SAM'S REVIEW OF THE BOOK, "RUSSELL RULES"

SAM'S REVIEW OF "RUSSELL RULES" BY BILL RUSSELL, WITH DAVID FALKNER

As a preface to posting my synopsis of Bill Russell's book "Russell Rules," I saved a newspaper article that compared this book with one called Shaq Talks Back. Some highlights from the article:

Premise of the book:
Russell: Learn what made the 1956-1969 Celtics winners and apply it to your own
company/relationships/life
Shaq: Nobody know the "real" Shaq. Now you can.

Sample chapter:
Russell: Toughness or Tenderness. Creating Your Leadership Style.
Shaq: Dead Presidents and Free Agents

Favorite Leonardo:
Russell: DaVinci
Shaq: DiCaprio

Names dropped:
Russell: Tony Robbins, Haile Selassie, Lee Iacocca, John Glenn
Shaq: Bill Gates, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Snoop Dogg

Political commentary:
Russell: Supports affirmative action
Shaq: Endorses only products he actually uses

Philosophy:
Russell: Look for the positive in your imagination. If you go into a dark room find the light switch.
Shaq: If you don't enjoy doing it, don't do it. Image is reality.

Quote of note:
Russell: Winning that's joyless is like eating in a four-star restaurant when you're not hungry.
Shaq: My view on marriage is that you can't have two cars when you're supposed to have only one.

Won't be in Rick Pitino's next book:
Russell: Celtic Pride is both a cognitive concept and a deeply emotional one.
Shaq: If they would have had this Internet stuff when I was coming up, I would have been in Harvard by now.

I don't think so, Shaq. But you readers can draw your own conclusions..

A synopsis of Russell Rules follows.

At the outset, I shouldn't overlook the introduction in which Bill includes some interesting stuff. Russ called Wilt Chamberlain "Norman," and Wilt called Russ "Felton," in both cases their middle names.. Shortly before Wilt died in October, 1999, during one of their "marathon phone calls," Russ told Wilt about the time when Russ was hosting a talk show and had actor Rod Steiger as a guest. The dialog between Russ and Steiger went like this, beginning with Russ: "Are you a good actor?"

"I am a GREAT actor."

"How good?"

"The best."

"If you really think you are that good, I have the ultimate defining role that would leave no uncertainty that you could reach any height as an actor.........Could you play me?"

Apparently, Steiger fell off the sofa and so did Wilt.

Russell's answer to how the old Celtics would have fared against Da Bulls of Michael Jordan:"The Celtics would have won in a walk. We would let Michael get his 40 or 50 points and we would have beaten them decisively. Why? We had the more complete team. We had the matchups. We were far stronger coming off the bench. The vaunted defense of the Bulls would have been useless against us because of the kind of ball movement and shooting accuracy we regularly brought to our games. Sam Jones was as great a shooter as the game has seen; it would not have been possible to stop him without seriously compromising the defense. Bob Cousy could not have been contained. K.C. Jones, Frank Ramsey, John Havlicek, Tommy Heinsohn—all of them Hall of Famers—would have been waiting like alligators in the shadows to take advantage of any overplaying or shifting by the Bulls. I sincerely believe there was an honest truth behind all those kind words about the Celtics and about me being the greatest of winners."

Note the absence of any comparison of himself with Jordan because IT'S IRRELEVANT.

Russ says something in which I've always believed. "Basketball is more than a game. It's a metaphor. For me, the basketball court was a place where I could bring my thoughts and my understanding of psychology, physiology, mathematics, and, most important, human values."

On championship rings: "The Celtic players from those championship years all have rings that we designed together. On those rings are two words—teamwork and pride. I've never forgotten that the rings on my fingers and the rings on the fingers of guys who were last off the bench are the same. From the day I first met my teammates and coach, I experienced something very different from what I had before: a real family whom we all called 'team.'"

And finally: "I am frequently asked if I am a basketball player, and I always say no. One time, years ago, John Havlicek and I were standing in an airport when he asked me what I did that. I told him what I had been telling myself all along: basketball is what I do, it's not who I am."

Russell Rule Number 1: Commitment Begins with Curiosity
When hesitancy is looking back at you in the mirror, you don't have true commitment. Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have quandered.

What separates the two types of people? Curiosity.

Some Russell rules on curiosity:

1. Good questions are more important than easy answers. Millions saw apples fall from trees, but it was Newton who asked why.

