April 30, 1956: The Boston Celtics Trade for Bill Russell

April 30, 1956, 70 years ago: The NBA Draft is held in New York. With the 1st pick, the Boston Celtics -- having just completed their 1st 10 seasons, and not yet having appeared in an NBA Finals -- selected Tommy Heinsohn, forward from the nearby College of the Holy Cross.

With the 2nd pick, the Rochester Royals selected Sihugo Green, a guard from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. "Si" Green was a decent player, but hardly the kind of star you would expect to go as the 2nd pick overall.

With the 3rd pick, the St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell, a center who had led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back National Championships. It looked like the Hawks had gotten the best player.

But later that day, the Hawks traded the rights to the as-yet-unsigned Russell to the Celtics, for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan.

Result: Over the next 13 seasons, Russell would lead the Celtics to 12 NBA Finals, and 11 NBA Championships. The Celtics became the most dominant team in North American sports history -- not winning as many World Championships as Major League Baseball's New York Yankees or the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, but winning more titles in a shorter period of time. 

Meanwhile, the Hawks won just 1 title, and were forced to move out of St. Louis, to Atlanta, where they have been a perennial letdown.

It is the biggest transactional blunder in the NBA's history. How could the Hawks have been so dumb? Well, maybe, they were not as dumb as we've been led to believe. As the biggest star coming out of college basketball, Russell was already believed to be ready to demand big money, which most NBA team owners didn't have. Hawks owner Ben Kerner didn't have it. Celtics owner Walter Brown did, because he also owned his arena, the Boston Garden, and the other team that played there, the NHL's Boston Bruins.

What's more, Brown owned the Ice Capades. At the time, it was a bigger moneymaker than the NBA or the NHL. So was the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It came to New York every April, and so the Madison Square Garden Corporation gave them choicer dates. This forced the Rangers in 1950, and the Knicks in 1951, to play Finals games on the road, possibly costing them titles.

The Royals had a chance to select Russell, but passed on him. Why? Because Brown made a deal with Royals owner Les Harrison: Select somebody other than Russell, and I'll add Rochester to the Ice Capades' tour. It was an offer Harrison couldn't refuse. (And no heads -- human, horse, or otherwise -- were hurt in the process.)

It was a short-term fix for the Royals. But that's the way the NBA had to operate at the time. A year later, Harrison moved the Royals to Cincinnati. They won the NBA Championship in 1951. Through the 2025-26 season, 75 years later, this franchise, now known as the Sacramento Kings, has never been back to the NBA Finals. But Harrison did what he had to do to stay in business, and that meant giving up a chance at a man who could have become one of the NBA's greatest players ever, and did.

But he might not have. Until Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Championships -- 3 with Bill Cartwright at center, and 3 with Luc Longley -- it was generally believed that you had to have a really good center, a big man in the middle, to win an NBA Championship.

But until Russell, Mikan was the only big man who was able to lead a team to an NBA title. Until Russell, the NBA's best players had been smaller guys who were good outside shooters, guys like Joe Fulks (1947 Philadelphia Warriors), Buddy Jeannette (1948 Baltimore Bullets), Bob Davies (1951 Rochester Royals), Dolph Schayes (1955 Syracuse Nationals) and Paul Arizin and Tom Gola (1956 Philadelphia Warriors).

Before Russell, there were 3 truly great "big men" in college basketball. Mikan, from DePaul University in Chicago, was one. Another was Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). He never played pro ball, instead taking a job with Phillips Petroleum, with a great benefits package, including playing for their "semipro" team.

And the other was Clyde Lovellette of the University of Kansas. He had a good pro career, winning titles as Mikan's backup on the Lakers, and later as Russell's backup on the Celtics. But he was never a pro star: He's in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but mainly for what he did in college.

But there was, as yet, no model for what kind of college stars would become pro stars. Like I said, the NBA was only 10 years old at this point. In hindsight, Mikan was the model. Russell admitted that Mikan was his idol. Mikan enjoyed being thought of the progenitor of the NBA's big men.

