🏀 Brave things Bill Russell did

From the kid who didn’t have enough sense to list you number one. . . [READER]( The Daily Reader With basketball fans all around the world mourning the death of the great Bill Russell, I’d like to claim he was my favorite basketball player when I was a kid. But that would be a lie. No, that honor went to Russell’s great rival, Wilt Chamberlain, aka the Big Dipper. So named because he was so tall he had to dip to get under the doorway. Uh-oh, confession time . . . When I was a kid, I was a maker of lists, tracking things that mattered most to me in life. At the top of the list of the lists I kept was my list ranking basketball players. Each time I compiled that list—and I compiled it many times—the exalted spot of number one came down to a battle between Wilt and Russell. Folks, it was like Beatles v. Stones. Ali v. Frazier. Temptations v. Miracles. You can like them both, but at some point you have to choose one over the other. I chose Wilt because . . . He came from Philly—as did my parents. He graduated from Overbrook High School—as did my aunts. He was super cool—hanging out in jazz clubs in Harlem and comedy clubs in the Village where he was pals with other supercool people like Miles Davis and Lenny Bruce. I said to myself, Benny, old boy, when you get older, you too will hang out with Wilt Chamberlain. Alas, that never happened. Well, I did get older. But I never met Wilt, much less hung out with him. In retrospect, I realize I’d look much wiser for my age if I could say Bill Russell topped my list. Not just because Russell’s Celtics won all those championships, but because he was an even greater legend off the court. Russell stood for civil rights his whole life—including the early 60s, when doing so meant some MAGA lunatic might shoot you. Okay, there was no MAGA back then—more like MAGA predecessors might gun you down. What, you think the MAGA monster just sprung from thin air? To give you a couple of the brave things Bill Russell did . . . In ’64, the summer after Medgar Evers was assassinated, he went to Mississippi and opened an integrated basketball camp with Evers’s brother. That’s Mississippi, people! Klan country. In ’63, Russell was one of the few professional athletes to attend the Lincoln Memorial rally, where Dr. King made his “I Have a Dream” speech. That’s the speech where Dr. King uttered the line about judging people by the “content of their character” not the “color of their skin.” A line King might wish he’d never said, had he lived long enough to see how people, of no character, [turned it upside down]( to make King seem like an ally in their efforts to keep Black people at the back of the bus. But I digress . . . So, yes, I wish I could say Bill Russell topped my list. But that would be like one of those hindsight-is-20/20 rewrites of history. Or to make an analogy that Boomers who know nothing about sports might appreciate . . . It’s like claiming your favorite Beatle was John, even though it was Ringo. Rest in peace, Bill Russell—from the kid who didn’t have enough sense to list you number one. . . Listen to [The Ben Joravsky Show]( [What Ben's Reading] - The menu at El Xangarritto, a restaurant at 4811 N. Rockwell. Just my way of saying I went there the other night and—though I’m no [Mike Sula]( food is delicious. - Kelly Garcia—mayoral candidate [Paul Vallas]( goes MAGA - [Ben Joravsky]( MAGA to Chicago, or the latest dumb idea from City Hall [Best of the Ben J. Show]( - [Aurie Pennick]( being idealistic and realistic - [Heidi Henry]( MAGA in MAGA land - [David Faris]( and Yang [Jail support, political consultants, and The Bat]( Optional activities for Wednesday 8/3/2022 by [Micco Caporale]( [Salem Collo-Julin]( and [Kerry Reid]( [Back Alley Jazz renews a south-side tradition]( by [Hannah Edgar]( [Marissa Nadler adds a welcome darkness to the scary darkness of the end of days]( by [Steve Krakow]( 💞 Forget the apps. [Place a FREE Reader matches ad]( and try your luck at finding love the 90s way 📰 [Issue of July 21 - August 3, 2022 Vol. 51, No.]( [Download Issue]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2022 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616