All at once, the puzzle pieces of Russell’s confounding personality started fitting together. He didn’t score many points because his team didn’t need him to. He didn’t care about statistics or personal accolades and didn’t mind letting teammates take the credit. “It was never about contracts or money,” he once said. “I never paid attention to MVP awards or how many endorsements I had lined up. Only how many titles we won.” Russell devoted himself instead to defense, and to doing whatever grunt work fell through the cracks.
