you asked for it
Not to belittle the thread but we’re talking about the most clutch athletes in sports history – forget about Boston.
David Ortiz is a Boston legend.
Adam Vinatieri is a Boston legend.
Russell, Brady, Bird and Orr are sports legends who all coincidently played in Boston, and we’re very lucky for it.
Russell was the MVP on 11 championship teams, he is the most successful athlete in team sports history…period. He was a force on defense, transition, and distribution – he was the engine of THE Dynasty and arguably the most dominant all-around basketball player of all time. He's clearly on the Mount Rushmore of Boston athletes and, like Brady and Bird, he goes beyond mere parochial icon status – they belong to the elite pantheon of sports in general – not some glorified local pedestal that makes us feel good about our own neighborhood, but does a major disservice to them.
Both Russell and Brady made/make the game infinitely easier for those around them. When Russell retired, the Celtics weren’t just done winning championships, they became atrocious. Before Brady took the reins in his second year, the Patriots were also atrocious…despite replacing a highly experienced and prolific QB, under Brady’s young leadership the team immediately congealed into championship form.
Tom’s career is five years young but he already has an incredible portfolio of consistent play in elimination games and pressure situations.
Under pressure, Russell was great at shooting and distributing, but if basketball players had to contend with an NFL pass rush, we’re no longer talking about clutch basketball players. While both Russell and Brady play(ed) fearlessly, QBs come equipped with targets on their backs – with 260 pounders sprinting at their blind side with intent to kill – this is takes the definition of courage to a level totally foreign to the game of basketball.
Brady’s physical skills are less obvious than Russell’s, but no less significant. Just from reading the opinions of his own fans on this message board, he might have the most underrated arm in football history – and that same arm isn’t even his greatest attribute – it’s his eyes and instincts. He sees the field like a hawk and plays the game like Gary Kasparov. His mistakes occur when he “over-anticipates†either his offense or the defense he’s facing.
Russell’s “weaknesses†could only be taken in consideration to other great players. He was an average free thrower, but it wasn’t his job to draw fouls. Brady’s one weakness is a lack of mobility outside the pocket – a place he rarely resides. Relative to their peers, they both stand alone.
Brady and Larry Bird were/are offensive guys, and as such, have had more singular opportunities to choke or shine than Russell.
Russell’s highlight clutch performance might’ve been in game 7 of the ’57 finals when he missed a layup in the 2nd OT before running the length of the court to block Jack Coleman’s shot – Celtics win 125-123. The other one that stands out is the ’67 division finals against the Sixers – the Celtics came back from a 2-game deficit to force a game 7…leading by 2 points with 30 seconds to play, Russell sank a foul shot, blocked a shot by Chet Walker, grabbed a rebound off a Hal Greer miss, and fed the ball to Sam Jones, who made the final basket…there is no better definition of his greatness than that final sequence.
But a clutch basket is arguably more impressive than a clutch block or rebound by a guy who was simply more physically imposing than everyone else on the court. Which isn’t to say that Russell was just a big intimidating brute, because positioning and anticipation were part of the game, but he still had that dominating size.
I’d still take Russell over Bird to start my team, but I’d want Bird in the last minute of a tie game.
The position of QB in the salary cap/FA Era carries a value that is unprecedented in team sports history – 21 other guys depend entirely on the decisions and execution of the QB – if he makes mistakes or less than optimal choices nothing else means a damn. As unbelievably valuable as Russell was to the Celtics, Brady is at least as valuable to the Pats.
Russell played with five Hall of Famers – there’s no doubt he helped make those players great, but you don’t get into the Hall of Fame unless you’re great in your own right, and the Celtics had the only truly great team of their era. Wilt played on incomplete teams but his Warriors were still competitive with the great Celtics teams – it’s ridiculous to suggest that Russell truly “neutralized†Wilt, or that Wilt wasn’t able to “elevate†his team like Russell did. It’s not a knock on Russell, but he obviously had a lot more to work with than Wilt.
Russell was 106-53 in the playoffs and 31-15 in potentially decisive games. Most impressively he led the Celtics to a 10-0 record in game sevens (15-1 in elimination games). Bird wasn’t quite that successful.
TB is 10-1 in “game sevens†– that record eclipses Bart Starr (who played with NINE Hall of Famers). He is 21-3 in games decided by a TD…no other QB in history comes close to that mark. He has directed 4 fourth-quarter comeback drives in championship games, including two walk-off drives. One championship comeback included 10 points in the final 3:30 against the 8th ranked D – he made it look easy. Another came with no timeouts, no 2-minute warning, 80 seconds, against the 6th ranked D -- again, he made it look exceedingly easy. Both are unprecedented feats, not just in Super Bowl history, but also NFL championship history.
Despite directing his team to 3 titles in his first four seasons, Brady is the only surefire HoFer on his teams…no multi-championship winning QB has ever been without a plethora of HoF talent around him. In Marino’s first 6 seasons he played with 12 different Pro Bowlers – though like Brady, none of the players around Marino were locks for Canton – just to refresh your memory, Marino won nothing while Tom is on pace to become the most successful player in football history.
Collegiately, Russell led USF to back to back championships and an absurd 55-game win streak. Brady led UM to a 2-0 record in Bowl games, a 10-2 record in games decided by a TD, and directed 3 fourth-quarter/OT comeback drives in winning the Bowl games.
In the history of sports, only Bill Russell and Jack Nicklaus can claim to have earned their HoF tickets as fast as Brady. Gale Sayers made it to Canton after 5 years…Brady became a lock after four seasons. Had TB retired after the 04 season his legend would’ve grown ten-fold.
THEREFORE...
This is the problem with comparing guys in different sports.
