Celtic Chalk Talk - Sept 28 2026
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Steve: [00:00:00] Hello, Celtic fans. It's time for another week of Celtic Chalk Talk. My name's Steve Purciello, lifelong Celtic fan. Go back to the Bill Russell days. In fact, that's who we're gonna talk about today. So I've been there and rooted ever since. Today before we begin, I wanna talk a little bit about the podcast network where this this pod is on.
It is a group of people who are fans of basketball. We're not affiliated with any company. We don't-- we just love basketball. Now, the podca- the network has both articles written and podcasts, and some live play by action on it. I really suggest that each of you try it out. Take a look. There's some great articles, there's some great pods on it, and you might find something you really like besides mine, and then you can begin to explore more about the network.
Please become a subscriber and just give [00:01:00] it a chance. You'll be very surprised about how good it is. Okay. This week we go to the number one guy I chose as the all-time Celtic, and I think there wouldn't be much argument about this. It's gotta be William Felton Russell. The first thing I'll say and which stands out is he won 11 out of 13 years playing, 11 titles.
That, that's remarkable. Now I'm gonna read some of the things that he accomplished in his career. Five-time NBA All NBA MVP. Amazing. 12-time All-Star. He was also the All-Star Game MVP in 1963. Three-time first team and eight-time second team All-NBA. Problem with being first team back then, first team and second team were chosen by position, and it was another guy who had better numbers 'cause he could score more and was great, was Wilt Chamberlain.[00:02:00]
They met a lot face to face in playoffs, which I'll talk about in a little while, but those two were considered the best, but one could only make it, and Wilt had better numbers, especially points and so on. Rebounds, they were comparable. Wilt was a tad better. But anyway, he was an all... The first year they chose all defense was '68, '69, Russell's last year.
He was the best player, the first team all defensive and all that stuff. And he deserved it, even though he was on the waning years of his career. He was also four-time re-rebounding champ, and again, Wilt stood in his way. Both averaged over 20 rebounds a game in that time. On the NBA anniversary team 25, 30, 50, and 75, and he will be on the NBA anniversary team forever.
Six number six was retired by the Celtics, but even more amazing, by the league. That tells you again, [00:03:00] the respect and the belief about him. You don't see any more sixes in the NBA unless they, were wearing it before they retired it when Russell died a couple years ago. He was the Sportsman of the Year in 1968, which is fascinating that Sports Illustrated did that every year and selected one person, and it was Bill Russell in '68.
He two-time NCAA champ. Now again, this guy was a winner, just a tremendous winner. Hall of Famer, naturally. And just-- he also he got a gold in the '56 Olympics, so he wins. He won. People put it down because he wasn't a scorer, and if you watched him shoot, he didn't shoot. He was awkward, but boy, he can block a shot and get a rebound, and he can win.
That was the things that made him separate. Now, before I even get into how the Celtics got him, I just wanna tell you, before he came along, the Celtics always had the best record with Bob Cousy as the point guard, but always got beat in the playoffs. Auerbach realized they [00:04:00] needed a big. What did they do?
They made a very interesting couple moves to get him. The first thing, they went to Rochester. There's a couple stories on that. One was the owner told Harrison, told Walter Brown, the Celtic owner, he couldn't afford him. The other story is that Walter Brown decided to give the Ice Capades for that year a little longer if they didn't select Russell.
Anyway, they decided not to. Nobody can affirm either story, so-- or confirm either story, so we don't know the actual truth. Then the St. Louis Hawks had the second pick. Now, Auerbach at the time, and Ben Kerner, the owner, Auerbach had worked for him. There wasn't love there but Ben Kerner wanted Ed Macauley.
Ed Macauley was one of the best Celtics at the time. He wanted him in a trade for Russell. Now, Auerbach did that deal [00:05:00] McCauley, the reason Colonel Autumn, he thought he was great, but he also believed he was from the area and could help in attendance. The NBA at the time had things like drafts where you could take guys that are in your territory.
So that's what they did. In fact, the year Russell came to the Celtics, they also used a territory pick for Tommy Heinsohn, and then they also got Casey Jones in the draft. Think about this, three, three Hall of Famers in the same draft. I don't think that has ever happened or will ever happen, but it gives you an idea.
Now, when we talk about him also, another accomplishment, he was the first, the very first black head coach of a major sport. And then his second year as the head coach, he won a title. So player coach for only for, I think he might be the only player coach to ever win a title. And this was [00:06:00] interesting. The story goes this way.
