Summary
Shortly after the NBA draft in April of 1956, the St. Louis Hawks traded the rights to Bill Russell to the Boston Celtics for center Ed Macauley, a product of St. Louis University, and Cliff Hagan.
Russell, a slender 6-10 center whose defense and rebounding had led the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships, missed the first third of the NBA season because he was playing for the U. S. Olympic team in Melbourne, Australia.
When he joined the Celtics in December, he had an immediate impact. Because of his great reflexes and leaping ability, Russell was the league's first intimidating shot blocker, and his ability to get rebounds and throw long, accurate outlet passes ignited the Boston fast break.
The Celtics went 44-28, easily the league's best record, to win the Eastern Division by six games. The Western Division didn't have a team over .500; three teams, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Fort Wayne, tied first place with 34-38 records.
St. Louis won two tiebreakers to claim top seeding in the playoffs and then beat Minneapolis in three straight games in the division finals. Given the teams' records, the NBA championship series looked to be a serious mismatch.
But the Hawks won the first game, in Boston, in double overtime. Then, after falling behind in the series, 3 games to 2, they forced a seventh game with a 2-point victory over the Celtics.
The final game, like the first, went two overtimes, but this time the Celtics prevailed to win their first NBA championship. They would win 10 more in the next 12 years.
