Amid the ongoing, revived (and bad) argument over whether players in the NBA during the 1960s were as athletic and skilled as modern players in the league, it is often missed that many players in that era were indeed world-class athletes. And Hall of Fame Boston Celtics big man Bill Russell might have been the most athletic of all of them.
An Olympic track and field star whose specialty (likely to the surprise of very few) was the high jump. And that skill set translated to the Association, which was playing even more of a running game than they do today, with only a handful of players able to leap with the Celtics star for rebounds and to block shots.
But in the absence of evidence, more than a generation of fans may not know just how otherworldly Russell’s leaping capabilities were.
To remedy that, here is a clip of Russell doing something that would make Vin Baker famous years later, with a dunk instead of a finger-roll. Watch the clip embedded above courtesy of the Wilt Chamberlain Archive to see for yourself just how athletic players from that era can be.
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