“No Final Victories”: A Must-Watch Documentary About a Man Who Played Basketball
Talking about Max’s documentary Celtics City without talking too much basketball.
Am I the target audience for a 10-part documentary about the Boston Celtics, my favorite basketball team from my old hometown? Uh, yeah …
And though I’m the ultimate homer in this situation, please hear me out—I think you’re the target audience for the first two episodes too, you just may not know it yet.
I think you’ll like these episodes even if you don’t like the Celtics, even if you don’t like basketball, because they star one of the great people in American history, Bill Russell.
When I was little I knew that Bill Russell was great because of math, because in 13 years as a professional basketball player he won 11 titles, and that’s an easy way for a little kid watching the Celtics to understand greatness.
What wasn’t easy for a little kid watching the Celtics to understand was why someone would call Robert Parish, one of my favorite players, a word I didn’t know, but that I knew sounded mean.
As I grew up I learned a lot more about Bill Russell and why he won something bigger than a championship, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his efforts during the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, like hosting an integrated basketball camp in Mississippi after the murder of Medgar Evers, joining the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and persevering against racism in Boston, just a few of his actions covered in the documentary:
As I grew up I also learned what that word was, and that racist people in Boston were still saying it to my favorite players, like Marcus Smart. While I have loved the Celtics unreservedly for my whole life and still do, I love Boston with some reservations and a little more distance these days.
In 2018 the Boston Globe Spotlight Team asked, “Does Boston still deserve its reputation as a place unwelcoming to blacks? If so, why - and how can the situation be improved?” and delivered exceptional reporting on what they found, ultimately concluding the following:
“But this much we know: Here in Boston, a city known as a liberal bastion, we have deluded ourselves into believing we’ve made more progress than we have. Racism certainly is not as loud and violent as it once was, and the city overall is a more tolerant place. But inequities of wealth and power persist, and racist attitudes remain powerful, even if in more subtle forms. They affect what we do — and what we don’t do.
Boston’s complacency with the status quo hobbles the city’s future.”
I think that so far, this documentary is a worthy successor to that journalistic effort.
The way that the episode “No Final Victories” tells the story of Bill Russell from 60 years ago and reflects it through current Celtics player Jaylen Brown’s personal experiences and ongoing work to “attack the wealth disparity here” through amazing efforts like Boston XChange feels like a real, honest, necessary look at Boston specifically and our country more broadly.
And yea, do the Celtics win a lot of basketball games in the doc, and are those games celebrated? Sure. But I think they are celebrated because sometimes focusing on sports actually allows us to see the big picture of things a little bit better.
Jaylen Brown says it best in the episode:
“It’s important to understand context and history in order to get to the present moment. Bill Russell, he was one of those people who don’t come around often, and I hold myself to that standard. I honestly feel like the reason why I’m here is to be able to be a voice for certain conversations. My goal is just to remind people of the bigger conversation of life, and that we all play a role in the city, the community … Having an impact outside of the game of basketball, make Boston a better Boston, I think that would be a great legacy to leave, and I just want to do my part, no more no less.
Bill Russell famously said that he played for his teammates, not for the city of Boston, and the team’s jerseys were changed to say “Celtics” for that very reason. With the way that he led the team he created the spirit and expectation of “Celtics Basketball,” described by Jaylen, my favorite Bostonian, in this way:
“Fast forward to 2024, or any team in Celtics history, and he [Bill Russell] set a precedent not only to win, but win in a way that the people stand with you because you stand with the people.”
I always knew that Bill Russell was great, but “No Final Victories” made me really feel it, and I invite you to feel it too.
Celtics City is on HBO Max. jed@kindandfunny.com.