While Wednesday's game is just a pre-season match-up, its pretty cool to think of POB getting a chance to play in one of the most historic rivalries in the NBA ... one that has featured perhaps the greatest centers in the annals of the NBA ... Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
Good luck, POB ... here is some background from Wikipedia on Bill Russell's personality. This should help you stoke up your internal fire! You're not there to make friends!
Personality
Russell was driven by "a neurotic need to win", as his teammate Heinsohn observed.
[52] He was so tense before every game that he regularly threw up in the locker rooms; it happened so frequently that his fellow Celtics were more worried when it did
not happen.
[64] He was also known for his natural authority. When he became player-coach in 1967, Russell bluntly said to his team mates that "he intended to cut all personal ties to other players", and seamlessly made the transition from their peer to their superior.
[65]
To teammates and friends, Russell was open and amicable, but was extremely distrusting and cold towards anyone else.
[52] Journalists were often treated to the "Russell Glower", described as an "icily contemptuous stare accompanied by a long silence".
[52] Russell was also notorious for his refusal to give autographs or even acknowledge the Celtics fans, so far that he was called "the most selfish, surly and uncooperative athlete" by one pundit.
[52]
