Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry paid homage to the late, great Bill Russell on Sunday, calling the 11-time NBA champion and revered civil rights activist a “trailblazer” and “greatest champ in basketball.”

 

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Russell, 88, passed away on Sunday morning in Mercer Island, Washington. In a statement announcing the death of “the most prolific winner in American sports history,” his family implored mourners to “find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle.”

Russell and the Boston Celtics won 11 of the next 13 championships after he was acquired in a draft-night trade with the St. Louis Hawks in 1956. He led Boston to back-to-back titles in 1968 and 1969 as player-coach, and last year became one of just five people to be inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach.

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An influential public figure of the early civil rights movement, Russell marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and attended the “Cleveland Summit” with other superstar Black athletes like Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to support Muhammad Ali's refusal to participate in the Vietnam War. President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 for Russell's accomplishments on and off the court.

After Stephen Curry won his first Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award, dashing Russell's hopes of the Celtics' first championship since 2008 in the process, Russell congratulated his friend for another title with the Warriors.

R.I.P, Bill Russell.