2. Curiosity is a process. Life is a journey, not a destination. Create a driving force in your life, understand that force, and always challenge it through self-evaluation and questioning. When your curiosity asks you to take risks, take them.

3. Curiosity should be a verb, not a noun. Curiosity is connected to doing, to solving, experimenting, trying, failing, and then accomplishing. Russ says the game was static when he took it up at age 9. For instance, no one was supposed to jump except for a rebound. After Russ graduated from high school, he joined a high school all-star team on which the coach pretty much let the players do what they wanted. He, in effect, "gave me the green light to explore the game that so fascinated me."

Among other things, Russ began experimenting with jumping under various circumstances, and that led to his blocking prowess.Russ gives an almost clinical explanation of teamwork. "What I found with the Celtics was a set of other players who were brilliant and accomplished. I had to learn about their thinking, their temperaments. For me to play my best game, I had to discover theirs."

In one way, his curiosity got the better of him. He became fascinated with Cousy, to the point where he began acting like Cousy, leading the break with Cousy trailing behind. Russ soon realized he was taking Cousy out of his game (although no one else mentioned it—Cousy, Red, other players, writers); and the quick outlet pass was born so Cousy could begin performing his magic as quickly as possible, with Russell doing what he did best by filling a lane.

Russell Rule 2: Ego=MC Squared

Russ writes about being invited to address the 1999 Celtics, who were on a 9-game losing streak and telling them that, despite being called an unselfish player, he was the most egotistical player they would ever meet. But it was not a personal ego; it was a team ego. Personal achievements became team achievements. In what he calls "sub-rules," Russ relates this lesson to business life:

1. Establish the business culture around the team. Get individuals to see success not in terms of individual performance but in terms of the group's success.

2. Vest people in the process. (I can just imagine Red's epithet-riddled response to the word "vest"). Help people understand where the group is going, how it is going to get there, and (most important) why sharing decision-making is a critical step in achieving team ego. For example, since everyone's paycheck depends on team success, why not have everyone on the team understand how much it costs the company to make products or provide services?

3. Create unselfishness as the most important team characteristic.Bill mentions that being dominant means you never have to mention that you are dominant. "In the 13 years I played for the Celtics, I never heard the words 'dynasty' or 'legend' spoken by anyone within the organization. The reality is that any team that thinks if itself as a dynasty will never be one."

Russ talks some more about being a team: "Only when I reached the Celtics did I really come to appreciate the joy of winning as a team. The Celtics had been built carefully, player by player, over the years. The players had been chosen not only for their specific skills but because they complemented each other so well. Red knew each of the players as individuals, respected them, and saw them together as a team.
Each teammate knew how good he was, but each of them seemed to understand perfectly that everyone had to play his part for us to win. When Heinsohn's shot from the corner wasn't falling, he'd turn himself into a tornado, moving all over the court trying to make up for what wasn't working."

Russell Rule # 3: Listening is Never Casual

Russell says that listening is ultimately aboutveffective communication. The payoff of listening effectively is that humans tend to respect and like someone who listens to them, even if they disagreevwith the person's views. He goes on to say it's important to discriminate between what someone says and what he really means.
"Because each of us (on the Celtics) was a star in his own right, the only way we could have been effective was by the ability we all developed to work with each other. Listening made it easier for us to be friends, but most of all it enabled us to do our job to win games and championships.

"Red had a great set of ears. Red's greatest talent was that he was a listener who translated what he heard into effective action. Every now and then, Red would call me to come to a game or practice early and we'd just talk. He might say, 'You're getting a little off-track.' And the conversations were always useful because he used a language that I could hear. He spoke to each of us differently. He had an uncanny ability bo pick up intonations, inflections and body language in each of his players. When he listened, he had what I like to think of as a built-in, shockproof lie detector.

"We used to have a saying on the Celtics, 'Don't lie to me, boy!' That one came from Red. He insisted that each player tell him exactly what was on his mind. He had the wiliest instinct for eliminating the difficult space between someone's words and his intonations. You knew you had room to answer him without being threatened."

Okay, Russ. Here's what I'm getting. First, get tuned into other people so you understand their language; and then speak in their language in order to make it easy for them to listen to you. Next, encourage them to communicate with you and nurture complete candor by eliminating any implied threat of reprisal—whatever they candidly say. Finally, develop an instinct that helps you to know when they're blowing smoke up your digestive track.

