Why these Celtics can achieve what Cowens, Bird and Pierce couldn't originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston In the beginning, of course, there was Bill Russell. He was so much the godfather of repeat NBA titles that it became repetitive. He went back to back to infinity in the early 1960s. The last time he did it, in 1969, he walked away from the sport after securing his 11th championship. Clearly, he’d made his point. The NBA didn’t have a back-to-back champ in the 1970s.