Out & About KY Style: Bill Russell and Jim McDaniels

Much has been written about the passing of Bill Russell, who many consider among the best basketball players to ever play the game. With high school state championships and two NCAA titles at the University of San Francisco, the Louisiana native, was even better in leading the United States to the 1956 Olympic gold medal in Melbourne.

Soon after, Russell was on his way to stardom with the Boston Celtics. And what a thirteen year career. Eleven NBA titles, twelve All-Star teams and five MVP awards, it was no wonder that in 1980 he was voted the NBA’s all-time greatest player.

In October 1961, as Russell began to emerge as the biggest star in the pro game, his Celtic team was set to play an exhibition game in Lexington against the St. Louis Hawks in Memorial Coliseum. That’s where UK played their home games.

The game was to mark a homecoming for two former Wildcats, who themselves had risen to stardom for their respective teams.  Cliff Hagan of the Hawks and Frank Ramsey of the Celtics were just a few years removed from Lexington and  coach Adolph Rupp.  Local fans were more eager to see them than Russell. The Hawks also had former LSU All-American Bob Pettit who they were very familiar with.

However, the game itself took a backseat to what occurred  the morning of the game in the coffee shop of the downtown Phoenix Hotel where the two teams were staying.

Two of the Black Celtics, Satch Sanders and Sam Jones, were refused service, setting off a firestorm among three other black teammates, that included Russell, K.C. Jones, and Al Butler.

Russell’s influence led to a boycott of the game by his black teammates as well as two from the Hawks.

It was reported that Celtic Coach Red Auerbach spent two hours in an effort to turn things around before driving them to Bluegrass Airport where they flew back to Boston.

Frank Ramsey, the Madisonville native and a Celtic star had been upset by what happened.

“No thinking person in Kentucky is a segregationist” he said, back then. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am as a human being, as a friend of the players involved and as a resident of Kentucky, and for the embarrassment of this incident.”

The Phoenix hotel said it was all a misunderstanding.

The game went off as promoted with the Hawks winning 128-103.

Off the court Bill Russell, in 2010, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and over the years was a positive civil rights activist for all of the right reasons.

With all of the accolades heaped on Russell, there was one basketball great who was not all that enamored with the former Celtic center.

Jim McDaniels, the former Western Kentucky University, who many consider the greatest basketball Hilltopper ever, had two “I’ll never forget moments” with Russell.

In 2011, I, along with Lloyd “Pink” Gardner, compiled a book about the professional ABA Kentucky Colonels basketball team.  McDaniels, being a player for the Louisville-based team was a part of the story. In fact, one complete chapter was devoted to him.

I have reprinted several paragraphs from my book as to Jim McDaniel’s take on Russell.  Keep in mind the book and McDaniel’s comments were published in 2013, long before the death of Bill Russell.

“I was a hell of a player. I could do it all,” he says. “I really felt like I was on track to be one of the best players ever, even in the NBA. But, my game went south.”

When McDaniels arrived in Seattle Lenny Wilkens was the coach for his last 12 games of the season. McDaniels liked Wilkins and had high hopes of elevating the gaudy scoring and rebounding numbers he had brought with him from Carolina in the ABA.

He hoped the next year would be a fresh start for him.

The following year Bill Russell was named coach of the SuperSonics. Anyone who can spell basketball knows that Russell is often mentioned as one of the five best players to ever play the game. He had seen and done it all on the hardwood. He knew the game from every angle, a player, coach, and even a broadcaster. Plus, he was a big man, had been an inside player, and McDaniels could only guess how much he was going to develop under a man like Russell.

From Russell’s beginning, McDaniels felt like he never had a chance. All of the off-court financial problems with his agent, and now here was one of the greatest names in basketball, who McDaniels says was an idiot as a coach.

“He completely demoralized me,” he says. “He took any confidence I ever had away and totally destroyed my game.

“I know everything they said about Russell, but in my opinion he was not a very nice person. I know he was a great player, but I think it should be more than that,” he stated. “I remember after one of our games a little boy came up to him in a wheelchair. He was a paraplegic and had to talk through one of those tubes. He asked Russell for his autograph and none of us could believe it when he told the little boy he didn’t sign autographs, and quickly turned his back on him. This is the kind of man Bill Russell was.”

Perhaps McDaniels should have known about Russell. Years before, while just an eighth grader in Scottsville he had his first encounter with the basketball legend.

“The Boston Celtics were playing the Atlanta Hawks in an exhibition game in Diddle Arena,” he says. “A bunch of us piled in a car and went. After the game I couldn’t wait to get his autograph. I went up to him and asked him for it and he said, no, and turned and walked away. I was devastated.  And then I saw him do it again in Seattle.”

There was a short period of time that Big Mac thought he had his game back. But only for a short time.

“We were playing the Bucks,” he said. “I go out there and had a 29 point, 18 rebound game against Jabbar.  I felt I was back. The next night Russell didn’t even start me. It was Jim Fox instead. Russell was playing mind games with me.”

What did McDaniel say to Russell about it all?

“I didn’t say anything,” he recalled. “No one could talk to him, he was so arrogant. In any normal situation Fox would have been my back-up, but there was nothing normal about Russell. I was the kind of guy who needed to be in the starting five in order to be the player I know I was.”

Through it all McDaniels continued to struggle emotionally, he says, not knowing who his friends were.

McDaniel’s stint with Seattle also included another off-court situation that involved some of his teammates experimenting with the black Muslim sect.

“I roomed for a while with Walt Hazzard who went through it,” McDaniels says. “He changed his name to Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, but later changed it back to his given name. John Brisker, Bud Stallworth, and Spencer Haywood experimented a little with it. It was just another distraction I had to put up with, and mentally I was a mess, there’s no better way to describe it.”

McDaniels says Al Ross, his agent, was still pulling his chain.

“He convinced me to sign off on a no-guarantee contract with Seattle, and two weeks later they cut me.”

Big Mac played with the Colonels for a time, but was never the player he thought he should have been.  Whether Russell was to blame, no one will know for sure. But one thing we do know, there were two sides to Bill Russell.

There’s no excuse, get up, get out and get going! Gary P. West can be reached at westgarypdeb@gmail.com.