“The Celtics were a way of life, not just a team.” -Bill Russell
The basketball world lost a legend on Sunday morning.
Bill Russell has passed away. He was 88.
Plain and simple, Bill Russell was a winner.
There’s a great book by John Taylor. “The Rivalry.” Taylor covers the battles between Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Highly recommend it.
At the University of San Francisco Bill won back-to-back national titles. 1955 & 56. They were 57-1 over that span. Only loss was to UCLA. After beating Iowa in 1956, the Dons finished on a 55 game win streak. It must be mentioned Russell had only 1 scholarship offer coming out of high school.
With the Celtics over 13 years Russ led his team to 11 championships. The Celtics were 11-1 in the finals during his career in Boston. Their only loss was in 1958 to the St. Louis Hawks. (4-2)
From (1959-1966) Boston won 8 straight rings.
“Winning is the only thing I really cared about. You either win or lose. So I decided early in my career that the only really important thing was to try and win every game.”
Derek Jeter’s documentary continued last night with episodes 3 and 4. Some strong quotes from Jeter and others:
“I appreciate him as a competitor. He wanted no faults in his game. To me that’s a champion. Willing to look at himself and say ‘how can I be better’? ‘How can I inspire other players’? It’s that love for the game of baseball. That dude is a winner.” -Michael Jordan on Jeter
“The greatest thing you can have is never being satisfied with success. As much as you win, it’s never enough. Michael, Tiger, Derek, they were wired that way.” -Tom Verducci
“I wanted him to be competitive. We told him that if you wanna be successful you got to be able to overcome different things in your life. Sometimes there are things that get in your path but somehow you have to navigate, find ways of dealing with it.” -Charles Jeter
“I don’t necessarily think guys are taught how to win. It’s something you have to learn.” -Derek Jeter
“My statistics never compared to Alex’s statistics. I’m not blind. But we won.” -Derek Jeter
“People want to be around winners.” -Derek Jeter
“That’s what losers say. Every loser says we had a better team but we didn’t play as well.” -Derek Jeter
“There’s been teammates that I’ve played with before, I don’t have to be your best friend. I don’t have to go out to dinner and hang with you. But when we’re on the field, if you care about winning, I have zero problems with you.” -Derek Jeter
“He was a great teammate.” -Derek Jeter on Roger Clemens
“My father leaving when I was 10, not getting that schooling at home, the hard knocks, the tough love, it resulted in insecurity, some self-esteem issues, and as I got older I realized all you gotta do is be yourself.” -Alex Rodriquez
“There is a certain mentality you have to have to be a champion. You watch Derek play, that will, they’re different. Champions are different.” -Howard Bryant
“In baseball, it’s important to play together. Derek always understood that. Alex wanted to stand out.” -Joe Torre
“Derek Jeter wanted to be a Yankee. Alex Rodriguez wanted to be a star.” -Alan Schwarz Senior writer, Baseball America
Have a positive day and always play the right way…
I am a continuous learner. Always trying to improve. I collect quotes and study successful people. I will ask a total stranger, “why are you working so hard?” What can I say, I’m addicted to success and what makes people go…
There’s an outstanding 7-part documentary currently on ESPN about Derek Jeter. Highly recommend it. They are two parts in so far.
Some quotes taken from Part 2 last night.
“He was never chasing stardom. He was chasing success in regards to winning.” -Gerald Williams on Jeter
“Everybody says when someone becomes a celebrity they change. But ninety-nine percent of the time it’s the people around them that change.” -Sharlee Jeter
“You should never be okay with losing. When you lose people will say oh forget it. No, no, no… Remember it. Remember what that feeling is like. Don’t experience it again.” -Derek Jeter
“Once you win, there’s nothing else to do but to win again. Anything less than that is a complete failure.” -Derek Jeter
Youth basketball camp is popular this time of year. They’re going on all over the country.
