Celtics Unveil Court Design Honoring Legendary Bill Russell

The Boston Celtics, along with the rest of the NBA, will honor legendary champion Bill Russell in a number of ways in 2022-23. On Monday, the franchise Russell made famous teased one of the ways they’ll do so.

“As a part of the tributes, the Celtics have unveiled a new home parquet court ahead of the 2022-23 season. The team has added the number (six) to both lanes to pay homage to Bill Russell’s dominant play in the paint, marking the first time numerical text will be displayed within that area on an NBA court,” the Celtics said in a statement Monday.

The team released a photo of part of the new court design via social media.

As part of the tributes, the NBA retired Russell’s number six league-wide, though players who already wore the number will be grandfathered in. In addition to the number retirement, each arena will display a number six on the sideline in front of the scorers table and each team will wear a number six patch on the front of their jerseys. The Celtics, Russell’s former team, will have slightly different tributes.

Russell passed away in July at age 88.