In his first year, Philadelphia had a tremendous team with Wilt and Luke Jackson, Billy Cunningham. They were Hal Greer. They were great. And they won the title. They beat Boston in five. Now this is 1967. I go back and I can go back a little bit before, which I will, before that. But at the time, the Philly fans, when they beat him in the fifth game, were s- basically the dynasty is dead.
They were chanting, "Boston is dead," and so on and so forth, which it seemed like, because Russell's now getting older and so on. The next year, Boston comes back. This is '68, probably why he got Sportsman of the Year. They're playing Philly again in the conference finals. They're down three to one and Philadelphia looks invincible.
Boston comes back, wins the next two. Mind you, game five was in Philly, game six in Boston, but now they have a game seven. [00:07:00] My memories, in my memories, I remember this very well. And back at the time, the games weren't on TV like they are now. It was a Friday night and there was a station, I grew up in New Jersey, there was a station called WHN that had the game on radio and I listened to it.
Boston won 100 to 96. It was a good game. Wilt in the second half, I think he took two shots in the second half. I don't know why, but that did it. And by the way when Philly lost that, they traded Wilt to the Lakers right after the, in, in that summer. So Boston beats them. I remember that, that game listening on the radio.
Then we go to 1969, Boston 48 and 34, finishes fourth. Russell was hurt a lot. We didn't know at the time, but it seemed it was his last year. 48 and 34, they finished fourth. Back then, the number two seed plays the four seed. That was the [00:08:00] Philadelphia without Wilt. Boston dispatches them easily. Then they play the upstart New York Knicks and this is the year before the Knicks and Willis Reed came walking out of the tunnel.
Boston beats them in six and now they goes to play the Lakers. Now, in '69, the Lakers had three superstars, Baylor, Wilt, who they got from Philly, and the great Jerry West. Boston played them. They lost the first two. West scored 94 in the first two games. And remember, no three-point shot then. Havlicek was great too.
He had over 70, I believe, in the first two games, but Boston's down two-nothing. Come back and win two straight and one of the highlights, and I remember this year like yesterday Boston was down a point in I believe either game three or four. But anyway, I remember this, there's a couple seconds left, Boston has the ball, down a point.
They gotta win if they-- otherwise the series is over pretty much. [00:09:00] What happens is they get Sam, they run like a rusty gate with guys at the foul line setting screens, and Jones comes behind them, catches about 18-footer, 17-footer, it goes off the front rim, back rim, and then goes in the basket. It was a Saturday afternoon, I remember watching the game, and wow, it was incredible.
Anyway, Boston wins. This goes on to win the series, winning in seven, beating the Lakers, the great Lakers, in the forum in LA in game seven. The famous quote from Red Auerbach was, "What about the, what are you gonna do with the balloons?" Because they had balloons ready. Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Lakers, had balloons ready to come down to, to do, to celebrate the Lakers dethroning the Celtics.
It didn't work out. Then what was incredible, 48 and 34, and they went on and won the whole thing, and it just showed how great Russell was. A couple things about Russell, [00:10:00] other things. First of all, he was a great civil rights person who had the courage to speak out in that time as a Black athlete, and it wasn't well received by white America, but he didn't care.
He also was one of the advisors to Muhammad Ali, who was becoming a Muslim and sat with him in a press conference and everything else and basically they all backed Ali and backed his beliefs as a Black Muslim, which was unheard of at the time. But Russell had the courage to stand for what he believed in.
And if you think about Russell, he did a lot of things, but the one thing about him was he didn't care which way the wind was blowing. If he believed in something, he believed in it. When he retired he they-- Celtics, of course, wanted to ce- put his number in the rafters. He wouldn't do it in front of the people 'cause he was bitter about Boston.
He had his home broken into. He had a lot of [00:11:00] things that weren't good in Boston and felt it was a racist place. He didn't wanna do it in front of the fans. So they s- they, they did raise the number to the rafters in a private ceremony. Years later Russell did it in front of a crowd, and they had the cel- celebration of the retirement of the number.
But it tells you what Russell felt about Boston. Russell always believed he played for his teammates, not for anything else, and he loved his teammates. That was the biggest thing about Russell, and he always felt a brotherhood to every one of those guys who played for the Celtics. That's something that, that can be spoken of.
And y- the other thing, like I said, the ability to do things when everybody's telling you not to or against you and to be able to stand up are things that stand out about Bill Russell. My memories, I do-- I remember in the '69 series, Russell was hurt [00:12:00] during the regular-- not in the series, in the regular season.
