Posted on 10/19/2013 6:30:30 AM PDT by beebuster2000
NBA legend Bill Russell was arrested this week at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a loaded gun was found in his carry-on luggage. Russell The Transportation Security Administration says airport police arrested Russell on Wednesday night at a security screening after agents noticed a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol in his carry-on bag. TSA spokeswoman Lori Dankers says Russell was turned over to Port of Seattle police and cited on a state charge of having a weapon in a prohibited area. Russell had a permit for the gun, which was loaded with six rounds and confiscated, and he was released, according to Dankers. Airline passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage. They must be stored properly and unloaded. Russell, 79, has lived in the Seattle area for decades. He was an 11-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics and coached the Seattle SuperSonics from 1973 to '77. Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1975. President Barack Obama in 2011 awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. government.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
the old .38 in the bag spin move
A great competitor, but I wonder how many NBA titles he would have had if he and Wilt switched teammates.
B.F.D.
Why not just ticket Russell and let him transfer the gun into his checked luggage.
That is sad.
//humor
A number close to zero.
Not a huge hoop fan but hey...hasn’t anybody heard about Pistol Pete Maravich..?
Black liberal Democrat - move along nothing to see here folks.
Call Barry Switzer to see how to handle this.
That would mean expecting the TSA Agent to use some common sense.
Wondering how many times his loaded pistol made it through TSA before now.
Just another case of keepin’ the black man down.
I suspect Russell would have had the same number of titles had he and Chamberlain switched teammates. Remember in colllege, Russell led lowly University of San Francisco to two NCAA titles while player for a traditional power KU Chamberlain did not. Of course we will never really know, but Russell was a great competitor.
I have to point out the utter”Carelessness”of some of these “Conceal-Carry”permit holders!They should ALWAYS be aware of where their”Conceal-Carry”is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back when he was coaching the Sonics, I was putting gas into my ‘56 GMC and a Rolls Royce pulls in on the other side of the pumps and Bill Russell gets out. He was pumping his own gas and I said, “nice car, coach”. No response whatsoever, so I went on my way.
This will rile Celtic fans, but if they played the sixties over, even with the same teammates, Wilt would probably have won 3-5 titles. The Celtics were the greatest team of the sixties, but they had some unbelievable good breaks during that time. Certainly, if Wilt had joined the Lakers and West and Baylor at the start of the decade instead of the end, they’d be talking about the Lakers dynasty during the sixties.
Wilt was a freak of nature...but Russell was an incredibly smart player he made everyone around him better, he wasn’t a big scorer, he never averaged over 20 PPG in a season.
Wilt’s Kansas team barely lost the title (three ots in the championship game) his sophomore year. Tommy Kearns, who played for the N. Carolina team that beat Wilt’s team and was a lifelong friend of Wilt, said that Kansas was the superior team and Kansas would win nine times out of ten. Russell was a great player, but he also played on better teams than Wilt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.