Bill Russell And Jordan's Comparison

When talking about basketball greats, there are a lot of names that come to mind. But there are two very well-known basketball players that dominated their generations. I’m talking about Bill Russell who dominated in the 50’s and 60’s with the great Boston Celtics, and Michael Jordan who dominated the league with the Chicago Bulls in the 80’s and 90’s. The comparison between ‘’The Bill’’ and ‘’MJ’’ is that they are both basketball greats and legends of the game. Both Bill and Jordan have won multiple championships, MVP’s, and been to NBA All Star games. Both also have statues in the cities they played in, have their jersey numbers retired by their NBA teams and they are both on the NBA 50th Anniversary Team. But the main

Bill Russell played in a generation as racism and people messed with him his family and his house. Also since Bill was African American he was not recruited at all by colleges until one coach went to see him play in high school and offered him to come play at the University of San Francisco which Bill of course accepted. Bill Russell was in a league where there was only 8 to 14 teams which of course now there is 30. ‘’The Bill ‘’ was also on the first NBA all starting black team which was in 1964. Bill Russell’s stats were very impressive too with 15.1 PPG, 22.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists and Russell’s 22.5 rebounds a game is second best all time and he did that at 6’9 which is now known for a Power Forward in the NBA not a center. Blocks were not recorded into stats back then so we are not sure how many blocks he had for his career. Russell has won 11 NBA Championships and him and his team won 9 out of 10 seasons and won 8 straight in that span which has never been done before. Russell has also won a gold medal in 1956 and 2 championships as a NBA head coach. Since Russell has the most championships as a player and was dominant the MVP Trophy for the finals is named after him. Russell contract when he became a rookie was worth $24,000 which and his top salary in his career was $100,001 which in today’s league no one’s contract is even close to that low. Bill Russell was also the first ever NBA player to visit

Michael Jordan unlike Russell was very highly recruited when he was in high school by schools like Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, etc. Michael Jordan who was drafted in 1984 dominated as soon as he came into the scene. Michael Jordan aka MJ or Air Jordan who was very dominate as a shooting guard just wasn’t able to get over the hump of winning his first championship unlike Russell who won his first his second year in the league. But Jordan finally did win his first seven years later in 1991 against Magic Johnson and his LA Lakers. Jordan went on to win 3 championships then retired in 1993 to pursue a baseball career. That baseball career did not work out so Jordan came out of retirement to rejoin the bulls in 93, then 2 seasons later he won 3 straight championships again. In 99 Jordan went on to retire again but like the first time he came out of retirement in 2001 to play for the Washington Wizards mostly to donate his salary as a player to a relief effort for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Jordan finally went on to retire for good in 2003 and he had averaged Points 30.1 ppg which he totaled 32,292 which is 4th all-time 5.3 apg and 6.2 rpg. Michael is also different from Bill in contract negotiation, as Bill was earning 100 thousand, MJ was earning in the millions and he still is. Unlike Bill Michael Jordan was playing in an era where a lot of endorsements came along. Jordan got a shoe deal while playing in the NBA and