I've got to call you on this one. Russell could take on anyone. I don't think one person has ever dominated a sport as much as he did. Did the Celtics ever fail to get a championship while he was playing? Contrast that to the early career of Michael Jordan when he still had to go up against Magic and Larry Bird.
There's no way. Russell weighed only 220 pounds, by my count that's 125 pounds less than Shaq. That would be like Magic guarding Shaq. As far as the Celtics championships, did you know that most of them were attained when there were only 8-10 teams in the league and only 2 rounds of playoffs. That is a far cry from the juggernaut of 4 rounds that the NBA Champion has to go through today.