And finally, something he calls "Russell's Corollary to the Rules of Listening": "Always make sure you are able to listen to yourself to the point where you know that what you are picking up is the voice of wisdom."

Russell Rule # 4: Toughness or Tenderness: Creating Your Leadership Style

In this chapter, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Different situations call for different leadership styles, and people vary in their ability to adopt one style or another. Russ offers three sub-rules:

1. Successful teams of any kind are benevolent dictatorships.

2. Great leaders need to be adaptable. They should be able to follow as well as to lead. There's a difference between being an inside-out leader and an outside-in leader. The former finds ways to include others, drawing them out and incorporating them in the decision-making process . The latter relies on his own intuition, logic and counsel which he then projects outward in theform of commands.

3. A great leader considers kindness an act of strength. Russ' grandfather used to say, "Praise loudly and blame softly." Great leadership sometimes requires tenderness, which is not a sign of weakness if used correctly.
When Russ took over as coach in Seattle, the team was doing badly, and he recognized at once that there was no cohesiveness on or off the floor. The only reason a couple of players would hang with one another was to reinforce their griping. Russ decided that a tough leadership style was the ticket. He ran rigorous practices, but there was also a more subtle form of toughness. He instituted five Celtics plays that would only work if every player on the floor was doing something in close coordination with the others.

One of Russ' goals was to convince the Seattle players that they could become their own best teachers without always relying on Russ. "If the plays were run correctly, with all the subtle variations that were in them, the players would have to use all their creativity and individual skills to the maximum. If they did not, they would fail. My team knew what I stood for....but they also knew what I wouldn't stand for." One unnamed player threatened (twice) to kill Russ, but Russ basically stared him down. The team did better each year Russ was there, and the core he established eventually won the championship.

I (Sam) had always thought that the term "benevolent dictator" was first coined to describe Auerbach. Actually, the first Celtics owner Walter Brown was the focus. Walter was always nice to everyone—too nice, according to Red. That was the tender, benevolent part.

For the dictator element, Brown turned the team entirely over to Red. The lesson here is that a good leader doesn't have to do it all personally as long as he can delegate effectively. Red used to ride Jim Loscutoff hard in practice, once having him dive, side-to-side for balls in a drill that covered Loscy with strawberries. Loscy always swore that, when he retired, he would kill Red. After his last game, he asked his teammates to leave him alone with Red for 15 minutes so he could carry out his threat. The guys hung around outside; and, hearing nothing for several minutes, peered through the door. Loscy was sitting in front of Red, bawling his eyes out, and telling Red how much the relationship had meant to him.

Russell Rule # 5: Invisible Man

I love this chapter, because, more than anything else, it's about psychology. I think the spectacular has become the standard of excellence for many of today's players (not a Duncan or a Kidd, but for many). There's a certain conformity in the way they become so preoccupied with finding an opportunity for the monster slam or block that they overlook more subtle ways to use psychology to gain a competitive edge.

Russell's concept of invisibility being a powerful leadership style is difficult to generalize. It is best explained in some examples used by Russell:

(1) Xerox used it by branding their process so that people referred to "Xeroxing" something rather than copying it. This gave the company an inherent competitive advantage over other copying companies that were racing Xerox to develop better copying machines.

(2) The Cold War remained cold until the collapse of the Soviet Union, not because we had vastly superior military strength but because the Russians had to respect the invisible THREAT of vastly superior military strength on our part.

(3) Even a deceased loved one can exercise invisible power by continuing to influence those left behind.

Russ' sub-rules regarding Invisible Man:

1. Invisibility offers an extra dimension that is an opportunity to augment power and to intimidate, rather than to outmuscle, the competition.

2. Becoming invisible sometimes requires a conscious effort to ensure that others don't see us as we really are—in other words, to use misdirection of deceive them.

3. Invisibility can open doors for those who see potential in something that does not now seem to exist, such as a supermarket that opens a store in a depressed area and becomes extremely successful because of the unique way it serves its constituents.

The sixth man can be used as an invisible threat in basketball, and Russ mentions Frank Ramsey as an example. His scoring ability gave the Celtics the same shot in the arm that Havlicek and Vinnie Johnson provided later. Russ says, "I saw what that did to other teams.. They reacted as though the Celtics had six men on the floor instead of five. Even when Frank was on the bench, opposing coaches began guaging their matchups, their substitutions, with Frank in mind. Imagine how insidious that was."