He was hurt. What happened was he came back, and he was beat up and, and not playing as many minutes and still the coach. But he came back, and it was a play Phil- they were playing Philadelphia, and I believe it was Archie Clark, who was a really good guard at the time, going to the basket.
Russell came out of nowhere and made the big block. Boston went down the other end, win the game, t- to go on to win the game. It was just a, a great block. I remember also i- in the playoffs in '69, Russell and Chamberlain were going at it. They're playing f- in, I believe, Los Angeles. It was game five.
Wilt throws one down on him with force. Russell and the Celtics hustle the ball up the court. Russell beats Wilt down the court and throws it back down, and I'm just like, "Wow," this was how good he was. He was fast. He was such a great athlete I can remember that. I can remember a couple other things that went on in the [00:13:00] earlier '60s, how he would always block shots and, and just change games.
Y- to watch him was to love him. He was a, as I said, an All-Star MVP, and I guess it was '63, if you watch those games, they, these guys played hard in those games, and Russell won it. Another quick thing I, not a memory, and Russell, by the way, in that game was great, but not a memory, but you gotta understand this one.
In the first nine years, Russell played, they won, or ni- 10 years, they won nine titles. The year they didn't win, the year they didn't win was Russell, his second year in the NBA, his second year, he twisted his ankle and missed two games in the finals, came back in game six, St. Louis beat them in game six, but Russell played with a bad ankle and really didn't have good stats.
So what I'm saying on [00:14:00] that is, if Russell would've played healthy in that series, you might've been looking at nine straight titles. Think about that for a while, or 10 straight, I'm sorry, 10 straight titles. And that, that would've been an incredible run. That's why I think Bill Russell, number one, and I believe it's because of the tremendous winning and just the great leader that he was.
Number one in my Celtic countdown is Bill Russell, and will always be, and he will always be personally my favorite athlete of all time. That concludes, I did the top 10 all time and what I believe in Boston Celtics. Russell ends it. Next week we're gonna be back and we're gonna talk about as training camp opens today, as a matter of fact, we are going to begin to discuss what the Celtics need and what they're doing.
We'll get back to Celtic talk beginning next week. And thank you again [00:15:00] for listening, and we'll see you down the road.
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Steve: [00:00:00] Hello, Celtic fans. It's time for another week of Celtic Chalk Talk. My name's Steve Purciello, lifelong Celtic fan. Go back to the Bill Russell days. In fact, that's who we're gonna talk about today. So I've been there and rooted ever since. Today before we begin, I wanna talk a little bit about the podcast network where this this pod is on.
It is a group of people who are fans of basketball. We're not affiliated with any company. We don't-- we just love basketball. Now, the podca- the network has both articles written and podcasts, and some live play by action on it. I really suggest that each of you try it out. Take a look. There's some great articles, there's some great pods on it, and you might find something you really like besides mine, and then you can begin to explore more about the network.
Please become a subscriber and just give [00:01:00] it a chance. You'll be very surprised about how good it is. Okay. This week we go to the number one guy I chose as the all-time Celtic, and I think there wouldn't be much argument about this. It's gotta be William Felton Russell. The first thing I'll say and which stands out is he won 11 out of 13 years playing, 11 titles.
That, that's remarkable. Now I'm gonna read some of the things that he accomplished in his career. Five-time NBA All NBA MVP. Amazing. 12-time All-Star. He was also the All-Star Game MVP in 1963. Three-time first team and eight-time second team All-NBA. Problem with being first team back then, first team and second team were chosen by position, and it was another guy who had better numbers 'cause he could score more and was great, was Wilt Chamberlain.[00:02:00]
They met a lot face to face in playoffs, which I'll talk about in a little while, but those two were considered the best, but one could only make it, and Wilt had better numbers, especially points and so on. Rebounds, they were comparable. Wilt was a tad better. But anyway, he was an all... The first year they chose all defense was '68, '69, Russell's last year.
He was the best player, the first team all defensive and all that stuff. And he deserved it, even though he was on the waning years of his career. He was also four-time re-rebounding champ, and again, Wilt stood in his way. Both averaged over 20 rebounds a game in that time. On the NBA anniversary team 25, 30, 50, and 75, and he will be on the NBA anniversary team forever.
