The Dandy Dons: Bill Russell, K. C. Jones, Phil Woolpert, and One of College Basketball's Greatest and Most Innovative Teams

2. A Road Trip to Discovery

“The very idea that I could innovate in basketball thrilled me.” —Bill Russell Things seemed to be going Russell’s way. He was asked to join a group of California All-Stars—also “splitters”—on a tour of the Pacific Northwest, playing local teams. Some of the top basketball players in California graduated midyear, but most of the good players didn’t graduate until June. McClymonds had the best team in northern California that year, and the sponsors—the Oakland Jaycees and the Mohawk Athletic Club—wanted someone from McClymonds to join the tour. Russell was the only one available. “I was happier than if I had found a thousand dollars under my pillow,” Russell said. He saw the tour as a way to improve his basketball, get out of Oakland, and not have to look for a job. He had been prepared to begin a job as a sheet metal worker to save money for college. TWO A Road Trip to Discovery 10 A Road Trip to Discovery His new touring team traveled by Greyhound bus, lived in host families’ homes, and ate in restaurants as they toured towns in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Idaho. Russell’s life took another good turn on the tour thanks to his coach, Brick Swegle, who allowed the team to do just about anything on the court. Basketball at that time had strict coaching rules. One of the unwritten rules was that you didn’t take jump shots as they were considered “hot dog” shots. “If you have to jump to shoot, you didn’t have a shot in the first place,” was the standard line. Coaches also told players not to jump unless rebounding. This was difficult for a player like Russell to buy into, especially because, for him, jumping was “one of the purest pleasures I know.” At McClymonds High the players preferred, as Russell called it, “Negro basketball,” including the jump shot. “We never jumped on defense, but we loved to go up in the air on offense,” Russell said. “It was more fun—and it worked.” Swegle was willing to let the boys have their fun. Swegle gave Russell the green light to use his curiosity and experiment on the court. They played “Negro basketball,” even though only two black players were on the team. “We ran and jumped on that team, and we wore most teams out,” Russell said. Most of the opposing coaches complained to Swegle about their tactics, but he just shrugged and said his players were having fun. One coach told his players not to guard the All-Star players when they tried a jump shot. The final score of that game was 144–41. Russell said that within a week after the tour began, “something happened that opened my eyes and chilled my spine.” He was sitting on the bench one night watching one of the team’s best players go through his moves. He closed his eyes and tried to see the play in his mind. Eural McKelvey, the only other African American on the team, grabbed an offensive rebound and took the ball to the basket. It was a shot Russell didn’t do well. “Since I had an accurate version of his technique in my head, I started A Road Trip to Discovery 11 playing with the image right there on the bench, running back the picture several times, and each time inserting a part of me for McKelvey,” Russell said. When he went back into the game he grabbed an offensive rebound and put it in the basket just like McKelvey did. “It seemed natural, almost as if I were just stepping into a film and following the signs,” Russell said. “Now for the first time I had transferred something from my head to my body.” It was his first dose of athletic confidence. But it was most likely more than that, something Russell and perhaps few others realized about what scientists now call “the power of intention” or, in other terms, “mental rehearsal,” “mental practice,” “implicit practice,” and “covert rehearsal.” It is a practice modern coaches widely use to separate elite athletes from second-division players. Russell’s mental rehearsals show how far ahead of other athletes he was in more than just athletic skill. Mental rehearsal was a technique that boxer Muhammad Ali used when he said, “I am the greatest.” Ali...