's GOAT<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-michael-jordan-and-lebron-james-always-lead-the-way\">Michael Jordan and LeBron James always lead the way<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Strike up a conversation <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/83-year-old-bill-russell-said-5-words-prove-greatest-center-of-all-time\/\">about the NBA's GOAT<\/a>, and the first two names you'll likely hear are Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Jordan and James are certainly two of the best to play the game and have a combined 10 NBA titles. The two have also racked up a combined nine MVPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/michael-jordan\/\">Michael Jordan<\/a> was the talk of the NBA in the late '80s and '90s. He was the face of the NBA when he helped the Chicago Bulls earn a pair of three-peats. Jordan is a 10-time scoring champion and took home MVP honors five times. In all six of the Bulls' championships, Jordan was named the NBA Finals MVP. He averaged 30.1 points per game over his 15-year career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Jordan getting 73% of NBA players&#039; GOAT vote is &#039;hilarious&#039; - Max Kellerman | First Take\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OKnV2NCZ6WQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>James is still going strong in his 18th year in the NBA. At age 38, he's averaging 28.9 points per game and is coming off his fourth NBA title. He's been named All-NBA 19 times and is a four-time MVP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-makes-someone-the-goat\">What makes someone the GOAT?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The GOAT topic can be found in all sports, but what exactly makes someone the greatest of all time in their respective sport? Can someone be the GOAT and not even be the best player on the field or the court? How much does it have to do with athletic ability? How heavily is winning weighed? The GOAT topic gets thrown around often, but the criteria are never quite clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/nfl-ever-retired-players-jersey-number-league-wide\/\">Tom Brady<\/a> is widely considered the GOAT of the NFL. Why? He's not the biggest, fastest, or strongest quarterback in the league. He's not nearly as gifted as some players on the field with him. Brady, however, has put together the greatest resume in the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brady has won seven Super Bowl titles. The now-retired <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tom-brady-greatest-triumphs-ranking-top-7-highlights-football-career\/\">quarterback cemented his legacy<\/a> as the game's best-ever by winning his seventh ring in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Is that what puts him over the top? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-isn-t-bill-russell-seriously-mentioned-as-the-goat\">Why isn't Bill Russell seriously mentioned as the GOAT?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Michael Jordan releases a statement on the death of Bill Russell <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qYcaPFEuYA\">pic.twitter.com\/qYcaPFEuYA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1553848573875339265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 31, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If Brady's resume is what puts him over the edge as the NFL's GOAT, former Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell needs to get much more consideration as the GOAT of the NBA. Sure, Russell wasn't as flashy or as high-scoring as Jordan and James, but he's as flashy as Brady is as a quarterback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Russell was a dominant rebounder, leading the league in that department for five years. Although he wasn't a dominant scorer, he averaged 15.1 points per game in his 13-year career. Twice, he averaged better than 18 points in a season. As a rebounder, he averaged 22.5 per game in his career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his 13 years in the NBA, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/ranking-bill-russell-11-championships-most-dominant-nba-finals-performances\/\">Russell finished with 11 championships<\/a>. Russell was also a 12-time NBA All-Star, finishing with five MVPs. There aren't many, if any, with a better NBA resume. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Stats courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russebi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Basketball Reference<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why isn't Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell ever part of the GOAT conversation with his five MVPs and 11 championships?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1571525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[447323,4814],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Isn&#039;t Bill Russell Ever in the NBA GOAT Conversation With Michael Jordan or LeBron James? - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why isn&#039;t Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell ever part of the GOAT conversation with his five MVPs and 11 championships?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Isn't Bill Russell Ever in the NBA GOAT Conversation With Michael Jordan or LeBron James?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why isn&#039;t Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell ever part of the GOAT conversation with his five MVPs and 11 championships?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-18T20:06:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-10T22:31:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bill-Russell.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"956\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/why-isnt-bill-russell-ever-in-the-nba-goat-conversation-with-michael-jordan-or-lebron-james\/\",\"name\":\"Why Isn't Bill Russell Ever in the NBA GOAT Conversation With Michael Jordan or LeBron James? 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