Bill Russell on Leading a Team
"The most important measure of how good a game I’d played, was how much better I’d made my teammates play.” – Bill Russell
Bill Russell died Sunday at age 88. He was one of the greatest American athletes of all-time, winning 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics. While Russell was unquestionably the leader of the Celtics during this remarkable run, he didn’t do it by scoring the most points, he did it by making his teammates better:
"The most important measure of how good a game I’d played,” Russell once said, “was how much better I’d made my teammates play.”
Russell focused on rebounding, defense and passing – essentially doing the grunt work that enabled his teammates to score. His work ethic, focus and devotion to the team made everyone around him better.
His teammate on the Celtics, Tom Heinsohn, once said, “Russell is the winningest person I’ve ever been around. He had helped us out so many times, and we believed in him so much, there was a communion of spirit and a belief in each other.”
In a highlight reel making the rounds on twitter, a commentator says this:
“Bill Russell was the perfect All-Star teammate, simply because his very raison d’etre was to make everybody else look good. Points did not interest him.”
Russell was motivated by team success. A lot of people say that, but very few back it up with their words and actions to the degree that Bill Russell did.
To understand just how serious Russell was about placing the success of the team over the success of the individual, consider his 1975 induction into the NBA Hall of Fame. He refused to participate in the ceremony because the Hall of Fame is an institution that honors individuals, while Russell believed his basketball career should be remembered as a symbol of team play. He is the only athlete that I can recall who has ever refused the Hall of Fame for this reason.
Russell once said, “It was never about contracts or money. I never paid attention to MVP awards or how many endorsements I had lined up. Only how many titles we won.”
As I was researching my book, If Gold Is Our Destiny, about the remarkable rise of the U.S. men’s volleyball program from under achievers to becoming the best in the world and winning a gold medal in 1984, I asked the head coach, Doug Beal if, in the early days, he had a vision for the team. He answer surprised me. He didn’t say the vision was to win a gold medal or become the best in the world, rather his vision was sustained excellence.
For Beal, the standard for greatness was establishing a team that maintained a consistent high-level of achievement, and the team Beal looked to emulate was the Boston Celtics dynasty of the 1960s lead by Bill Russell. “They never let their guard down. They competed every minute of every game. And they never beat themselves,” said Beal. So he set out to build a team in the image of the Boston Celtics and, in many ways, he did.
As we are called on to lead our own teams, an important question to ask is, how are we making everyone around us better? What can we do to elevate the performance of the team? How can we best contribute to team success? Often the answer is cheerfully and methodically doing the “grunt” work no one else is focused on.
Sean Murray is a keynote speaker, leadership coach and the author of If Gold Is Our Destiny: How a Team of Mavericks Came Together for Olympic Glory. His firm, RealTime Performance, provides leadership development and training to businesses and non-profits.
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