Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Bill Russell

These nominations predate the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and have been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests.

Bill Russell (March 2013)

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new nomination underneath, starting with  .

The result was: not scheduled (withdrawn by nominator – "save for a more opportune time" 02:50, 22 March 2013‎ (UTC))



Bill Russell (born 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star, Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty, winning eleven NBA championships during his thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Russell was the first African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first African American NBA coach. Frequent battles with racism left Russell with a long-standing contempt for fans and journalists. When he retired, Russell left Boston with a bitter attitude, although in recent years his relationship with the city has improved. For his accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement on and off the court, Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2011. Russell is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2009, the NBA announced that the NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.

4 points: widely covered subject; FA since 2008. Links should all be up to date.--Chimino (talk) 05:52, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Bill Russell (January 2014)

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/February 12, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 19:01, 26 January 2014‎ (UTC)



Bill Russell (born 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player, widely considered one of the best in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. Playing center for the Boston Celtics, he was the centerpiece of their dynasty and his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the team's success. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star, he won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career, and jointly holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. He led the NBA in rebounds four times, and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. Russell was the first African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA and the first African American NBA coach. For his accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement on and off the court, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Russell is a member of three basketball Halls of Fame (Naismith Memorial, National Collegiate, and FIBA) and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award is named in his honor. He also won a 1956 Olympics gold medal as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.

5 points: 80th birthday, widely covered subject; FA since 2008. Cheers --Chimino (talk) 14:37, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment - It's a good article content-wise, but it does need a little polishing--I'm not entirely keen on its organizational layout (25 sections? too many, and many of them a little too short for my taste per MOS:LAYOUT). Blurb ought to be trimmed (I count 1,365 characters with spaces as proposed...needs about 150-175 characters trimmed off). --ColonelHenry (talk) 16:08, 10 January 2014 (UTC)


 * 8 points as a vital article (4), 80th birthday (2), old FA (2). Rejigged to 1,193 characters. BencherliteTalk 19:55, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I had trouble with what to trim.-Chimino (talk) 23:57, 11 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Support: a charming, funny fellow and a great basketball player. Praemonitus (talk) 05:00, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Support: worthy mainpage article Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 12:44, 20 January 2014 (UTC)