NBA retiring Bill Russell's No 6 number throughout league

You only need 15 numbers on an NBA team. Meh

It's not like the Yankees where you have 25 players and half the numbers under 50 are retired.

nvm

Retiring numbers in general is one of the dumbest things in sports. It’s a frickin number.

I could understand the Jackie Robinson reasoning because it was beyond athletic excellence...

But I don't understand the league-wide of Russell and Gretzky...is the NBA going to retire #23?

quote:

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When Jordan dies

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Gretzky is still alive

Pretty dumb to do this AFTER he’s dead.

For what?

Yes, he was an absolutely great player. Yes, he won more titles than anyone with his TEAM (of course, most of that period the NBA only had 8 or 9 teams). He's one of the best players in league history and in Celtics history....which is why the Celtics retired his number. But I don't really understand a league-wide number retirement. He wasn't the first player to break the color barrier (like Robinson). And unlike Gretzky, he isn't generally recognized as the best player to ever play the game. One of the best? No question. But you never hear anyone say he was the best player ever. Hell, many would argue Kareem was a better center (Kareem won 6 MVPs to Russell's 5).

That's not a slight against Russell. But given all of the great players in NBA history, if you held a vote yesterday as to who should be the first player to have his number retired league wide, Russell wouldn't win. This is just a byproduct of our society that always has to live in the moment and "do something" just to "do something".

The man lived to be 88 years old. He hadn't played or coached in over 30 years. His accomplishments were already long established. So why wait until a week after he dies to do this? Why not let him appreciate the honor during his life? The reason is simple. Because prior to his death there was no burning desire by the NBA to bestow such an honor...until it presented an opportunity to virtue signal

So who is next? Kareem? He's arguably a better player.

Jordan? He's generally recognized as the greatest player ever and popularized the NBA (and Nike) world-wide.

wait, what? is that real? every nba floor is going to have a celtics style #6 on their floor? is that for every game?

This reminds me of when the MSB flipped the frick out about the advertisement patches on the jerseys, then no one ever noticed or watched the games any less because of the add on the jersey.