The No. 6 jersey worn by Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell will be permanently retired throughout the league, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said on Thursday.
Russell, who died on July 31 at the age of 88 and won 11 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics, is the only player whose number has been retired by all 30 teams.
The NBA will no longer wear Russell’s number, but will also honor the five-time MVP by having a special patch sewn onto each team’s jersey’s right shoulder. Additionally, each court will have a clover-shaped logo with the number 6 on the sideline close to the scorer’s table.
Bill Russell was the first Black head coach in the NBA and is the most successful player in league history.
The choice to permanently retire his number echoes Major League Baseball’s 1997 decision to do the same for baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson. Bill Russell dominated on the court, but his contributions outside of basketball were also lauded.
He marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, denounced racial segregation, and supported Muhammad Ali’s decision not to enlist in the Vietnam War. He was a well-known civil rights activist.
Russell claimed in the 1950s that Black players were purposefully left out of the mostly white NBA, and in 1964 he joined the league’s first all-Black starting lineup.
Russell experienced racist taunts as a player despite his accomplishments on the court, and his family also experienced threats, break-ins, and vandalism.
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