But at the time, he was seen as a freak of nature, a happy accident that the Lakers had gotten their hands on. Big men were considered to be slow. Mikan was a good shooter and a strong rebounder, but he wasn't fast. Bill Mazer, the great New York sportscaster, compared him to a stampeding elephant. Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, in a 1996 ESPN appearance celebrating the NBA's 50th Anniversary, said that, in the modern game, he would be "a good backup center. Deserved every accolade he got at the time, but he's Greg Kite with a hook shot." 

In 2021, at the NBA's 75th Anniversary; in 1996, at the 50th; in 1971, at the 25th... Russell seemed like the obvious player to both select and hang onto. In 1956, he wasn't the obvious pick to do that. Maybe he should have been, but he wasn't.

Then there's St. Louis to consider. It's not just that the Hawks were far behind baseball's Cardinals in terms of popularity in the city. It's that St. Louis was a racially segregated city, in Missouri, a racially segregated State. Cardinal stars like Bob Gibson and Curt Flood would chafe under the policies that segregation forced, until federal law broke it.

Russell -- who would eventually, very accurately, title his autobiography Memoirs of an Opinionated Man -- might not have adjusted so well, having been a boy in segregated Louisiana, and grown up in noticeably (but not completely) more racially liberal Oakland. He eventually had problems with race relations in Boston. In St. Louis, it might have been worse. As a result, he might not have won all those titles with the Hawks.

Anyway, it's not as if the Hawks blew it completely. In 1957, the Celtics and Hawks each made the NBA Finals for the 1st time. It went to double overtime of Game 7 before the Celtics won it. In 1958, both teams made it back, and Russell hurt his ankle in Game 3, and was out the rest of the way. The Hawks, led by the men traded for the rights to Russell, Hagan and St. Louis native Macauley, as well as Hall-of-Fame forward Bob Pettit, won the title in 6 games.

The 1958 NBA Champions.

Hagan is Number 16, Pettit 9, and Macauley 20.

In 1959, the Minneapolis Lakers won the Western Conference, and lost to the Celtics in the Finals. In 1960 and '61, the Hawks returned to the Finals, and lost to the Celtics both times. Still, at that point, the players the Hawks got for Russell had gotten them into 4 Finals, winning 1. It could have been better, but it was still better than anybody else except the Celtics were doing.

Still, it was a dumb trade. 

April 29, 1996: Kevin Keegan Would Love It If Newcastle Beat Manchester United

April 29, 1996, 30 years ago: Newcastle United defeat Leeds United, 1-0 at Elland Road in Leeds, Yorkshire, to remain in the race for the Premier League title. Newcastle had a huge lead in the table (or, as we would say, the standings) over Manchester United, but had blown it.

In January, "The Toon" -- that's "The Town" in the "Geordie" dialect of the North-East of England -- got knocked out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup. But, as of February 10, they had lost only 3 League games all season, all away: To Southampton, Chelsea, and Manchester United. They were 9 points ahead of Man U, and had a game in hand.

Then came an 8-game stretch where they won 2 (beating West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers at home), drew 1 (away to Manchester city), and lost 5 (away to West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers, and, at home on March 4, 1-0 to Man United). They had now bounced back, winning 3 straight, home to Aston Villa and Southampton, and away to Leeds. Man U now led them by 3 points, although Newcastle still had a game in hand: 2 games remaining, to Man U's 1.

Interviewed on Sky Sports after the Leeds game, Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan, once one of the club's greatest players, went on an epic rant about Man U's manager, the master of mind games, Alex Ferguson. Ferguson stoked tensions when he cast doubt on the commitment of the likes of Leeds and Nottingham Forest to try as hard against Newcastle as they did against his Manchester United team, suggesting that Forest, who were due to play the Magpies for Stuart Pearce's testimonial, might even "let Newcastle win."

Keegan was incensed, and, when the opportunity arose after his side's hard-fought win over Leeds, he could not contain his fury:

When you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and -- and -- I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!

Pretty much everybody who didn't love Man United loved hearing him say it. But pretty much everybody, regardless of how they felt about Man United, thought that King Kev had fallen victim to Fergie's mind games -- that he had, as they say in England, "lost the plot."

On May 2, Newcastle went to the City Ground in Nottingham, and could only manage a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, handing the League title to the idle Man United. On May 5, at home at St. James' Park, they closed the season by drawing 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur, while Man United beat Middlesbrough, 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium.

