Bill Russellmarked an era in the NBA during his 13-season run with the Boston Celtics. His best contributions were off the court, however Russell was the first Black superstar of theleague. In fact, one of his on-court nicknames is “The Secretary of Defense”for his outstanding defensive skills.
His legacy has been unquestionable that the league took onlysix years after his retirement to inducthimto the NBA Hall of Fame. If that wasn’t enough, the five-time NBA Most Valuable Player award winner had his number six Celtics’ jersey retired three years after his retirement.
However, the question still remains. Bill Russell have won many individual awards with the Boston Celtics. But this main purpose of this article is to clarify how many NBA Finals MVP awardsand how many NBA Championship rings have the Celtics’ legend won.
How many NBA Championship Rings have Bill Russell won?
Bill Russell played for 13straight seasons in the NBA. During that time, Russell was a Boston Celtics player who made it to the NBA Finals 12times. In fact, Russell clinched 11 NBA Championship Rings with the Boston Celtics. Therefore, he is the NBA player with most NBA Championship Rings ever. A record that hasn’t been near close to be broken.
| Year | NBA Champion | Rivals |
| 1957 | Boston Celtics | St. Louis Hawks |
| 1959 | Boston Celtics | Minneapolis Lakers |
| 1960 | Boston Celtics | St. Louis Hawks |
| 1961 | Boston Celtics | St. Louis Hawks |
| 1962 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 1963 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 1964 | Boston Celtics | San Francisco Warriors |
| 1965 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 1966 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 1968 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 1969 | Boston Celtics | Los Angeles Lakers |
How many NBA Finals MVP awards have Bill Rusell won?
As said before, Bill Russell played 12 NBA Finals in his 13 NBA-season career. However, there wasn’t any award to name the most outstanding player for that particular game series. Therefore, the NBA decided to introduce this award for the 1969 NBA Finals when Russell alongside the Celtics won the NBA Championship. But the award winner was Los Angeles Lakers’ player Jerry West.
Therefore, years later in 2009, the NBA decided to change the name of this award to Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award to honor Russell’s11-time NBA Championship legacy. Also, in the llast 2022 NBA Finals when Stephen Curry finally was awarded with it, Rusell himself congratulate him.