The Boston Celtics is one of the most storied franchises in the NBA and their fans are very protective of their legacy.
They have the most championships in league history and thus, they believe they are the greatest. With some of the best all-time talents ever to hold a basketball, the team demands respect.
So when ESPN makes a countdown of the All-Time best players in the game, the fans have a watchful eye.
One thing that they immediately noticed is that no member of the Boston Celtics made the top five. In contrast, their arch-rival Los Angeles Lakers have three of their players on in the All-Time quintet: Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Boston.com relayed the news to the fans but refrained from making inflammatory comments as they probably knew their legion would take charge. On the Reddit post of the article, much of the protest was about Russell as he was probably the most successful team player in all of professional team sports. In his 13 playing seasons, Russell was a champion 11 times-the same as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant combined.
A comment from user 'samueladams6' stated that Russell should at least be above Wilt Chamberlain, his career rival and ranked no.5 over both Celtics.
"Any list that ranks Wilt over Russell is complete Bulls**t," the post ranted. "They played against the same competition for the majority of their careers. Russell won 11 championships, 8 while Wilt shared the league. Wilt won 2 championships, 1 while Russell shared the league."
He focuses on the notion that Chamberlain put up superior individual statistics.
The post concluded: "Its(sic) amazing that so many can simply discount winning because it was against weaker competition, while they fawn over the pace inflated counting stats of a ball hog against the very same competition. Yes Wilt once scored 50 PPG (on 39.5 shots a game!), Russell won the championship that same year. The years Wilt did win a championship he scored 24 PPG and 15 PPG! And still he is viewed as better because he scored more points."
What he is implying is that Chamberlain won a championship only after he learned to play team ball whereas Russell has carved the most successful career by doing that since day one.
This is an age-old debate and the Celtics, as expected, will not take it sitting down.
