Steph Curry, Barack Obama and More Celebs React to NBA Legend, Bill Russell's Death

etonline.com:

NBA legend, Bill Russell. The 11-time NBA champion as a player, coach with the Boston Celtics and one of the most important figures in NBA history, died at the age of 88, his family announced Sunday, with his wife Jeannine by his side.

His family announced the sad news in a statement shared to Twitter, where they reflected on Russell's lasting legacy and his accomplishments both on and off the court.«Bill’s two state championships in high school offered a glimmer of the incomparable run of pure team accomplishment to come: twice an NCAA champion; captain of a gold-medal-winning US Olympic team; 11 times an NBA champion; and at the helm for two NBA championships as the first black head coach of any North American professional sports team,» the statement read. «Along the way, Bill earned a string of individual awards that stands unprecedented as it went unmentioned by him.

In 2009, the award for the NBA Finals most valuable player was renamed after two-time Hall of Famer as the 'Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.'»«But for all the winning, Bill's understanding of the struggle is what illuminated his life.

From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask too-long-tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi's first integrated basketball camp in the combustible wake of Medgar Evans' assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom...,» the statement, which included a photo of Russell, his wife and their two dogs continued. «Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candor that he intended would disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and.