When I suited up on Sunday, I was a little nervous -- I had a lot on my mind, which, of course, I kept to myself. But maybe it showed, at least to Red. When we stared down the corridor to the arena, where I was about to be introduced, for the first time in uniform, to my new teammates, Red said to me, "I heard you can't shoot. You worried about shooting?"
I said, "Not much. But it's been on my mind."
He said, "Well, tell you what. Let's make a deal today, right now. When we talk contract down the line, I will never discuss statistics. All I'll discuss is if we won and how you played. That's all I care about. Don't worry about being a big scorer -- I don't give a damn about that. All I want you to do is what you've always done. Play your game. And I won't tell you how to do that. Just play the way you know how."
From "Red and Me," by Bill Russell and Alan Steinberg