Russ tells of having to face Elvin Hayes for the first time late in Russ's career, when non-physical advantages became even more important. He decided to deny Hayes the ball, fronting him. Well into the second quarter, Elvin had taken only two shots. Russ sidled up to him during a stoppage in play and said, "Hey, I heard you were supposed to be the main man. How come these guys don't pass you the ball?" Elvin shrugged, but Russ could see he was thinking about it. Elvin eased up as though he was no longer expecting his teammates to get him the ball. Russ didn't have to play him so tough the rest of the game.

One of Russ' favorite tactics was to allow an opponent to get by him because Russ knew he could block the ball from behind. Players began to sense his absence and, not knowing where he was, would become tentative about shooting. Then, to confuse them even more, he'd sometimes take a long stride to the left before blocking the shot from a new angle and deflecting it toward a teammate. Now the other player had even more to worry about, just at the time when he had thought he was figuring out Russ' pattern.

In a sense, Russ even tried to make himself invisible to teammates on the theory that the less they consciously thought of him on the court, the better they were focusing on their own roles. Once, during a timeout, Red ordered Russell to go back in the game, and Russ had been in the game all along.

Russ even mentions how he was invisible to Sam Jones on the now-famous Laker-beating play in the fourth game of the 1969 finals. Sam slipped as he shot the ball and later said he had instinctively adjusted to put a lot of backspin on the ball to give Russell a shot at the rebound. But Russ had taken himself out of the game to get more shooters in.

Russ is careful to distinguish between the psychology of being invisible on the court and the actuality of playing very physically; they need not be contradictory Basically the Celtics of his era had to be willing to give themselves up—in effect, to be invisible—if they wanted success.

Finally, in this chapter, Russ talks briefly about playing Wilt. He knew he could have blocked Wilt much more than he did, because Wilt's right-handed shot was fairly easy for the left-handed Russell to reach. However, Russ knew that blocking Wilt would just get Wilt angry, and an angry Wilt was a terror. So Russ concentrated on moving Wilt out or over a couple of inches more than Wilt wanted or getting Wilt just a little off-balance so Wilt would often miss the shot and Russ would be in position for the rebound. Sometimes Wilt would even move back or over without Russ' being right on him, because he sensed Russ would be there. Wilt would be oblivious to the fact that Russell had anything to do with the misses.

This chapter captivates me, no question about it!!

Russell Rule # 6: Craftsmanship
For Russell, craftsmanship translates into "getting the best results from your work effort":

Sub-rule 1: You never know it all. "The more I learned, the more I knew I had to learn." He describes how, in college, he and K.C. Jones "wanted to understand the game at a level other players....never approached," whether it be how to force a certain shot that would result in a predictable rebound angle or how certain players would act in game situations.

Sub-rule 2: "Craftsmanship is the result of sincere effort, principled intentions, intelligent direction, and skillful execution."

Sub-rule 3: Since players on great teams learn from each other, craftsmanship should be made contagious.

This chapter contains great stuff. Russell extolls the virtues of practice, while admitting he hated practice. I witnessed the final practice of his career, in L.A., before the final and arguably most important game of his life. As coach, he instructed the other players in what to do; and then he personally spent the entire practice shooting two-handed 40-footers and cackling with outrageous laughter when several went in.

But that was at the end of his career. As a freshman at SFU, night after night, he would take up to 500 shots left-handed and 500 right-handed—mainly hook shots that a center of the time would be likely to use. Sure enough, he actually was an excellent hook-shooter in the pros. He says about practice, "If you love what you are doing, the very difficulty of what you need to do (such as learning to shoot with the "off hand") will drive you further, and the sense of accomplishment you gain will mean that much more."

Russ talks of the center position being all about footwork. Because he wanted to be a threat whether or not he shot the ball (the "Invisible Man"), he worked on developing what he called "smart feet" by running and moving (whenever he could) more like a guard than like a big man.In describing honing one's craft.

Russ offers some insight into his blocking technique. Obviously, Russ left his feet a lot on defense in pursuit of blocked shots. He became very concerned about what to do if he went for a fake and his man then went up as Russ came down. He discovered that, rather than landing flat-footed as most centers still do, landing with knees flexed usually enabled him to catch the guy just as he was releasing the ball. In addition to preventing a score, this further confused the poor guy who was now wondering just what he had to do to get off a shot.

