Mississippi Today presents a members-only exclusive event via Zoom on Monday, August 15 at 6 p.m. featuring a live conversation and Q&A with award-winning chef and now author Vishwesh Bhatt, hosted by managing editor Kayleigh Skinner. Read a full review of Bhatt’s new book.
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A native of Gujarat, India, Bhatt later moved to the United States where he’s become known for his inventive dishes that bring southern staples together with subcontinent cuisine, such as Peanut Masala–Stuffed Baby Eggplant and Collard-Wrapped Catfish with a spicy Peanut Pesto. He is 2019 Southern Living’s Southerner of the Year, 2019 James Beard Foundation Best Chef South, and was inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Farmers, Artisans, and Chefs in 2022. Bhatt has been a part of Chef John Currence’s City Grocery Restaurant Group since 1997, becoming executive chef of Snackbar in Oxford, Miss., in 2009. I Am From Here debuts August 16 and is a collection of recipes and stories from his unique perspective as a southern chef.
Vishwesh Bhatt, executive chef of Snackbar. Credit: Angie Mosier Credit: Angie Mosier
Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday said he’s “pushing back on the left” by pulling Mississippi out of a federal pandemic rental assistance program and plans to send any unspent dollars back to Washington.
Reeves said “Mississippi’s economy is booming,” unemployment is at a record low, and the rental assistance program has been incentivizing people to stay out of the workforce by offering up to 15 months of rental and utility bill assistance.
“There is a job available for virtually every Mississippian who wants to work,” Reeves said at a press conference on Wednesday. “These socialist experiment programs being pushed from Washington are cruel, like a bookie offering free cash but never mentioning the downside.”
Advocates who help people with rental assistance said Reeves’ decision will hurt Mississippians — many of whom are working but struggling to pay all of their living expenses.
“This is not a good day,” said Gwen Bouie-Haynes, the executive director of the National Association of Social Workers-Mississippi Chapter, which has helped residents sign up for the program. “… This will result in more people living on the street in Jackson and across the state of Mississippi.”
Reeves said he’s unsure how much money is left and will be returned to Washington. The COVID-19 federal rental assistance program started in 2020 with the first round of pandemic funding for states and continued last year with a subsequent funding program. Mississippi was allocated about $340 million in assistance. Reeves said Wednesday that the state has spent about $200 million. He said that 86,146 people applied for the program and that 36,889 were approved for assistance.
Reeves said he’s ordering the Mississippi Home Corporation to stop taking applications for the Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program on Aug. 15.
Reeves said that early on, the program required people to show proof of unemployment or hardship related to the pandemic, but that was later waived. He said ending the program will not affect applications already submitted or those made before Aug. 15. He said emergency rental and utility assistance programs that existed before the pandemic will also continue.
“My top priority is making Mississippi the best place in the nation to live and to work and to raise a family, and that’s impossible to achieve if able-bodied people aren’t working,” Reeves said.
In February, Mississippi Today reported, based on information provided by the Home Corporation, that 66% of the applicants approved to receive funds through the program were employed, and the majority are Black and female.
The latest U.S. Census data available, for the week ending July 11, showed that 44.5% of adult Mississippians surveyed reported being behind on their rent or mortgage, with eviction or foreclosure in the next two months being either very likely or somewhat likely.
At the same time period last year, 60.5% reported eviction or foreclosure as likely. At times during the pandemic, Mississippi led the nation in the percentage of people reporting likelihood of eviction or foreclosure.
Various groups, such as the NAACP and Children’s Defense Fund stepped in to help Mississippians sign up for the program after the state received national attention on both the local and national level for a slow rollout.
On Wednesday, Reeves praised the Mississippi Home Corp for its administration of the program.
Bouie-Haynes said there are still people impacted by COVID-19 and who are unable or who struggle to pay for housing, rent and utilities. She said the advocacy groups found that high utility costs were a major problem in rural areas.
