It was more difficult to win a title in Bill Russell’s era than MJ’s

[AirBonner]

For the simple fact that there was no 3pt shot so the paint was always packed with tough defense. Add in the fact that ticky-tack fouls were not called and it was just a much more difficult era

[Turbo Slayer]

Dumb.

[Turbo Slayer]

The talent pool back then was smaller. Theres was about 10 teams during that span.

[Turbo Slayer]

Bill Russell had to play less fewer postseason games than MJ and other legends. This gave Russell an advantage in durability over Jordan.

[highwhey]

3ball is typing up an essay as we speak.

[AirBonner]

Bill Russell had to play less fewer postseason games than MJ and other legends. This gave Russell an advantage in durability over Jordan.

Concentrated talent. MJ never faced a player equal to him let alone better

[Gotterdammerung]

It's almost impossible to compare teams from different eras due to style and quality, so it's a moot question to say which era was more "difficult" to win. The only way to settle this is with a transcendental point of view, an objective one that isn't based on favoritism or any other homer logic, and that POV does not exist without sneaking in some aesthetic bias.

That said.

It's more difficult to rule a league with 11 titles out of 13 years than any other lesser number, like win 5 titles in 12 years (Johnson) or 6 in 15 (Jordan), 5 in 19 (Duncan).

Russell was the best player on those Celtics teams, and should always get the lion's share of credit for all those titles. Not only was he a great rebounder and shot blocker, he was a dominant defender and ran fast enough for the Celtics to consistently run a full five man fast break downcourt.

Basically Russell had an unconquerable will to victory, and had a complete mastery of the game beyond the physical - the psychological aspect, and most importantly, he also sublimated his ego enough for winning.

[superduper]

Oh look it's one of OPs daily insecurity threads :applause:

[3ball]

a 10-HOF team in an 8-team league should be expected to win every year

Russell was simply their charismatic leader whose defensive impact was multiplied by the lack of spacing.

Otherwise, he never carried any sort of offensive load in his career because he wasn't a good offensive player and his team was stacked to the brim, with the highest concentration of talent on 1 team in history.

[AirBonner]

a 10-HOF team in an 8-team league should be expected to win every year

Russell was simply their charismatic leader whose defensive impact was multiplied by the lack of spacing.

Otherwise, he never carried any sort of offensive load in his career because he wasn't a good offensive player and his team was stacked to the brim, with the highest concentration of talent on 1 team in history.

They were HOFers because Russell turned them into that. No Russell? No playoffs. No MJ? Playoffs still

[Axe]

Yeah, bill russell's era was so hard, the lakers couldn't even win a damn title during that decade.

[HylianNightmare]

Bill has a better argument than L39RON