When he joined the Celtics, craftsmanship for Russ became a matter of determining what he could do to make each person around him better. The rapidity of his outlet passes was key to Cousy, so Russ generally eschewed all the foot-planting and elbow-thrusting that many big men display upon landing with a rebound.

Russ worked on making a single movement of jumping, grabbing the ball, twisting, and passing; and he made it a point to spot Cousy's white or green jersey in his periphery on his way UP so there'd be no time needed to locate Cooz after Russell got the ball. Fighting to gain nanoseconds of efficiency was central to Russ's craftsmanship.

Although Cousy was the playmaker, in the halfcourt game, most halfcourt plays went through Russ. For the plays to work, every guy on the floor had to be in motion. (Oh, what a sight that was! My eyes become moist at the recollection.) Russ says everyone had to be ready to become a second, third or fourth shooting option. The craftsmanship part of it was that the movement of one player had to be understood by every other player.

Russ continues with the observation that there are 11 types of passes available to a center. Russ's job was to "to see every move by every player, to coordinate and process it as if my brain were a computer, and then to make the right pass." For example, Satch wore contact lenses and couldn't see well below his waist; so passes to him had to be at least waist-high. A pass to someone who only had an instant of daylight had to be a "dead" pass (with no spin) so he could get off a shot immediately.

Russ closes by reminding us that joy (a word he uses constantly throughout the book) is a leadership quality. "When a leader is obviously passionate and joyful in what he or she does, that is inevitably communicated. It sets a tone, a standard in which winning is not the only thing but is the most natural thing in the world."

Russell Rule # 7: Personal Integrity

I will deemphasize the few moralistic themes Russ cited in this chapter and will stick to personal integrity as it affects basketball. As usual, he cites three sub-rules:

Rule 1: Take responsibility for everything you do.

Rule 2: Stand behind the choices you make.

Rule 3: Be fully present in everything you're doing.

Russ goes out of his way to stress how he would not have wanted to play at any other time than the years spanned by his career or with any other team than the Celtics—financial possibilities notwithstanding. He mentions the well-known story about asking for $100,001 when Chamberlain was making $100,000. It's a nice story, although I'm not sure what it has to do with integrity.

Russ mentions that Frank Ramsey used to bypass Red at salary time. He'd just sign a blank contract and leave it on owner Walter Brown's desk, knowing Walter would take care of him.

Integrity becomes more relevant in Russ' discussion of how the Celts of his time were managed. Each player was considered, in some way, his own boss when he was on the floor. "Our few plays had so many variations because it was expected that the players would constantly use their creativity so that other teams could never successfully set up against us. We were a model of integrity because each of us so clearly understood who he was, what he had to do for himself and the team."

Russ wraps up the chapter with this: "Above all, (integrity) will permit you to act and to live as a winner, no matter what your station in life.

Russell Rule # 8: Rebounding, or How to Change the Flow of the Game

This chapter is all about adversity. When a team gets a defensive rebound, it's because the other team has suffered adversity, namely missing a shot. In that sense, the chapter is about CAPITALIZING on adversity. Ultimately, rebounding in a game—as in life—is all about taking charge—taking positive action in a negative situation to become a winner.

Russ says that a rebound can be instinctive or conscious. If it's instinctive, it may be viewed as a defensive action. If it's conscious, it can put you in control, becoming the beginning of an offensive transition. Conscious rebounding means maintaining your concentration and resiliency—not getting down if you miss one but instantly focusing on the next one.

Rebounding from adversity requires adaptability. One of the problems in focusing (in a broad sense) occurs with change in the makeup of the team. Almost every year in Russell's tenure, there were significant changes as one legend would retire and someone with upside would take his place. One key in the Celtics' reign was their ability to adapt quickly to such changes.

When Cousy left the Celtics and K.C. Jones became the playmaker, it was obvious that K.C. couldn't run the break the way Cousy had. They altered their offense, incorporating Russ to a greater degree, to the point where Bill's assists jumped (in the top 10 that year) and his screens improved dramatically. It was then that people started saying, "Russell makes his teammates play taller."

Rebounding from victory is tougher than rebounding from defeat. It's harder to repeat as champion than to win the initial championship. Self-congratulatory lapses during a game can spur the other team on.

Bill's sub-rules for this chapter:

1. Rebounding is an affirmative act. It should be looked upon as wresting control and starting the offense.

2. Rebounding from adversity involves not developing a victim mentality. If you're not the one called upon to take the big shot, don't pout. Get into position for the rebound.