In addition, she said many of the people receiving assistance are “the working poor” who are employed in jobs that do not pay enough to cover the high costs of rent and utilities. She said her office still gets about 8-10 phone calls per week from people who are trying to to find out where their application stands in the process for gaining rental assistance.
Reeves said some states have exhausted their federal funds for the program, but said he did not know of any other state returning its share of the money to the federal government.
Vishwesh Bhatt, executive chef of Snackbar. Credit: Angie Mosier
Throughout the cookbook, Vishwesh Bhatt refers to himself frequently and proudly as a Southerner. A native of Gujarat, India, Bhatt later moved to the United States where he’s become a standout culinary mind, known for his excellent dishes at Snackbar in Oxford, Miss., where he is executive chef. As a foreigner who’s also made her home in Mississippi, I think often about what makes someone Southern. It’s a descriptor people born and raised here are proud of, but is it a birthright? When do you get to adopt that moniker for yourself if you’re of a place, but not from it?
So I had to ask him — what makes someone a Southern chef? Bhatt paused for a second before responding it was a question he’s not sure he can answer. He said he learned how to cook in the South. He chose to become a chef here and learned from Southern chefs. He’s made a home and a community for himself in Oxford.
“This is the place that influences what I do. This is the place where people come and eat what I cooked, and it is the South and so therefore, I’m a Southern chef,” Bhatt told Mississippi Today.
“The idea that after living here for so long, I still have to answer the question, ‘Where are you from?’ And then, you know, I say I’m from Oxford, and then the follow up question is ‘No, where are you really from?’ So that’s why the title, if that makes sense. Yeah, I moved here from somewhere else, but I’m here now.”
My main takeaway from “I Am From Here,” is that food is not static, something Bhatt reminded me of when we spoke. Before our interview, I set out to make a vegetable plate like you’d find at meat-and-three restaurants across Mississippi, but with dishes from his book.
I settled on Stewed Gujarati-Style Black Eyed Peas, Spicy Potato Mash, Not Your Mama’s Cornbread, and Kashimiri-Style Collards (Haaq). The surprising star of the meal was dessert, Mr. Buzendahl’s Green Tomato Pie. It was flavored just like a traditional apple pie, but substituted the fruit with fresh unripe green tomatoes.
A meat-and-three, Chef Vish-style.
The dishes all turned out well, and though they were flavored with things like curry leaves, ginger and turmeric, it still felt unquestionably like I was sitting down to eat a Southern plate.
“I grew up eating okra and greens and stuff. And when I came here I was like, well, that’s not how you eat it,” Bhatt said. To him, food is “ … always evolving and changing. You can have the same ingredients in many different places and work with them very differently. And that’s okay. And it can all still be just as delicious, just as important.”
To use “I Am From Here” is to rediscover cooking. You can tell flipping through the pages of this cookbook that Bhatt has a deep respect for food. Many of his recipes call for small extra steps that ultimately produce a more tasty dish. Whether it be “blooming” whole spices in oil, or setting a pot full of basmati rice and water on the stove for 15 minutes before turning on the heat to produce a “fluffier result,” taking the time to make sure individual ingredients shine is worth it.
Rather than organize the book by meal — breakfast, lunch, etc. — he organizes it by ingredient. Bhatt says this is because so much of his cooking focuses on fresh, seasonal produce.
In all, 130 recipes fuse meals from his childhood with ingredients and dishes he’s learned along the way in homes and restaurants across the South. Take, for example, the pickled okra two ways — one with vinegar as it’s served in Bloody Marys at City Grocery in Oxford, and Gujarati style, the way he grew up where vegetables are steeped in oil and spices to achieve a similar effect but different flavor profile.
But of course, the book is not just a book about food. It’s, in a way, a guidebook to foster conversation and connection with new people.
In the introductory pages of the book, Bhatt outlines the many spices and ingredients commonly used in the recipes to come. But for so many of them — from tangy, garlicky asafoetida to the bright, punchy Kashmiri chili powder, he includes where to find them. This is helpful in a place like Mississippi where specialty grocery stores and the people who run them are not always well known.
