RIP, der ultimative Gewinner und no-nonsense-guy.
Boston ist auch heute noch eine der rassistischsten Städte der USA. Heute besonders versteckt oder passiv-aggressiv, nicht so offen wie früher:
“Boston itself was a flea market of racism,” he would write in his 1979 memoir,
Second Wind, long after he retired. “It had all varieties, old and new, and in their most virulent form. The city had corrupt, city-hall-crony racists, brick-throwing, send-em-back-to-Africa racists, and in the university areas phony radical-chic racists (long before they appeared in New York.)
“I had no doubt about those people in Boston because I saw them every day. They constantly surprised me, since I’d thought of Boston as the city where Paul Revere rode for freedom. If Paul Revere rode today, it would be for racism. “The n-----s are coming! The n-----s are coming!” he’d yell as he galloped through town to warn neighborhoods of busing and Black homeowners. Most of the Irish Catholics in Boston were ready to pick your fillings out if you weren’t the right religion or from the right clique, much less from the right race…I had never been in a city more involved with finding new ways to dismiss, ignore or look down on other people. Other than that, I liked the city.”
Quelle:
https://www.si.com/nba/2021/07/12/tall-men-short-shorts-excerpt-bill-russell-celtics
Entsprechend hat er auch nie für die Stadt Boston gespielt, oder die Fans, sondern für die Celtics.