Maccabi and Cleveland’s ex-coach shares his thoughts about the Celtics’ legendary center, who passed away this week at the age of 88: “Meeting him was one of the highlights of my career.”
For young Blatt, Russell was a role model. “I grew up on the Celtics and Russell,” says Blatt, who returned to Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv this summer as chairman of the professional committee and advisor to the club. “He was an idol for me, not only because he played for the greatest NBA team of all time but also because of his character and leadership on the court.”
“I would sit in my room as a child with a small transistor radio, listen to the Celtics games and connect immediately with Russel,” Blatt recalls. “I even dedicated the first essay I wrote in my life, in my fourth year at school, to him.”
They say you shouldn’t meet your idols, but David’s meeting with Russell disproves this claim. “After game 3 in the finals against Golden State, a game we won, I saw Bill, shook his hand, and we exchanged a few sentences,” Maccabi’s ex-coach shares, “it was one of the highlights of my basketball career because of the appreciation and love I had for him.”
When asked what he took from Russell as a coach, Blatt says: “I always thought that teamwork is a key element in basketball, and he was the symbol of that. He didn’t care about statistics, even though he had amazing numbers in several parameters. He just wanted his team to win and his teammates to feel valuable”.
Beyond Russell’s professional achievements, he was a vocal advocate for equal rights and social justice. The center, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was the first black coach in professional sports in the US when appointed as a coach/player of the Celtics in 1966. “He was one of the first athletes who publicly and in his actions shed light on the importance of the battle to improve human rights. He wasn’t afraid to stand up and say what he thought even if it led to confrontations with some of the fans, and he deserves respect for it”.