This was intentional, Bhatt says.
“These people who run the Indian grocery store are part of the community, same as the people who have the little taco shop where you can go buy chilis,” he said. “Unless we start interacting with them, they’re always going to be the other. And so the idea is, hey, these people might be your neighbors, you don’t know them. Unless you go in that store then you’ll realize, oh, that’s the guy that lives three doors down from me.”
Yes, it’s an expectation that immigrants attempt to assimilate into the communities they come to call home, he said, “but as somebody who’s been here a while, we also need to make an effort to make people feel welcome. To bring them into the fold and learn about them.”
This place — the South, much like where he grew in India, has a lot of social issues, he said. Prejudices and preconceived notions keep people from getting to know each other, and it can be awkward and difficult to discuss the ugly parts of history responsible for the inequality that exists today.
“We are still very far from being a society that treats people equally and gives people credit or respect for just being themselves,” he said.
Now 56, Bhatt continued: “What I’ve come to realize is that I can’t really wait any longer for people to interact with me or acknowledge me. I’m just going to say that I’m here.”
Differences in opinion or beliefs are solvable if people are willing to have a conversation, he said. What better way to start one than through a meal?
“The only way I know how to talk about it is through food — like okay, here’s what we eat. Here’s what it comes from. You know, let’s start that conversation.”
What should people take away from “I Am From Here?” That cooking is easy, and a great way to get to know people.
Bhatt, 2019 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South, is a featured panelist at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 20. His cookbook goes on sale Aug. 16.
Join us for a conversation with Vishwesh Bhatt
Have more questions for Vishwesh Bhatt? Get your answers during our members-only book club event on August 15 at 6 p.m. Click here to learn more on how to register if you’re already a part of our member community or here to join today to register!
Mississippi is postponing its interrogation of defendants in the welfare department’s civil suit — an unsurprising development following the abrupt removal of the private attorney on the case and Gov. Tate Reeves’ recent lukewarm statementson the litigation.
The suit, filed in May, currently attempts to recoup $24 million in misspent federal grant funds from 38 people or companies who benefitted from the funds, including NFL legend Brett Favre, three retired WWE wrestlers, and two other former football players. The attorney who brought the complaint, Brad Pigott, had recently scheduled depositions for 13 people between August and November.
The depositions were expected to be the first public questioning of those responsible for diverting at least $77 million in federal welfare funds away from the needy, according to independent audits, since the scandal broke more than two years ago.
Four out of six people arrested on criminal charges in 2020 related to the scheme have pleaded guilty, meaning they will have no trial, while the remaining two are likely still seeking plea agreements.
A federal investigation is ongoing, but the civil suit, which comes with more leeway to gather information, has the potential to produce many more answers for the public than the criminal cases.
“As you are likely aware, the MDHS is in the process of bringing in new outside counsel to function as lead counsel for the Plaintiff. Brad Pigott is no longer representing MDHS … In light of this development, MDHS requested that I postpone the previously noticed deposition schedule,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Schelver wrote to the attorneys of defendants in the case Tuesday. “All current deposition settings by MDHS are postponed, effective immediately.”
MDHS did not release publicly that it was seeking new outside counsel until after it told Pigott he would no longer be working on the case, indicating that the agency did not make the decision to transition to other counsel in advance.
“While MDHS had been considering entering into another contract for Pigott to continue to represent MDHS, Pigott was notified on Friday that MDHS would simply allow his current contract to expire and would not be entering into another contract,” MDHS said in a July 23 statement after the news of Pigott’s removal broke.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, Reeves inserted himself into the MDHS civil case, explaining how the state selected who it would include as defendants. MDHS and Pigott had originally wanted to sue University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, which received $5 million in TANF money to build a volleyball stadium on campus on behalf of Favre. But the governor’s office directed Pigott to remove USM before filing the complaint.
When Pigott subpoenaed the athletic foundation for its communication with figures in the case, as well as with former Gov. Phil Bryant and his wife Deborah Bryant, that’s when the agency canned him.
