Bill Russell was definitely a Renaissance Man for his era. Certainly the greatest winner in the history of sports and because of this, arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time. I knew a bit about Russell's career and life, but this definitely helped fill in some of the blanks.
So why did I give this just a "7" rating? Well, this documentary made the decision to have an actor read passages from some of the books and articles he wrote himself over the years. This technique was used many, many times, and after awhile, this made it very dry to watch. The other thing I didn't care for is that they glossed over some of the less flattering aspects of his life/career. Russell was married four times, but we were never told that. The documentary suggested that he was a successful coach with the Seattle Super Sonics. He was middling at best. He bombed as the coach of the Sacramento Kings, and quit without even finishing out the season.
Finally, I noticed that one reviewer thought this documentary was too woke or progressive. As someone who is politically conservative on most issues, I didn't find that to be the case at all, so if you are politically conservative and hesitant to watch this documentary, I'd say you shouldn't be hesitant. During the era that Russell played, he had to deal with lots of overt racism, especially when they played Exhibition Games down south when there was still segregation. To not talk about that in this documentary would have glossed over a critical part of Russell's life, and the things he tried to do to help change this in American society during that period.
