NBA will retire Bill Russell's No. 6 jersey league-wide

Russell, who passed away at the age of 88 earlier this month, becomes the first player in NBA history to have his jersey universally retired around the league (though some individual teams have already retired the numbers of players who did not play for them e.g. the Miami Heat and Michael Jordan, the Dallas Mavericks and Kobe Bryant, etc.).

Many notable NBA players currently wear the No. 6 jersey, including LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers. The league stated in its release that those players will be grandfathered, meaning that they can continue wearing No. 6 through the end of their respective careers if they so choose. However, the No. 6 jersey will no longer be issued again by an NBA team.

Russell, who wore No. 6 throughout his NBA career, was the greatest winner in the history of the league (with 11 championships in 13 seasons). He was also one of the NBA’s very first African-American superstars, its very first African-American head coach and a pioneer of the civil rights movement.

The decision to retire Russell’s jersey league-wide makes good on a push that some other NBA legends had made in the days and weeks prior.