MDHS Director Bob Anderson’s statement said the decision to change attorneys “does not indicate any change in the commitment of MDHS to recover these TANF funds for taxpayers.”
In a new statement Wednesday, MDHS said it is “actively working” to hire another attorney or law firm, which must be approved by the Attorney General’s Office.
“Once in place, MDHS expects to move forward in an expeditious manner with the civil case, including the resetting of depositions on a schedule to be determined once the agency has selected and retained new counsel,” the statement reads.
The agency did not provide a timeline for retaining new counsel other than, “we hope to get a new attorney in place soon.”
On July 25, Anderson sent an email to his staff with the agency’s original media statement.
“I wanted you to have the benefit of the agency’s position as stated in our press release. I am sharing this with you in the spirit of my ongoing efforts a full transparency as your executive director,” he said in the email, obtained by Mississippi Today.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s communications with two news outlets are targets of a subpoena filed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi on Monday as part of its defamation lawsuit against some of the medical center’s top officials.
Last week, Blue Cross sued three top UMMC employees, alleging defamation and civil conspiracy over the public relations campaign the medical center has been waging against the insurer due to their contract dispute.
Blue Cross is seeking to compel UMMC to provide their internal communications with Mississippi Today and Supertalk Radio, two news outlets which have closely covered the effects of the ongoing contract dispute between the state’s largest hospital and private insurer.
The filing demands all written communications between UMMC and these outlets related to Blue Cross, its contract dispute with UMMC and UMMC’s public relations campaign. The subpoena also specifically seeks communications between UMMC officials and Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor who worked as a writer/editor at UMMC between stints at the news organization.
Mississippi Today nor any of its employees have been subpoenaed or been named as a party in any lawsuit related to the contract dispute.
The communications between UMMC and several prominent statewide medical groups are also subject to the subpoena, including the board of trustees of the Mississippi State Medical Association and the board of governors of the Mississippi Hospital Association.
Officials at Blue Cross and UMMC declined to comment for this story. A representative for the Mississippi State Medical Association declined to comment, and a representative for Supertalk Radio did not return a request for comment.
“MHA has not seen the subpoena and is not a party to the dispute; but, we hope the matter can be quickly resolved,” said Richard Roberson, general counsel and vice president at the Mississippi Hospital Association, in a statement.
UMMC has been out of network with Blue Cross, the state’s largest insurer, since April 1 due to disagreements over reimbursement rates and Blue Cross’ quality care plan. Since then, UMMC has spent nearly $279,000 on digital ads, commercials and billboards attacking Blue Cross. The insurer claims the campaign was “designed to disseminate false and defamatory statements about Blue Cross to the public.”
UMMC itself is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit because as a political subdivision of the state, Mississippi law grants UMMC sovereign immunity for defamation committed by its employees.
As UMMC voluntarily ended its contract with Blue Cross, the insurer claims that UMMC’s messaging that Blue Cross “forced out” or “excluded” the medical center from its network has harmed its business and reputation. The alleged defamation occurred through various public statements made by UMMC officials and through advertisements it has run over the last four months, according to the insurer.
Blue Cross is seeking an injunction against the continued publication and dissemination of the statements it considers defamatory as well as monetary damages from defendants. In addition to unnamed UMMC employees, the insurer sued Dr. LouAnn Woodward, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Alan Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs, and Marc Rolph, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing.
Editor’s note: UMMC, through an ad agency, has placed paid advertisements about the BCBS dispute on Mississippi Today’s website. Advertisers have no input in the editorial process.
Editor’s note: Kate Royals, Mississippi Today’s community health editor since January 2022, worked as a writer/editor for UMMC’s Office of Communications from November 2018 through August 2020, writing press releases and features about the medical center’s schools of dentistry and nursing. A longtime journalist in major Mississippi newsrooms, Royals had served as a Mississippi Today reporter for two years before her stint at UMMC. At UMMC, Royals was in no way involved in management decisions or anything related to the medical center’s relationship or contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi.