United won the title by 4 points, and went on to win "The Double" by winning the FA Cup Final on May 11, beating Liverpool, 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in West London. But it wouldn't have mattered if Newcastle had won those last 2 games, giving them 82 points, the same number as United: United would have won the title on the 1st tiebreaker, goal difference, +38 to +29 -- or, more accurately, +31, had Newcastle won those last 2 games by 1 goal each.

They would have needed a net improvement of 10 goals over those last 2 games to win the title, unless United had dropped points at Middlesbrough, who were in 12th place. Barring a tremendous upset by Boro, the title had already been lost in that February 21 to April 8 run.

Keegan was one of the great British soccer players of his generation, but he never reached the same heights as a manager. For many fans, this postgame rant symbolized his time as a field boss. And this was before the American football coaches Jim Mora, Herman Edwards and Dennis Green did their famous press conference rants. (Respectively: "Playoffs?" "You play to win the game!" and "They are who we thought they were!") 

All Right, You Primitive Screwheads...

In the words of the immortal Bruce Campbell, playing Ash Williams in the 1993 film Army of Darkness...

All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up!

An innocent man does whatever it takes to prove his innocence. He does not do whatever it takes to gain immunity from prosecution.

A President who has just faced an assassination attempt does not worry about his shoes, pump his fist, yell, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" or promote a ballroom project. A President who staged an assassination attempt does that.

When people tell you, "The Supreme Court is on the ballot," believe them.

Bernie Sanders was not robbed by the Democratic National Committee. Quite the opposite: Just by letting him into their Primaries, they bent over backwards to accommodate him. He wasn't robbed by the DNC. He was rejected by Democratic voters, who knew that he had been talking trash about their Party for half a century.

What Israel is doing is Gaza is bad, but it is not genocide. It is in response to an act of genocide.

What Russia is attempting in Ukraine is an attempt to not only conquer the country, but to wipe out its culture and impose its own. That is genocide.

The new Yankee Stadium is not a "little league park." The proof of this is that the Yankees can hit anywhere.

Derek Jeter was an excellent defensive shortstop. Your "defensive metrics" are meaningless.

Large amounts of money were never going to be enough to save the Mets.

"Wins Above Replacement" has no value. Actual winning has value.

No one has ever proven that Roger Clemens used steroids, and David Ortiz and Barry Bonds did each fail a steroid test.

The two biggest wastes of time that ESPN covers happen practically back-to-back: The Masters and the NFL Draft.

Aaron Rodgers may still be talented, but in the ways that matter, he is a bum.

The Liberty Mutual commercials -- both the ones at the Statue of Liberty and the LiMu Emu & Doug ads -- have run their course, and it's time to retire them.

Speaking of TV commercials: If it takes longer to mention the side effects of a drug than its benefits, and you need people to dance in your commercial, it's time to pull the drug. And the commercial. And do more testing on both.

That said, Zepbound has worked for me. I've lost 20 pounds. That said, I don't know if it, or any other drug, is right for you. Talk to your doctor.

Charles Barkley has lost over 100 pounds on a different GLP-1 drug, but just because a celebrity uses a product doesn't mean it's good. Shaquille O'Neal endorses Icy Hot, but it did nothing for me.

East Brunswick needs a Wegmans. I'll settle for New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Sayreville or Old Bridge. Manalapan, Woodbridge, Bridgewater and West Windsor are just too far.

It's "I couldn't care less," not "I could care less."

 
The past tense of "slay" is "slew," not "slayed."
 
Some of you literally don't know what "literally" means.
 
I'll relax when I'm ready. Telling me to relax makes me less relaxed.
 
And Dunkin tastes better than Starbucks. And it's cheaper, too.

As you were!

April 28, 1966: Eight Straight NBA Championships

Russell is already smelling Auerbach's victory cigar.

April 28, 1966, 60 years ago: Game 7 of the NBA Finals is played at the Boston Garden. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 95-93. It was their 9th NBA Championship, and their 8th in a row. This is easily a record for North American major league sports.

Bill Russell scored 25 points, and had 32 rebounds. Sam Jones scored 22, and John Havlicek 16. For the Lakers, Jerry West scored 36, but nobody else scored more than Elgin Baylor's 18.

