Bill Russell 1957 NBA Championship Ring

A rookie who arrived in December

Bill Russell was born in Monroe, Louisiana, on February 12, 1934. He led the University of San Francisco to consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and the St. Louis Hawks took him second overall in the 1956 draft. They traded him straight to Boston for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan, a deal later called one of the most important trades in the history of North American sports.

Russell did not report right away. He captained the U.S. team at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, which beat the Soviet Union 89-55 in the gold-medal game, and so could not join the Celtics until December. He played 48 games as a rookie, averaging 14.7 points and 19.6 rebounds.

That spring the Celtics reached the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. Their opponent was the Hawks, the team that had drafted Russell and now had Hagan, one of the two players traded for him.

Double overtime at the Garden

The 1957 Finals ran from March 30 to April 13, and it went the full seven games. Both teams were making their first Finals appearance. Late in the deciding game came what became known as the 'Coleman play': Russell, starting from the Celtics' baseline when the ball was put in play, ran down the Hawks' Jack Coleman and blocked his layup to protect a 103-102 lead with 40 seconds left.

Game 7 on April 13 at Boston Garden went to two overtimes, and it remains the only Game 7 in Finals history decided in double overtime. Boston won 125-123 before 13,909 fans. Russell played 54 minutes and finished with 19 points and 32 rebounds, a single-game Finals record for a rookie. Fellow rookie Tom Heinsohn scored 37 with 23 rebounds; the Hawks' Bob Pettit scored 39.

Russell averaged 22.9 rebounds a game in the Finals. The title was the Celtics' first, and made Red Auerbach the first head coach to take two different teams to the Finals.

The ring itself

By modern standards it is a modest object. The Celtics' 1957 ring is 10-karat gold, marked '10K Koch' inside the band. A single diamond of approximately .17 carat is set into the top face, ringed by the words 'World Champion'. Each side carries the year '1957' above a shamrock, the club's emblem.

Inside the band, 'W.Russell' is engraved. The ring weighs 25 grams and appears to have been slightly resized, to 12.5. It shows wear throughout, which the catalog read as a sign of how much Russell valued it, and was graded VG-EX.

What makes it singular is less the gold than the sequence it began. Russell and Montreal Canadiens great Henri Richard are the only major professional athletes with 11 championships. Russell's came in 13 seasons, including eight in a row from 1959 to 1966. In 1966 he became the NBA's first Black head coach and, as player-coach through 1969, won two more.

Russell decides to let go

Russell was famously private and famously hard to approach for an autograph, and for decades his trophies, rings and jerseys stayed with him. According to the auctioneer, the first contact came about five years before the sale as a request for an appraisal, and 'it was nothing remotely about selling the items at first.' Over several years Russell and his team went through objects spanning five decades and decided what to part with.

The sale was announced on July 22, 2021. 'There are a few pictures I'll keep for myself, but the rest I will share with the world,' Russell said. He kept his Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Barack Obama in 2011. Proceeds were to benefit MENTOR, the Boston nonprofit he co-founded more than three decades earlier, and Boston Celtics United for Social Justice.

The live auction took place on the evening of December 10, 2021, in the Legends suite at TD Garden in Boston. Across 429 lots the collection realized more than $7.4 million. The jersey Russell wore in Game 7 of the 1969 Finals, his last game, opened the night and sold for $1,116,250. The 1957 ring brought $705,000, believed to be a record for any basketball championship ring; his last, from 1969, brought $558,125. The buyers were not named.

Other prices that night included $587,500 for his 1956 Olympic gold medal, between $211,500 and $305,500 for each of his five MVP awards, and $76,375 for his own 1957 rookie card. Russell died on July 31, 2022, about seven months later.

Lord of the Rings

Russell finished with 21,620 rebounds in 963 games, 22.5 a game, five MVP awards and 11 titles. The NBA renamed its Finals MVP award for him in 2009. After his death the league retired his No. 6 across every team, a first for basketball.

He also marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and stood with Muhammad Ali when Ali was stripped of his title for refusing induction. A scrapbook page from his collection, holding a letter from Jackie Robinson about the 1961 boycott of a game in Lexington, Kentucky, sold for $94,000 in the same auction.

The 1957 ring is where the count starts. Every one of the ten that followed carries the memory of that first one, won by a rookie in double overtime against the team that had traded him away.

The numbers

1957 Finals Game 7

April 13, 1957: Celtics 125, Hawks 123 (2OT); Russell 54 min, 19 pts, 32 reb; attendance 13,909

1957 Finals

Celtics win 4-3; Russell averages 22.9 rebounds

1957 playoffs

10 G, 13.9 PPG, 24.4 RPG

1956-57 rookie season

48 G, 14.7 PPG, 19.6 RPG

Career

963 G, 14,522 pts, 21,620 reb, 15.1 PPG, 22.5 RPG; 5 MVPs; 11 titles in 13 seasons

Timeline

1. Feb 12, 1934

   William Felton Russell is born in Monroe, Louisiana.

2. 1956

   Russell wins a second straight NCAA title with San Francisco; the Hawks draft him second overall and trade him to Boston for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan.

3. Dec 1956

   After captaining the U.S. to Olympic gold in Melbourne, Russell joins the Celtics.

4. Mar 30, 1957

   The NBA Finals open between Boston and St. Louis.

5. Apr 13, 1957

   Boston wins Game 7, 125-123 in double overtime; Russell has 19 points and 32 rebounds. The win earns him this ring.

6. 1966

   Russell becomes the NBA's first Black head coach, as player-coach of the Celtics.

7. May 5, 1969

   Russell wins his 11th title in his final game, 108-106 over the Lakers in Los Angeles.

8. 2009

   The NBA names its Finals MVP award after Russell.

9. 2011

   President Obama awards Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

10. Jul 22, 2021

    Russell announces he will auction most of his collection.

11. Dec 10, 2021

    The 1957 ring sells for $705,000 at TD Garden in Boston, believed a record for a basketball championship ring.

12. Jul 31, 2022

    Russell dies at 88.

13. 2022

    The NBA retires No. 6 league-wide in his honor.

The world in 1957

• Jan 20, 1957

  Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon are inaugurated for a second term.

• Mar 4, 1957

  The S&P 500 index is first published.

• May 3, 1957

  Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley agrees to move the team to Los Angeles.

• Sep 4, 1957

  Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to keep the Little Rock Nine out of Central High School.

• Sep 5, 1957

  Jack Kerouac's On the Road is published.

• Sep 9, 1957

  The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is enacted, creating the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

• Oct 4, 1957

  Leave It to Beaver premieres.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Bill Russell 1957 NBA Championship Ring is number 80 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (78 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Russell missed the start of his rookie season because he was winning Olympic gold in Melbourne.
• The 1957 Game 7 is still the only Finals Game 7 to go to double overtime.
• Russell's 32 rebounds in that game are a Finals record for a rookie.
• The Hawks, who drafted Russell, lost the 1957 Finals to him with Cliff Hagan, one of the two players they got for him, on their roster.
• The ring is 10-karat gold with a diamond of about .17 carat, and Russell wore it enough to show wear throughout.
• Russell's first ring outsold his last by $146,875 on the same night.
• He kept only his Presidential Medal of Freedom and a few pictures; the rest he chose to 'share with the world.'