Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership from the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner

I did something else, too. Sitting there on the bus, I’d close my eyes and try to see each move these players made the same way I had “memorized” Michelangelo and Leonardo. As I saw them move in my mind’s eye, I imagined myself as their shadow or mirror image. Every movement, every subtle gesture they made, I made in reverse, till I knew that I cou

We won all those championships in part because we knew how to let other teams’ stars do their thing and at the same time take that style of play and convert it to our advantage. My battles with Wilt; our series against the great Bob Pettit; the games we played against “The Big O,” Oscar Robertson, one of the greatest players ever; and, of course, o

He spoke to each of us differently. This was never an affectation. He had an uncanny ability to pick up intonations, inflections, and body language in every one of his players. When he listened, he had what I like to think of as a built-in, shockproof lie detector. We used to have a saying on the Celtics, “Don’t lie to me, boy!” That came from Red.

But imagination has this unexpected aspect of actualization built into it. What we see in our dreams or fantasies can often be made real when we then commit resources, labor, ingenuity, effort, to back it up. That is precisely the task of enlightened leadership.

Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved. Amateurs hope, professionals work.

Red Auerbach, walking down the tunnel toward the court with me, asked if I had any worries about my ability to score. “I wouldn’t say I had any worries, I think about it sometimes,” I said. He told me then he’d make a deal with me, that he’d never use statistics in negotiating one of my contracts, that the only thing he’d ever bring up was how I pl

RUSSELL RULES Rule One: All decisions need to have a clear and attainable goal. Without that, no one will take your decision seriously or follow your directive with any passion. Rule Two: Delegation can only become comfortable when the person you are delegating to has your full respect and confidence. You get this respect and confidence from the de

I didn’t know how I’d be received or if the way I saw myself would bother anyone else. I didn’t care. I wore facial hair, for instance—a sharp goatee and a thin mustache. Over time, I developed a calculated air of mystery so that my teammates would never be able to take me for granted (or later on to see that I happened to like them). I had a job t

thought were really worth much on the basketball court because the concepts were so different from the accepted view of the sport. But I knew they were important, because they worked.