This Day In Basketball History

1956 - Bill Russell makes his Celtics debut

In a 95-93 home victory over the St. Louis Hawks, 22-year-old center Bill Russell makes his debut for the Boston Celtics. Russell scores six points and grabs 16 rebounds.

Russell's rookie year, in which he averages 14.7 points and 19.6 rebounds, is the only one of his 13 seasons that doesn't result in an All-Star appearance. It does, however, result in the first of his 11 championships.

1962 - 1,000,000 points recorded

The NBA doesn't seem sure about who scored the exact basket in which game, but in one of the Detroit-Chicago, New York-Boston or Syracuse-San Francisco contests on Dec. 22, 1962, the 1,000,000th point in league history is scored.

Birthdays

1922 - Jack Smiley
1936 - Tom Hawkins
1949 - Dave Robisch