
Today NBA officially announced that all teams in the league will retire the No. 6 jersey to commemorate Bill Russell .
Russell therefore became the third player among the four major sports leagues in North America to receive the treatment of retired jerseys in the league.

Major League Baseball (MLB) announced in 1997 that Jackie Robinson's No. 42 jersey was permanently retired across the league, breaking the racial barriers of the major leagues. At that time, MLB said that players who were originally wearing the No. 42 jersey could continue to use this number. New York Yankees Mariano Rivera finally wore his No. 42 jersey to 2013, the last No. 42 player in MLB history.

American Professional Hockey League (NHL) officially retired in Wayne Gretzky in 1999, and then announced in 2000 that he would retire his No. 99 jersey across the league in recognition of Gretzky 's contribution as the NHL league's historical scoring champion. At that time, no active NHL player wore the No. 99 jersey, so Gretz became the last No. 99 player in NHL history.
(Hupu)