The #7 Player of All-Time (April 2021 Edition) - Bill Russell

 William Felton Russell was born February 12, 1934 in Monroe, Louisiana.  

Bill Russell's Celtics won 11 titles out of his 13 years, losing only to Bob Pettit's 1958 Hawks and Wilt's 1967 Sixers.  During his 13 years in the league, Russell won 5 MVPs and had the following MVP Placements:

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Russell has 133 Defensive Win Shares.  In the history of the NBA and ABA, Wilt has 2 10DWS seasons and Russell has 6.  That is it.  That is the end of the list.  Russell has a SIXTEEN DWS season!  Russell was not only clearly the greatest defensive player of all-time, he is MILES ahead of second place, and he was probably 25 years ahead of anyone as far as roaming around and blocking shots.  Literally. Watch some old Russell footage, you will feel like you are watching a player from 1990 roaming around and playing help defense while the remainder of the guys on the film are just standing around next to their men.  It was not until the late 80s and early 90s that guys realized that this was probably a great strategy defensively and they ought to start doing it.  So Russell was playing a style in the Kennedy Administration that no one really picked up on until the first Bush Administration.  That is simply mind boggling.  Compare that to Golden State learning in 2015 that barrages of 3s will kill an opponent and every team in the league picking that up about 2 years later.

So, in light of all of his titles and the fact that he probably also would have won 8+ Finals MVPs, why isn't Bill Russell #1?  Well, the offensive numbers are just SO bad.  Early in his career, Russell was a slightly above league average shooter in a league where shooting was pretty poor.  Thereafter, below league average.  PER - bad; OWS - under 30 for his career; he NEVER averaged 19 PPG despite playing nearly the entire game.  He was an above-average assist guy for a big man, but he played on teams full of Hall of Famers and almost never scored, so you'd hope he could register some assists by throwing the ball to Sharman, Cousy, Havlicek, Heinsohn, Jones, etc.

He and Wilt played in the league 10 years together.  First-team All-NBAs?  Wilt 7, Russell 2, Unseld 1.  I think the general belief of the players at the time was that he was the most important player in the league, but not necessarily the best.  

I concede that Russell is extremely difficult to rank.  If all you care about is titles, he is obviously #1.  He led his team to 11 titles.  (He had a lot of help, but he was the key guy).  If you want a guy who shines on both ends of the floor, he isn't it.  If you want a guy with overall advanced stats, he certainly isn't it (20th in WS, 28th in WS/48, not Top 100 in PER).  If you judge him based upon his advanced stats, he is just a Top 20 player (Moses, Hakeem, David area - Bob Pettit, for example, is 7th in PER and 16th in WS/48).  

I am going to say #7 - that seems like a sane ranking (ESPN has him at #4).  I won't dwell on it - it is now April 28 and I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.