Six number six was retired by the Celtics, but even more amazing, by the league. That tells you again, [00:03:00] the respect and the belief about him. You don't see any more sixes in the NBA unless they, were wearing it before they retired it when Russell died a couple years ago. He was the Sportsman of the Year in 1968, which is fascinating that Sports Illustrated did that every year and selected one person, and it was Bill Russell in '68.
He two-time NCAA champ. Now again, this guy was a winner, just a tremendous winner. Hall of Famer, naturally. And just-- he also he got a gold in the '56 Olympics, so he wins. He won. People put it down because he wasn't a scorer, and if you watched him shoot, he didn't shoot. He was awkward, but boy, he can block a shot and get a rebound, and he can win.
That was the things that made him separate. Now, before I even get into how the Celtics got him, I just wanna tell you, before he came along, the Celtics always had the best record with Bob Cousy as the point guard, but always got beat in the playoffs. Auerbach realized they [00:04:00] needed a big. What did they do?
They made a very interesting couple moves to get him. The first thing, they went to Rochester. There's a couple stories on that. One was the owner told Harrison, told Walter Brown, the Celtic owner, he couldn't afford him. The other story is that Walter Brown decided to give the Ice Capades for that year a little longer if they didn't select Russell.
Anyway, they decided not to. Nobody can affirm either story, so-- or confirm either story, so we don't know the actual truth. Then the St. Louis Hawks had the second pick. Now, Auerbach at the time, and Ben Kerner, the owner, Auerbach had worked for him. There wasn't love there but Ben Kerner wanted Ed Macauley.
Ed Macauley was one of the best Celtics at the time. He wanted him in a trade for Russell. Now, Auerbach did that deal [00:05:00] McCauley, the reason Colonel Autumn, he thought he was great, but he also believed he was from the area and could help in attendance. The NBA at the time had things like drafts where you could take guys that are in your territory.
So that's what they did. In fact, the year Russell came to the Celtics, they also used a territory pick for Tommy Heinsohn, and then they also got Casey Jones in the draft. Think about this, three, three Hall of Famers in the same draft. I don't think that has ever happened or will ever happen, but it gives you an idea.
Now, when we talk about him also, another accomplishment, he was the first, the very first black head coach of a major sport. And then his second year as the head coach, he won a title. So player coach for only for, I think he might be the only player coach to ever win a title. And this was [00:06:00] interesting. The story goes this way.
In his first year, Philadelphia had a tremendous team with Wilt and Luke Jackson, Billy Cunningham. They were Hal Greer. They were great. And they won the title. They beat Boston in five. Now this is 1967. I go back and I can go back a little bit before, which I will, before that. But at the time, the Philly fans, when they beat him in the fifth game, were s- basically the dynasty is dead.
They were chanting, "Boston is dead," and so on and so forth, which it seemed like, because Russell's now getting older and so on. The next year, Boston comes back. This is '68, probably why he got Sportsman of the Year. They're playing Philly again in the conference finals. They're down three to one and Philadelphia looks invincible.
Boston comes back, wins the next two. Mind you, game five was in Philly, game six in Boston, but now they have a game seven. [00:07:00] My memories, in my memories, I remember this very well. And back at the time, the games weren't on TV like they are now. It was a Friday night and there was a station, I grew up in New Jersey, there was a station called WHN that had the game on radio and I listened to it.
Boston won 100 to 96. It was a good game. Wilt in the second half, I think he took two shots in the second half. I don't know why, but that did it. And by the way when Philly lost that, they traded Wilt to the Lakers right after the, in, in that summer. So Boston beats them. I remember that, that game listening on the radio.
Then we go to 1969, Boston 48 and 34, finishes fourth. Russell was hurt a lot. We didn't know at the time, but it seemed it was his last year. 48 and 34, they finished fourth. Back then, the number two seed plays the four seed. That was the [00:08:00] Philadelphia without Wilt. Boston dispatches them easily. Then they play the upstart New York Knicks and this is the year before the Knicks and Willis Reed came walking out of the tunnel.
Boston beats them in six and now they goes to play the Lakers. Now, in '69, the Lakers had three superstars, Baylor, Wilt, who they got from Philly, and the great Jerry West. Boston played them. They lost the first two. West scored 94 in the first two games. And remember, no three-point shot then. Havlicek was great too.
He had over 70, I believe, in the first two games, but Boston's down two-nothing. Come back and win two straight and one of the highlights, and I remember this year like yesterday Boston was down a point in I believe either game three or four. But anyway, I remember this, there's a couple seconds left, Boston has the ball, down a point.