3. Build resilience both as a winner and a loser. Understand why you are winning, and never take it for granted. Recognize that it is harder to rebound from a win than to rebound from a loss.

Russell Rule # 9: Imagination, or Seeing the Unseeable

I think I looked forward to this chapter most of all, because I believe the one thing the "old Celtics" arguably had in greater abundance than any other team in history (including later Celtics editions) was creativity. And I believe creativity is derived from imagination. Russ immediately confirms my feeling: "Imagination is the mother of innovation."

Within the first paragraph, I was so in sync with this chapter that it smarted. The innovative hits just keep on coming:

• Don't be reactive on defense. Moving a guy out of his comfort zone is at least as effective as trying to deny his shot.

• If you're a point guard, and you've got your man out of position, you should already be getting ready for the outlet pass and the transition to offense. (I am just eating this stuff up.)

• Think of basketball as both a vertical and a horizontal game. The vertical part of the game basically involves the relationship between the ball, the player, and the basket—in other words, the action associated with shooting. It takes 1 to 3 seconds to shoot and rebound or take the ball out-of-bounds. So maybe 5 out of the 48 minutes involve the vertical part of the game. The other 43 minutes involve the horizontal game, so a lot of the imaginative powers should be focused on the horizontal game.

• Blocking shots should involve not only vertical action (jumping) but also horizontal action (stepping to the side first, so you won't land on the guy's back). It was hell for Russ playing Wilt's vertical game, but Russ focused on trying to make Wilt play more than half the game (at least 30 minutes) horizontally. Russ would try to make Wilt spend a lot of time moving side-to-side and to move out of his favorite shooting comfort zone.

• Find innovative ways to advance the ball, such as Cousy's "air dribble"—tapping the ball over the defender's head and going around him to pick up the dribble—a perfectly legal move.

Russ says "Imagination is the task of enlightened leadership." He speaks of how he would have defended Jabbar. "My strategy would begin by making him run the floor on defense, so he'd be expending more energy. Because he was right-handed and I was left-handed and the key to defense is footwork, I could slide along his stomach and get to his sky hook with my left hand. You could never defend him reactively. If he was going to his spot on the right or left side, I'd get there first. Most guys have a spot they like to start from, and nothing annoys them more than to see you there first, waiting for them. I don't know how good Kareem's ears were. That would be important, because a big part of my game was conversation. I would have searched until I found out what would distract him and then determined what the impact of that distraction was."

Russ alludes to what is a recurring theme in this book. "We as Celtics supported each other, watched each other, incorporated into our imaginations the thinking, the practice of others. We were able to visualize for each other." When the 76ers had the Celtics on the brink of elimination in 1968, the Celtics had a two-point lead with 12 seconds to go, and Russ had two free throws coming. Making either one would effectively ice the game, because there was no three point crutch (editorial comment by Sam) in those days. Russ missed the first freebie. Sam Jones strolled over, visualizing the successful Russell free throw form in his mind, and whispered, "Flex your knees, Bill." Russell made the shot, and the Celtics won the game and eventually the series and the title.

Russ writes, "What Sam said was about as inspiring as a car manual, but it was the only thing I needed to hear at that moment for us to win. Do not confuse imagination with inspiration. The Celtics won infinitely more games because of the power of imagination than because of inspirational talks and speeches."

The Russell sub-rules for this chapter:

1. Look for the positives in your imagination. If you go into a dark room, find the light switch.

2. Taking unrelated thoughts and ideas and stringing them together sometimes creates a whole new concept, as well as order out of chaos.

3. Try to practice visualization. Try to run through scenarios or situations before you experience them so that, when you do experience them, they will be familiar to you.

Think I loved this chapter? This theme WAS the Celtics of 1956-1969, when the impact of imagination was the norm, not an occasional revelation.

Russell Rule # 10: Discipline, Delegation and Decision-making

Russ begins with three sub-rules:

1. All choices must be made with a clear and attainable goal in mind.

2. Delegating authority in decision-making can only take place successfully when there is absolute confidence in those to whom power is given. (Coach to team members, team members to one another)

3. Think everything through first, and then stick your neck out. (Risk being wrong rather than being tentative.)

As in several of the chapters, this one was very much about something that's not immediately evident in the title—trust. Red always trusted his players. One reason why he could afford to do so (in addition to their obvious capabilities) was that his process for selecting them in the first place had been very clear. Did they already know about winning? Did they understand that winning was expected, not just hoped for? Could they be trusted to demonstrate curiosity, team ego, active listening skills, integrity, selflessness? Could they be entrusted with the responsibility that Red would thrust upon them?

