Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics were anything but slow and unskilled — and we have the proof

There is a popular misconception that basketball before the modern era was slow, unwatchable and played by non-athletes with little skill.

Perhaps at least some of that was true before the start of the shot clock era in 1954, but by the time the Boston Celtics rose to dominance in the late 1950s, that was anything but the case — and not just with the Celtics.