Bill Russell Told Five Hall Of Famers He’d ‘Kick Your A*s’ After Receiving A Lifetime Achievement Award

Bill Russell rules. He is the greatest champion in the history of the NBA, winning 11 rings as a player and two as a coach with the Boston Celtics, including an insane eight in a row from 1958-66. In addition to his ability as a basketball player, few athletes have ever fought for social justice as fervently as Russell — as Jim Brown once said, “Bill has always had the consciousness and intellect to understand what freedom and equality and justice meant for all people.”

Simply put, there are few people who deserve to be praised more than Russell. While he has received seemingly countless awards for his career on and off the court, he received another on Monday night at the NBA Awards Show. Russell was the recipient of the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, David Robinson, and Dikembe Mutombo. This led to one of the greatest moments in sports award show history.

As you can see, Russell used this as an opportunity to remind everyone that he is one of the baddest men to ever take the hardwood. The best part of this is that all five of the Hall of Famers up on stage getting (jokingly) told off by Russell would probably agree to some extent. As always, it’s fun to get a reminder that it doesn’t get much better than Bill Russell.