The '66 Celtics included 7 eventual members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: Russell, Havlicek, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones (no relation), Tom "Satch" Sanders, and 2 men whose main contributions would come later, as coaches: Don Nelson and John Thompson. Head coach and general manager Arnold "Red" Auerbach would also be elected.

This would be Auerbach's last title as head coach: He resigned to concentrate on the front office, and named Russell as the NBA's 1st black head coach. If you don't count the early NFL as being truly "major league," a legitimate argument, thus eliminating Fritz Pollard of the 1921 Akron Pros, then Russell was the 1st black head coach in North American major league sports.

The New York Yankees won 5 straight World Series from 1949 to 1953, but no team has won 6. The Montreal Canadiens won 5 straight Stanley Cups from 1956 to 1960, but no team has won 6. The Green Bay Packers won 3 straight NFL Championships, from 1929 to 1931, and again from 1965 to 1967, but no team has won 4.

Does this make the 1959-66 Celtics the greatest dynasty in North American sports? Not really: While some of the greatest basketball players ever were then active -- including Russell, Havlicek, West, Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson -- the NBA wasn't getting as big a share of great athletes as it could have.

The era's top 2 pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, had both gone to college on basketball scholarships. And it's not hard to imagine baseball stars Willie Mays and Lou Brock as point guards, or fearsome defensive ends Gino Marchetti and Willie Davis as power forwards. Indeed, the Celtic team that won 3 out of 6 titles in the 1980s was probably better, top-to-bottom, than the team that won 8 straight titles.

The Celtics have won 18 NBA Championships, more than any other team. The Los Angeles Lakers have won 17, but 5 of those camewhile they were in Minneapolis, from 1947 to 1960.

Auerbach was general manager for the 1st 15 of those Championships, giving up that title in 1984; and team president for the 1st 16 Championships, giving up that title in 1997. He died in 2006.

The Celtics have won the Finals over the Lakers in 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984 and 2008; the St. Louis Hawks (now the Atlanta Hawks) in 1957, 1960 and 1961; the San Francisco Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors) in 1964; the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974; the Phoenix Suns in 1976; the Houston Rockets in 1981 and 1986; and the Dallas Mavericks in 2024.

They've also lost the Finals to the Hawks in 1958; the Lakers in 1985, 1987, and 2010; and the Warriors in 2022.

Yanks Beat Cheats, North and South

Six games, three at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, the old enemy, the cheating bastards; and three at Daikin Park (formerly Minute Maid Park, formerly Enron Field) against the Houston Astros, the new enemy, the Chicken Fried Cheats.

A Yankee Fan having watched the team from 2004 onward, and especially from 2015 onward, could be forgiven for expecting a bad run, even if the Yankees did go into this trip with a 3-game winning streak.

Giancarlo Stanton was the star on Tuesday night, leading off the top of the 2nd inning with a tremendous drive over the Green Monster, and across Lansdowne Street. It was his 456th career home run.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge walked to start the top of the 6th, and after Ben Rice struck out, Stanton doubled off the wall to get them home. A Randal Grichuk double in the 8th made it 4-0.

Luis Gil started for the Yankees, and put together a good start after coming off the Injured List with 2 bad ones. He went 6 1/3rd shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 3 walks. Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and David Bednar completed the 4-hit shutout.

I enjoyed that game.

*

The Wednesday night game began with Paul Goldschmidt grounding out. After Judge walked, Cody Bellinger struck out. But Stanton hit another double off the wall. This being the Green Monster, it was too close for Judge to score all the way from 1st base. No matter: Rosario hit one over the Monster for a home run, and it was 3-0 Bronx Bombers. Rosario made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly in the 3rd.

That was plenty for Max Fried, who pitched 8 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 9. Headrick allowed a run in the 9th, but it ended Yankees 4, Red Sox 1.

I enjoyed that game, too.

*

On Thursday night, the Sox actually took a lead, 1-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. But in the top of the 5th, the seriously struggling Jazz Chisholm finally hit his 1st home run of the season. The Sox took the lead back in the bottom of the 5th, 2-1, and it was beginning to look like a nice performance by Cam Schlittler was going to go to waste.