BILOXI — Captain Mike Moore missed half the peak tourism season while restoring one of the Gulf Coast’s oldest attractions: Sailfish, the shrimping boat.
But even with wrapping up his boat trips early last year and the late start to the season this spring, Moore said his business is going strong. It’s been another solid summer for the coast’s tourism economy, which attracts about 14 million people a year and makes up a third of the state’s overall visitor spending.
“It’s been great,” Moore said. “Have I had better years? Yeah, but I also never had a situation like this before. We made the decision to restore the boat to brand-spanking-new. It was a long-term goal.”
Moore isn’t alone in his successes. Hotels have boasted high occupancy rates. The gaming commission has reported solid tax revenue from the state’s casinos.
Numbers are good – they’re mostly better than before COVID-19, but not as high as they were last year when the coast’s drive-in mark surged while tourists were still hesitant to fly and some destinations were still locked down. But as summer wraps up, many business owners are heading into the fall with the weight of uncertainty.
Experts are debating if the U.S. is already in a recession, inflation is on the rise and fuel costs are up. Those realities came up in Tuesday’s tourism board meeting at Coastal Mississippi, the region’s tax-funded tourism marketing agency. The board was voting to approve the latest budget.
“This is changing now because of economic unrest, fuel costs, the competitive set being open – fully open, is the huge question mark,” said Coastal Mississippi executive director Judy Young, referring to the agency’s expected revenue in 2022 and 2023. “I am less worried about economic unrest and fuel costs as I am about a whole country being open. Because this will be the first full fiscal year where we don’t have that advantage.”
Spring break and summer are the coast’s peak months of sustained business. Last year, coast tourism businesses saw all-time highs most leaders didn’t expect to continue quite as strongly.
In April of 2021, the state’s gaming commission collected a record-breaking $19.8 million in tax revenue. This April, that same period of tax collection was lower at $14.5 million. Still – this April’s tax collection was $2 million higher than it was in pre-pandemic April 2019.
Hotel occupancy rates hit 80.3% in June in 2021. This June, they dipped slightly to 77.5%, according to data from industry analyst STR, Inc. That translates to more than 211,000 non-casino hotel rooms sold – lower, but still steady.
“It’s been really strong for all our hotels all across the board,” said Roxy Condrey, whose company Rain Residential manages five area hotels. “The rates have increased and the occupancy as well. We are getting a lot of traffic. People discovered us over the period of COVID restrictions, introducing us to some of these new target markets.”
Condrey’s boutique properties – like Ocean Spring’s The Roost, The Inn and Hotel Beatnik – are still turning high booking rates. Most often visitors are booking at least three months out to snag a stay in one of the trendy spots, such as The Beatnik’s 1960s-style cabins.
But August marks the start of a seasonal slow down until business booms again in October, when the coast’s three counties are swarmed with classic cars during Cruisin’ the Coast.
“We are seeing numbers that aren’t as good as last year but strong compared to three and four years ago,” Condrey said. “I feel good about it but inflation is definitely taking hold and I do foresee some of this slowing down.”
The Coast’s key visitors are from nearby regions: Baton Rouge, Jackson and Mobile. Coastal Mississippi is trying to grow its reach, advertising to new target markets such as Memphis, Birmingham and Atlanta.
That’s why high gas prices are top of mind. In Mississippi, average costs at the pump have dropped some in the last month but are still about $1 higher than they were this time last year, according to the American Automobile Association.
But Moore, the shrimping boat captain, is optimistic. He’s noticed a decent chunk of travelers who are still driving cross country in RVs.
“We have seen plenty of people out and about. As crazy as the world is you’d think it would be slower,” Moore said, referring to economic uncertainties. “But I think the thought process is still: I’m tired of being locked up and I want to enjoy myself.”
But with those uncertainties in mind, Young and Coastal Mississippi are forecasting internal revenue this year hitting about $6 million dollars. Going into the next fiscal year, the agency is forecasting a moderate increase to $6.45 million dollars.
