How should 1969 Bill Russell be viewed?

[SelakStreet]

Bill Russell will forevermore be one of the NBA's legends the day he joined the league in the 1956 NBA Draft. He was technically drafted by the St. Louis Hawks (known today as the Atlanta Hawks), although he never actually suited up for them as they sent him to the Boston Celtics for Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley. Russell would spend his entire career with the Celtics and win 11 NBA Championships with them as a defensive-minded star, and his rival was the more flashy Wilt Chamberlain.

'69 ended up being his final season, yet he was still good. That regular season, he averaged 9.9 points, 19.3 boards and 4.9 dimes. The only stretch where his scoring was down, yet was still a force on the boards and still a decent passer for a big man. But in the '69 playoffs, Russell improved to 10.8 points, 20.5 boards and 5.4 dimes.

He couldn't score much vs. Philadelphia as Darrall Imhoff reduced Russell to 6.6 points, but again outperformed Imhoff in rebounding (19.2 boards to Imhoff's 16.4) and passing (6.2 dimes to Imhoff's 2.4). However, Russell boosted his scoring in Round 2 vs. the New York Knicks to the tune of 16.3 points per game against Willis Reed, and though Reed averaged 24 points, Russell outperformed Reed in rebounding (20.8 to Reed's 13.5) and passing (5.2 dimes to Reed's 2.3).

During the '69 NBA Finals, Russell and the Boston Celtics went up against the Los Angeles Lakers (led by Russell's rival Wilt Chamberlain). Russell averaged 9.1 points, 21.1 boards and 5.1 dimes while Chamberlain averaged 11.7 points, 25 boards and 3 dimes. Only this time, Russell outperformed Chamberlain in just passing, through passing the ball to John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Larry Siegfried, Don Nelson, Em Bryant and Bailey Howell. In 7 games, Boston won and thus Russell won his 11th and final NBA Championship, but the '69 Finals MVP ended up going to Jerry West of the Lakers even though Havlicek would've won it in retrospect.

Anyway, even though the '69 season wasn't Russell's best scoring season, I think his rebounding ability and decent passing skills were still good enough to compensate for the loss of his scoring ability. His regular season highest would be 18.9 ppg in '62 and his playoff highest would be 22.4 ppg also in '62.

How would you also rank his 1-on-1 matchups against Darrall Imhoff (Philadelphia), Willis Reed (New York) and Wilt Chamberlain (L.A. Lakers)?

[coastalmarker99]

He was utterly elite vs the 76ers on defence I mean he blocked poor Luke Jackson 7 times in a row lol and he basically shut everyone down beside Billy C as the 76ers shot terribly in three out of the five games.

Then vs New York, he was utterly elite on both ends as he upped his offence hugely from what he averaged against New York in the regular season if not for that the Celtics most likely lose in 5 games.


Finally, in the finals vs Wilt, he was clearly running out of gas late in the series as after playing elite on both sides of ball in the first two games and outrebounding Wilt


Wilt began to dominate him on the boards and reduce his offensive impact as outside of game 6.


Wilt outplayed him in every remaining game of the series

[Jaivl]

Past-prime or late prime at the very least (still a top5ish kind of player), most probably saving some energy for the playoffs... and also preeeeeeetty lucky. That luck couldn't have gone to a better person, but still.

[Dr Positivity]

The Celtics wouldn't have won that title if he wasn't still an elite impact player. It's probably one of the hardest final two rounds in history as a combination, and even the Sixers are pretty good.