People argue about who belongs on basketball's Mount Rushmore. Everyone would agree about Michael Jordan and then arguments begin. You might include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone. But you can only have four.
That's okay, because Bill Russell goes on Mount Olympus. Averaging twenty-three rebounds for his NBA career, Russell was the most dominant team sport athlete of his era with fourteen championships in fifteen years. He led San Francisco to a pair of championships, won Olympic gold in 1956, and eleven championships in thirteen seasons for the Celtics...including multiple championships as a player-coach.
Russell simply revolutionized the game. Russell defined shot blocking and shot altering defense.