Young told her board she doesn’t want to overcommit their budget, given the possibility that the country’s gross domestic product could drop again for a second-consecutive quarter.
“I’d rather be conservative on the front side and go back with an amendment to increase revenue later, when there are more things known than to shoot high and then have to do a decrease,” Young said at the Tuesday meeting. “It just doesn’t sit well with my competitive nature to go backwards.”
After some back and forth, the board ultimately agreed unanimously.
The MHSAA, the governing body of Mississippi public schools athletics, begins its 100th year of operations with the coming school year. Rickey Neaves, the executive director, joins the podcast to talk about where the MHSAA has been and where it is headed.
The Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable is seeking to elevate the experiences of Black women and girls who face barriers to accessing health care through its Mississippi Voices project.
The group is offering Mississippi women $200 to share their health care stories with them as part of the ongoing project.
Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the Roundtable, said centering the lived experiences of women in Mississippi is essential to effectively advocating for health care policy changes, primarily Medicaid expansion. Mississippi is one of 12 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. If state leaders were to expand Medicaid, at least 225,000 Mississippians would qualify for health care coverage. Many of those who would qualify currently exist in the “health care coverage gap” where they cannot afford private insurance but make too much to qualify for Medicaid.
The project is a partnership with the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program and is funded by Community Catalyst, a nonprofit national health advocacy organization.
Welchlin said that her organization is primarily focused on the economic security of women in the state, and that health care advocacy is inseparable from that mission.
“We know that it (access to quality health care) serves as an equalizing force, particularly in communities of color … Health care can break you or can make you,” Welchlin said.
The project started in 2020 with eight focus groups held across the state where women across generational and economic lines shared their experiences of the state’s health care system. They heard horror stories of women putting off needed exams and surgeries because they couldn’t afford their insurer’s copay. Some women were not taking needed medications every day in order to make their supplies last longer.
Welchlin said a goal of the project is equipping the women with the knowledge and communication skills they need to organize in their own communities and hold their elected officials accountable.
“It’s important that they get to control that narrative, because they know what they’ve been through and what they need,” Welchlin said.
Welchlin said that a common thread that emerged throughout the project is that difficulty accessing health care exists for women across the board, regardless of their level of education and employment.
Regina Lewis is a 45-year-old Jackson native who, despite having a master’s degree, struggles to pay her medical bills.
Lewis works for a small nonprofit organization that doesn’t provide health insurance. This forced her to get insured through Mississippi’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, which features only a few providers.
Lewis says her insurance plan is lackluster and doesn’t include many in-network providers in her area. She has been seeing the same OB-GYN for 15 years, but has to pay out of pocket to see him because he’s not in her provider network. That kind of doctor-patient relationship was just too valuable for her to give up.
“It shouldn’t have to be that way,” Lewis said. “We should have a choice to receive quality care where we’re comfortable.”
Lewis also suffers from high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and gastroparesis. Some of her medications don’t have generic equivalents, the only medication types her insurance covers, so she has to pay $250 each month to manage these chronic conditions.
Welchlin said another major problem is that women aren’t believed when they tell health care providers what their needs are and that they aren’t invited into the decision making process with their doctors.
Lewis experienced this when she was diagnosed with gastroparesis, a disease that partially paralyzes the stomach and prevents the organ from emptying itself normally.
Only two treatment options were presented to Lewis, she said. One was a medication that had serious side effects, and the other was having a gastric pacemaker installed that would stimulate her stomach muscles with electricity, but that came with a high risk of repeated infections.
Lewis declined both options. To her, the added risks outweigh the benefits. Those were the only treatment options presented to her, so she manages the condition herself by severely limiting her diet. She feels like if she wasn’t a Black woman or had better insurance, she would have received better, more compassionate care.
“It’s like some doctors and people look down upon you because you have this type of health insurance instead of a true commercial insurance,” Lewis said.
To share your health care story for Mississippi Voices, text “MSVOICES” to (833) 621-1953.
