The last Ladder Challenge featured an extremely close battle, with John Havlicek edging out Bill Belichick with 52% of the vote. The victory improved Havlicek's challenge record to 2-1-0 . It also prevented the Patriots head coach from moving into the Ladder's Top 10, with Hondo maintaining his place at #9. This week it is a showdown of Celtics legends, with the Ladder's #1 spot at stake. Bill Russell (#1) tries to hold onto his spot at the top, a position he's held since the Ladder's inception, by holding off the challenge of his former coach Red Auerbach (#8). Just as these men were unbeatable in basketball, they've been unbeatable in the Ladder Challenges as well, going a combined 4-0-0 thus far....but this week something will have to give. Although Auerbach is the greatest coach in the history of team sports, for the second straight week I'm going with player over coach as the deciding factor in this challenge. So who has your support in this week's battle? (and remember, the most votes in the comments section is the tie-breaker, so be sure to share your thoughts!)
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BILL RUSSELL
Ranked : 1
Started: 1
Challenge Record: 1-0-0
Beat: Bobby Orr
Lost: None
Tied: None
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*Played entire 13 year career (1956-69) with Celtics.
*Was player/coach of Celtics for 3 seasons (1967-69).
*Helped Celtics win 11 NBA Championships (1957, 1959-1966, 1968-69).
*Won NBA MVP 5 times (1958, 1961-63, 1965).
*Finished top 4 in MVP voting 11 times (5-1st, 2-2nd, 2-3rd, 2-4th).
*Played in 12 All Star Games (1958-69).
*Named All Star Game MVP in 1963.
*Named 1st Team All-NBA 3 times (1959, 1963, 1965) and All-NBA 2nd Team 8 times (1958, 1960–62, 1964, 1966–68).
*Named 1st Team All-Defefensive Team in 1969, his final year and the first year the award existed.
*Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 1968.
*The Sporting News Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s.
*Career averages: 15.1 points, 22.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists.
*Playoff averages: 16.2 points, 24.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists.
*Led league in: Rebounds per game (5x), Rebounds (4x), Minutes (2x), Minutes per game (1x).
*Celtics career rank: Rebounds (1), Rebounds per game (1), Minutes per game (1), Minutes (2), Assists (4), Games (4), FTA (4), FGA (7), FT (7), Points (8), FG (8).
*Celtics Single-Season Records: Rebounds (1,930, 1964) and Rebounds per game (24.7, 1964).
*NBA Record for most championships as player (11).
*Named to the NBA's 25th, 35th and 50th Anniversary teams.
*Named "Greatest NBA Player of All-Time" by Basketball Writers Association of America in 1980.
*Celtics coaching record: 162-83 and 2 NBA Championships in 3 seasons.
*NBA Finals MVP Award has been named in his honor.
*Awarded Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2011.
*Elected to Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975.
*His #6 is retired by the Boston Celtics.
RED AUERBACH
Ranked : 8
Started: 8
Challenge Record: 3-0-0
Beat: Bill Belichick, Rocky Marciano, Phil Esposito
Lost: None
Tied: None
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*Worked 57 years (1950-2006) for the Celtics as a head coach (1950-66), general manager (1966-84) and team president (1984-2006).
*Helped Celts win 16 NBA Championships (1957, 1959-66, 1968-69, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984).
*As head coach he led the Celtics to 9 NBA Championships (1957, 1959-66) including 8 in a row.
*Coaching record with Boston of 795-397 (.667) in the regular season and 90-58 (.608) in the playoffs.
*Named 1965 NBA Coach of the Year, an award that is now named in his honor.
*Most wins of any coach in Celtics franchise history.
*As GM he won 6 more titles (1968-69, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984).
*Named 1980 NBA Executive of the Year.
*As team president he Won another title (1986).
*Named to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.
*Celtics have retired the #2 in his honor.
Since I put Russell #1 on the Ladder to start it I simply don't see anyone knocking him off via my vote anytime soon. It would need to take an active, or yet unarrived, player to do so as Russell reigns king among the retired folk in my book.
On a sidenote, I'm still trying to figure out how he was voted MVP 5 times and yet named 1st Team All-NBA only 3 times. Odd.
If the award had existed I wonder how many Defensive Player of the Year Awards he would have had, not to mention the career blocks record that everyone seems to think he would have easily owned if the stat was tracked back then.
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