William Felton Russell

 I never seen an Eagle with a beard. This was the first line of a poem I wrote about Bill Russell at a time when I had no idea how to write poetry. t was in 1970. my last year in the NBA, in Seattle as a Sonic. I was trying for a predator bird image. Eagle seemed right to me and regal enough to describe the way Bill Russel, already a legend with the Boston Celtic, would swoop down upon his opponents and block shots or so intimidate them that there was no recourse except to give up the effort and pass to a teammate. Upon hearing of Bill's death, my son found a photograph of me playing against the Celtics. I was crouched in the paint, holding the ball in my hands, looking up at Bill Russell between me and the basket with his long wings of arms spread high above me. I was probably thinking to myself, "What the f--k do I do now?"

 Bill Russell grew up in Oakland,CA. i grew up just across the bay in San Francisco. Bill was four years older than me, so we never played against each other in high school, but we played against each other, not often, but occasionally on the playgrounds. I was in the stands in Kezar Pavilion when Bill's team, the USF Dons destroyed the University of California Bears, a team that was considered at the time to be one of the best college basketball teams in the country. Their center, a 6'10" All-Star, Bill Mckean, couldn't get a shot off with Bill's long wings guarding him. KC Jones was the point gfuard on that team. KC would follow Bill to the Cettics and would eventually, like his teammate, join him in the Basetball Hall of Fame. I was a high school baller about to go to college with no idea that in the future I would find myself in the Bosgton Garden, crouched in the paint with Bill Russell hovering over me wondering how I got into this mess. 

Many years later, both of us retired, Bill Felton Russell wrote a wonderful blurb for the back of my third collection of poety: Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports. For whic I remain eternally grateful. 

So much has already been said about Bill in the newspapers and in the media and on the internet that there is little more I can add in the way of flattery. He will always be the greatest defensive center in basketball. i daresay there is not a center that ever played in the NBA, in the present and in the futrure, that Bill would not be able to shut down. There is not a player at any position, past, present or future, be he Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Luka Doncic that would not, like this writer, wind up in the paint with the ball in his hands crouching and looking up terrified at the looming presence of William Felton Russell above him. 

As for his well known advocacy for his race, like his play on the court, Bill would swoop down upon the racists. They felt his talons. He gave them no quarter, he suffered no fools. He will be looking down upon them in their darkest hells from his greaestt heights.

Here's the poem I wrote in 1970 from my first collection of poetry, Over the Rim All I can think of as I read this poem now is how menacing I must have thought of Bill's defense. 

To Bill Russell       by Tom Meschery

I have never seen
an eagle with a beard
but if there is
in some strange 
corner of the world
and the Hindu 
belief is true,
you will return
and beat your wings
violently
over my grave.