Editor’s note: Black Women’s Roundtable has placed paid advertisements on Mississippi Today’s website. Mississippi Today maintains a clear separation between news and advertising content. As such, advertisershave no influence or control over Mississippi Today’s editorial decisions.
Most impressive sports statistic of all-time? In my mind, Bill Russell owns it.
Get this: Russell played in 21 winner-take-all basketball games in his career. Those include college, NBA and Olympic championship games. In those games, Russell’s team was 21-0.
Rick Cleveland
“Bill Russell was the greatest basketball player who ever stepped onto the court,” Bailey Howell, Russell’s teammate for three seasons with the Boston Celtics, said Tuesday morning, two days after Russell’s death at age 88. “He was a winner. He was all about winning. In my mind, Russ was the Most Valuable Player of all-time. I think the record bears that out.”
The record does: Russell led the Celtics to 11 NBA Championships – two of those as a player-coach. In those 11 championship-deciding games, Russell averaged 29 rebounds.
Speaking from his home in Starkville, Howell continued, “There were other players who were bigger, could shoot it better or had more basketball skills. But there was nobody who made his team better than Russ. He made everyone around him better. He was the leader of 11 championship teams. Without him, the Celtics would not have won a single one of those.”
Today, most fans argue between Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the greatest-ever basketball player. Jordan won six championships, James has won four. Again, Russell won 11. Eleven!
Russell stood 6 feet, 9 inches tall but played much taller. Said Howell, “His arms were so long that he had to find shirt sleeves that were 41 inches long. Plus, he could jump so high and his timing as a jumper was unbelievable. That’s why he was such a great shot blocker and rebounder. When he blocked a shot, he didn’t swat it out of bounds or up in the stands like so many do. He blocked it and then controlled it, and usually started a fast break that ended up with a bucket on the other end.”
Howell knew Russell as an opponent before they were teammates. Howell went to the Detroit Pistons as the NBA’s second overall draft choice out of Mississippi State in 1959. Russell played against Russell for seven seasons, both as a Detroit Piston and a Baltimore Bullet.
“A couple times I heard Russell tell his teammates to keep me off his back,” said Howell, who averaged 12 rebounds per game in those seven pre-Celtics season. “I’d battle him as best I could. I didn’t get as many as he did, but I battled him.”
For sure, Howell earned Russell’s respect. Red Auerbach, the Celtics’ Hall of Fame coach and general manager, retired as a coach after 1966 season and promoted Russell to the role of player/head coach. The Celtics then traded Russell’s back-up center, Mel Counts, to the Bullets for Howell.
“I was told that Russ had his choice of Gus Johnson (another Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer) or me, and he chose me,” Howell said. “I guess he had some respect for me or he wouldn’t have taken me over Gus Johnson, who was a Hall of Famer.”
Howell’s rebounding average dropped by two per game over his time with the Celtics. That figures. Said Howell, “I remember Russ told me one time that with him and me on the same team, there weren’t any rebounds left for anyone else,” Howell said.
When promoted, Russell became the first Black head coach of any professional sports franchise. That first season (1966-67), the Celtics were beaten by Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the championship series.
Bailey Howell
“Most people don’t know this but Russ had some sort of leg or ankle injury in that series,” Howell said. “The Sixers were a great team and might have beaten us anyway but it would have been tougher for them. Russ played hurt.”
The next season with Russell healthy, the Celtics were back on top beating the Sixers in a seven-game championship series. Boston won again the next season as well, before Russell retired
NBA fans of a certain age – and I am one – will remember the age-old argument: Who’s better? Wilt or Russell?
“You might not know this but Wilt and Russ were good friends,” Howell continued. “They often shared a pre-game meal when they played against each other.”
As for who was better, Howell said, “I think you just look at the championships. Wilt averaged a lot more points and a few more rebounds, but look at who won the championships. Russ made the game easier for his teammates. He made us all better.”
No doubt about it: Twenty-one winner-take-all games, 21 victories. It does not get any better than that.