They gotta win if they-- otherwise the series is over pretty much. [00:09:00] What happens is they get Sam, they run like a rusty gate with guys at the foul line setting screens, and Jones comes behind them, catches about 18-footer, 17-footer, it goes off the front rim, back rim, and then goes in the basket. It was a Saturday afternoon, I remember watching the game, and wow, it was incredible.
Anyway, Boston wins. This goes on to win the series, winning in seven, beating the Lakers, the great Lakers, in the forum in LA in game seven. The famous quote from Red Auerbach was, "What about the, what are you gonna do with the balloons?" Because they had balloons ready. Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Lakers, had balloons ready to come down to, to do, to celebrate the Lakers dethroning the Celtics.
It didn't work out. Then what was incredible, 48 and 34, and they went on and won the whole thing, and it just showed how great Russell was. A couple things about Russell, [00:10:00] other things. First of all, he was a great civil rights person who had the courage to speak out in that time as a Black athlete, and it wasn't well received by white America, but he didn't care.
He also was one of the advisors to Muhammad Ali, who was becoming a Muslim and sat with him in a press conference and everything else and basically they all backed Ali and backed his beliefs as a Black Muslim, which was unheard of at the time. But Russell had the courage to stand for what he believed in.
And if you think about Russell, he did a lot of things, but the one thing about him was he didn't care which way the wind was blowing. If he believed in something, he believed in it. When he retired he they-- Celtics, of course, wanted to ce- put his number in the rafters. He wouldn't do it in front of the people 'cause he was bitter about Boston.
He had his home broken into. He had a lot of [00:11:00] things that weren't good in Boston and felt it was a racist place. He didn't wanna do it in front of the fans. So they s- they, they did raise the number to the rafters in a private ceremony. Years later Russell did it in front of a crowd, and they had the cel- celebration of the retirement of the number.
But it tells you what Russell felt about Boston. Russell always believed he played for his teammates, not for anything else, and he loved his teammates. That was the biggest thing about Russell, and he always felt a brotherhood to every one of those guys who played for the Celtics. That's something that, that can be spoken of.
And y- the other thing, like I said, the ability to do things when everybody's telling you not to or against you and to be able to stand up are things that stand out about Bill Russell. My memories, I do-- I remember in the '69 series, Russell was hurt [00:12:00] during the regular-- not in the series, in the regular season.
He was hurt. What happened was he came back, and he was beat up and, and not playing as many minutes and still the coach. But he came back, and it was a play Phil- they were playing Philadelphia, and I believe it was Archie Clark, who was a really good guard at the time, going to the basket.
Russell came out of nowhere and made the big block. Boston went down the other end, win the game, t- to go on to win the game. It was just a, a great block. I remember also i- in the playoffs in '69, Russell and Chamberlain were going at it. They're playing f- in, I believe, Los Angeles. It was game five.
Wilt throws one down on him with force. Russell and the Celtics hustle the ball up the court. Russell beats Wilt down the court and throws it back down, and I'm just like, "Wow," this was how good he was. He was fast. He was such a great athlete I can remember that. I can remember a couple other things that went on in the [00:13:00] earlier '60s, how he would always block shots and, and just change games.
Y- to watch him was to love him. He was a, as I said, an All-Star MVP, and I guess it was '63, if you watch those games, they, these guys played hard in those games, and Russell won it. Another quick thing I, not a memory, and Russell, by the way, in that game was great, but not a memory, but you gotta understand this one.
In the first nine years, Russell played, they won, or ni- 10 years, they won nine titles. The year they didn't win, the year they didn't win was Russell, his second year in the NBA, his second year, he twisted his ankle and missed two games in the finals, came back in game six, St. Louis beat them in game six, but Russell played with a bad ankle and really didn't have good stats.
So what I'm saying on [00:14:00] that is, if Russell would've played healthy in that series, you might've been looking at nine straight titles. Think about that for a while, or 10 straight, I'm sorry, 10 straight titles. And that, that would've been an incredible run. That's why I think Bill Russell, number one, and I believe it's because of the tremendous winning and just the great leader that he was.
Number one in my Celtic countdown is Bill Russell, and will always be, and he will always be personally my favorite athlete of all time. That concludes, I did the top 10 all time and what I believe in Boston Celtics. Russell ends it. Next week we're gonna be back and we're gonna talk about as training camp opens today, as a matter of fact, we are going to begin to discuss what the Celtics need and what they're doing.
We'll get back to Celtic talk beginning next week. And thank you again [00:15:00] for listening, and we'll see you down the road.
