Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Celtics to fittingly honor Bill Russell with statue

President Obama Honors Medal Of Freedom Recipients

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 15: Former Boston Celtics captain Bill Russell (L) is presented with the 2010 Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room event at the White House February 15, 2011 in Washington, DC. Obama presented the medal, the highest honor awarded to civilians, to twelve pioneers in sports, labor, politics and arts. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Getty Images

It only seems fitting.

Long discussed plans for a Bill Russell statue in Boston are going to become a reality, tweets Jessica Camerato of CSN New England. It will be designed by a local artist

Russell on statue: “I am uncomfortable w honors such as this but my yrs as Capt. of the BOS Celtics were the proudest moments of my career.”

Tied to this, the Bill Russell Foundation will develop a mentoring grant program designed to help Boston youth. Which sounds like a very wise, very Bill Russell thing to do.

This is a deserved honor — Russell is arguably the greatest Celtic of them all. The defensive anchor of a team that collected rings like no other team in any other era of the NBA (Russell has 11). He’s a 12-time All-Star and 5-time MVP. He’s a living legend.

Given the Medal of Freedom and a statue in Boston... not a bad year for Russell. Not bad at all.