Red's trust in his players extended to their post-playing careers. That is why he drafted Sam Jones (whom virtually no one had ever heard of), sight unseen, upon the recommendation of a former Celtic, Bones McKinney. Red drafted Cowens as a forward, and it was Russell who told him Cowens could become a great center, because "the guys he can't guard won't be able to guard him." Red trusted Russ' instincts, and the rest is history.

Russ uses his final season, 1968-69, several times throughout the book. One of the most interesting is in this chapter, and it involves the antecedents for the fourth game of the Lakers' series, won by Sam Jones in the last second to prevent an insurmountable Lakers' 3-1 lead in a series the Celtics went on to win.

Toward the end of that season, Coach Russell knew his creaking team, fourth in their division, needed every edge they could get to have a shot at a title. According to Russ, he analyzed the games played that season and was astounded that they had lost 17 games by 3 points or fewer. Realizing they lacked a finishing kick, he set out to insert a last-second shot play into their arsenal. But he couldn't think of a non-predictable one, so he turned to the team. Havlicek and Sigfried recalled a play they had used at Ohio State, and Russ liked the concept. They started practicing the play; and, the first time they tried it, they took 27 seconds to run it.

(Editorial observation by SlipperySam: It should be noted that Havlicek and Siegfried claim to have begun practicing the play on their own when Russ missed a practice.)

Anyway, the mission became clear, and meticulous teamwork was at the heart of it. "Each individual player had to find in himself what he could do to cut the time of that play down. He had to take into account what his teammates did—to be mindful of every move made by everyone else"—because a triple pick was involved. They finally whittled the time down to four seconds.

Russ says they ran that play in the playoffs and won five games (including that critical fourth one against the Lakers) by three points or fewer. (Again, there are some historical discrepancies, as some teammates claim that game 4 was the first time they had ever tried the play in live game action.)

The essence of teamwork, says Russ, is discipline. There was constant tension between what people wanted for themselves and what they wanted for the team. He frequently refers to Sam Jones in this chapter, and here he notes that "Sam found it uncomfortable to step up to the dominating talent he had, but he did that because he knew it was called for. Scoring a ton of points per se was never his objective, only to give what he knew he had to supply for us to win."

Russ once again alludes to the difference between "outside-in" and "inside-out" leadership referenced in Russell Rule #4. The "outside-in" leader incorporates the perspectives of others in decision-making. The "inside-out' leader makes his own decision and basically tries to bludgeon the rest of the world into accepting it. He feels that this concept was possibly the primary difference between Wilt Chamberlain and himself. Wilt believed he was "The Man" and "The Man" could single-handedly make his team win. Russ opted for a more egalitarian philosophy. (Gee, I wonder how that worked out for each of them.)

Russell Rule 11: Everyone Can Win

Russ asserts that one key to winning is that you have to put yourself in a position to win:

1. Don't wait for an opportunity to win. LOOK for an opportunity to win.

2. You have to be the one to determine how to measure winning. Don't allow others to define you you're going to play the game.

3. Commit now. Don't wait until tomorrow.

When K.C.Jones came to the Celtics, he seldom played. Then he was widely considered a "fill-in" replacement for Cousy who was there because he was Russell's friend from college. Yet K.C. ignored all that and visualized only opportunity. John Thompson was Russ' backup, which meant relatively little playing time. But John nonetheless saw the opportunity in his association with the Celtics, asking questions, soaking up every possible piece of knowledge, and later converting what he had learned into a legendary coaching career at Georgetown.

And finally, Russ repeats something he's publicly stated many times: "Success is never a destination and always a journey." In other words, never stop striving to win, regardless of how close to, or far from, victory you are.

This ends my synopsis of the book. I hope it has piqued your interest in acquiring and reading the entire volume. Please let me know, either here or on Sam's Celtics Forum, whether it was of use to you, your reactions to various chapters, and any other comments you may have on the book or my synopsis.

The URL for Sam's Celtics Forum is:

http://samcelt.forumotion.net

Thanks for reading, and best regards,

Sam