But with 1 out in the top of the 7th, Trent Grisham, Chisholm and José Caballero all singled, loading the bases. Austin Wells struck out. Then, Red Sox manager Alex Cora brought in former Yankee reliever Greg Weissert. There's a reason Weissert isn't with the Yankees anymore: He can't pitch at the major league level. Bellinger singled home Gresham and Chisholm, and Judge singled home Caballero. It was 4-2 Yankees.

And it stayed 4-2 Yankees, because Schlitt was it. Schlitt was too legit to quit. He went 8 innings, allowing 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 5. Bednar pitched a perfect 9th.

I enjoyed this game. I enjoyed this entire series. The Yankees didn't turn Fenway into a little green pinball machine, which is not that hard to do. But they held the Red Sox 3 runs in their own house, and swept them, extending their winning streak to 6 games.

The Sox fired Cora, and his entire coaching staff -- except for Jason Varitek, who had been the captain of, and the catcher on, their World Championship teams of 2004* and 2007*. Him, they reassigned to another role in the organization. Couldn't fire him.

*

On to Houston, and the Asterisks' copycat of Fenway, with the retractable roof and the train atop the left field wall.

On Friday night, the Yankees got 3 runs from "small ball" in the 1st inning, a home run from Ryan McMahon to lead off the top of the 2nd, and another Chisholm homer in the 4th. More small ball produced 3 more runs in the 6th. In the 7th, they used small ball and the long ball, getting home runs from Rice and Caballero.

Will Warren sure didn't pitch like he was merely filling an injury-caused hole in the Yankee rotation: He went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits, but only 1 walk, striking out 6. Fernando Cruz ran into trouble in the 7th, but Ryan Yarbrough pitched the 8th and the 9th. Yankees 12, Astros 4.

Given the recent histories with both teams, I enjoyed this game more than I did the sweep of the Sox.

*

The Astros struck first on Saturday, leading 1-0 after the 1st and 2nd innings. Grisham homered in the 3rd to tie the game. Caballero homered in the 5th to give the Yankees the lead. The Astros tied it in the 6th, meaning that Ryan Weathers, who had pitched well until then, wouldn't be the winning pitcher.

Fernando Cruz would: He finished the 6th, while Jake Bird pitched a perfect 7th, Camilo Doval pitched a hitless 8th, and Tim Hill allowed a run in the 9th. Austin Wells homered in the 7th, and, again, as Hall of Fame Giant 2nd baseman and later broadcaster Frankie Frisch would have said, "Oh, those bases on balls!" With 1 out, Caballero singled, Grisham walked, Rice singled, and then 3 straight walks, to Judge, Bellinger and Chisholm, the last 2 each forcing in a run.

Rice added a sac fly in the 8th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Bellinger led off the 9th with a walk. After Chisholm flew out, Rosario, Wells and McMahon all singled, producing 2 more runs. Yankees 8, Astros 3. An 8-game winning streak: 3 at home to Kansas City, 3 away to Boston, and 2 away to Houston. All teams that have pissed me off over the years.

I enjoyed that game. A lot.

*

I did not enjoy yesterday's game. Gil did not have it, allowing 6 runs in the 1st 4 innings. Having had 3 of his 4 starts be bad ones, he was sent down to Scranton after the game. Paul Blackburn allowed only 1 run over the next 3 innings, and Yarbrough pitched a perfect 9th.

But the Yankees couldn't get going until it was too late. Judge hit a home run, on his 34th birthday. It was the 378th of his career, surpassing Norm Cash and Jeff Kent, and tying Matt Williams. Next up, at 379: Orlando Cepeda and Tony Pérez.

The Yanks scored 3 in the top of the 9th, but it was nowhere near enough: Astros 7, Yankees 4. End of streak.

*

We are 17 percent of the way through the season, 1/6th. The Yankees are 18-10. They have the best record in the American League. They lead the Eastern Division by a game and a half over the Tampa Bay Rays, 5 over the Baltimore Orioles, 5 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 7 over the Red Sox. In the all-important loss column: 1 over the Rays, 5 over the O's and the Jays, and 7 over The Scum.