For the most part, if you’re a youngster, and you enjoy hoops, you’ll get a chance to attend a hoops camp. If you play high school, college or even pro, there’s a good chance you’ll work a week or two of basketball camp as a coach. In the summer of 1978, I attended Jack Curran’s Basketball Camp. I was 14 and ready to go from Holy Name Grammar school to Power Memorial High School.
Jack Curran was a legendary basketball and baseball coach at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York. He’s coached many great players over the years. Coach passed away in 2013 at the age of 82. When George Mason was in the Final Four in 2006, I ran into Coach Curran on the streets of Indy. We had a nice chat and he was so proud of Jim Larranaga, head coach at George Mason. Coach L played for him back in the day. I mentioned to Curran that I attended his camp. He smiled.
Camp was held at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was me, Frankie and Jimmy Cullen, and Glenn Thomas.
We met at six in the morning at the train station on Windsor Place. Jumping on the Manhattan bound F- train we had to catch another train at Grand Central Station.
Our destination was 42nd street. Climbing the stairs to the street we found ourselves on 6th avenue. We had no idea where Grand Central Station was located. Think it was Frankie who asked a stranger on the street. Turned out we had to walk pretty far to Lexington Avenue. It was going to be a hike.
Noticing a black Daily News truck on the corner of 42nd and 6th dropping off stacks of newspapers to a newsstand, we asked the driver if we could jump in the back and get a lift.
He agreed.
It was a wild ride down forty-second. The guy was probably doing 60. Back door was open. I sat on a stack of papers.. It was scary.
After the train arrived in Poughkeepsie, we then had to take a taxi to campus. So much traveling to play ball. Talk about a road trip. We loved the game and would go anywhere to play.
Stations in the morning, decent food and a lot of basketball. There were a couple of guest speakers but I never paid attention. Big mistake. You have to be a good listener. Wish I would have listened. I was the kid in the back talking or daydreaming.
A few guys from the neighborhood like Chris Logan, Turk and Barry Rohrssen were at camp. They were counselors.
The late Tom Konchalski was on hand. I recall a line from Tom during one of our stations work. When TK explained something to us, he had us repeat after him, “that’s very interesting.”
44 years later that line has stuck with me.
They put you on a team. My coach for the week was Mike Doyle a college player at South Carolina – Doyle was a good guy who played his high school ball at Mount St. Michael. in the Bronx. His assistant for the week was his college teammate point guard Kenny Reynolds. Later on during the college basketball season Glenn and I went to Madison Square Garden to watch South Carolina play Syracuse. It was cool seeing Doyle out on the floor.
After a few days and nights of non-stop hoops, I felt I improved as a player. It was well worth it.
Camp was great. So much fun. Not sure why I didn’t go back the following summer?
To this day I still don’t know how Mom put the money up for the camp fee.
Camp life…every kid should have a chance to attend one in the summer. Plus it gives the parents a break.
Someone posted on Twitter about playing hoops outside.
Too expensive for your family to travel all over the country?? It’s OK… The best training facility in the history of basketball is OPEN. Its produced more great players then every AAU Tourney combined..It’s called THE PARK. You can walk there…and it’s FREE
It was a great tweet. So true too.
I miss playing in Holy Name schoolyard, PS 154’s, East 5th, West 4th street, Tillary Park, Foster Park, and Manhattan Beach.
In my mind, outdoor ball will never die.
Now excuse me while I take my ball and head to the closest outdoor park to get up a few shots.
Have a positive day and always play the right way…
They called him, “White Jesus,” a legendary basketball player back in the day in New York City. Guy had a 44 inch vertical.
After talking with Billy a few times for some cool interviews and playing a couple of summer league games with him back in the day, and of course reading his book, I realized a few things; we have a lot in common.
A love for the game of basketball.
No father at home.
Product of poor choices as a teenager.
Booze and drugs.
Sound familiar?
Highly recommend the book.
Here’s an interview I did with Billy a few years ago for my basketball blog, Play The Right Way.
PLAY THE RIGHT WAY 