They have achieved this without Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón or Clarke Schmidt being available. They have achieved this despite 4 regulars -- Wells, Chisholm, Grisham and McMahon -- having OPS+'s of 85 or lower. They have done this despite Judge batting just .230, although he has 10 home runs and 18 RBIs.

I'll take those problems, if I can also take those results.

As for the Mets and their fans, well, in the immortal words of Bono, "Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you!"

The Yankees are still in Texas, albeit in the Dallas area. Tonight, they start a 3-game series away to the Texas Rangers. Then, after a travel day on Thursday, they start a 3-game home weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles.

April 26, 1986: The Chernobyl Disaster

April 26, 1986, 40 years ago: The Number 4 reactor explodes at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine. It is the biggest nuclear accident in human history.

The accident occurred during a test of the steam turbine's ability to power the emergency feedwater pumps in the event of a simultaneous loss of external power and coolant pipe rupture. Following an accidental drop in reactor power to near-zero, the operators restarted the reactor in preparation for the turbine test with a prohibited control rod configuration.

Upon successful completion of the test, the reactor was then shut down for maintenance. Due to a variety of factors, this action resulted in a power surge at the base of the reactor which brought about the rupture of reactor components and the loss of coolant. This process led to steam explosions and a meltdown, which destroyed the containment building.

This was followed by a reactor core fire which lasted until May 4, during which airborne radioactive contaminants were spread throughout the Soviet Union and Europe.

In response to the initial accident, a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) radius exclusion zone was created 36 hours after the accident, from which approximately 49,000 people were evacuated, primarily from Pripyat. The exclusion zone was later increased to a radius of 30 kilometers (19 miles), from which an additional 68,000 people were evacuated.

Following the reactor explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two more, an emergency operation to put out the fires and stabilize the surviving reactor began, during which 237 workers were hospitalized, of whom 134 exhibited symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (ARS).

A United Nations committee found that to date fewer than 100 deaths have resulted from the fallout. Model predictions of the eventual total death toll in the coming decades vary. The most widely cited study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2006 predicted 9,000 cancer-related fatalities in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

North America was lucky with Three Mile Island in 1979. Eastern Europe was not so lucky with Chernobyl in 1986.

April 26, 1726: Lord Stirling Is Born

April 26, 1726, 300 years ago: William Alexander is born in Manhattan. He held a claim to be the male heir to the Scottish title of Earl of Stirling, through Scottish lineage, being the senior male descendant of the paternal grandfather of an earlier William Alexander, the 1st Earl of Stirling, who had died in 1640, and he sought the title sometime after 1756. The goal was vast land holdings in America that the holder of the title was to enjoy.

His claim was initially granted by a Scottish court in 1759. But in 1762, Britain's House of Lords overruled the court, and denied him the title. He continued to refer to himself "Lord Stirling" regardless. Officially, the British government considers the title of Earl of Stirling to have tied out with Henry Alexander, the 5th Earl, in 1739.

He inherited a large fortune from his father, dabbled in mining and agriculture, and lived a life filled with the trappings befitting a Scottish lord. This was an expensive lifestyle, and he eventually went into debt to finance it.

In 1747, he married Sarah Livingston (1725–1805), daughter of Philip Livingston and sister of Governor William Livingston. They had a son, William; and 2 daughters, Mary and Catherine.

The elder William began building a grand estate in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Upon its completion, sold his house in New York and moved there. George Washington was a guest there on several occasions during the War of the American Revolution, and gave away Catherine at her wedding to Continental Congressman William Duer.

He was commissioned a Major General in the Continental Army, and commanded a brigade at the Battle of Long Island in Brooklyn, where his rearguard action resulted in his capture, but allowed the main body of the army to escape. He was later returned by prisoner exchange, received a promotion, and continued to serve with distinction throughout the war. Trusted by Washington, in 1778 he commanded troops at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse in Manalapan, New Jersey, and exposed the Conway Cabal. He was with Washington when he accepted the British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

By that point, he was suffering from gout and rheumatism, and his heavy drinking didn't help. He died on January 15, 1783 in Albany, New York, and did not live to see the official end of the war, with the Treaty of Paris.

His grandson, William Alexander Duer, served as President of Columbia University, which was built on land owned by the Livingston family. He was also an ancestor of General Philip Kearny Sr. and General Philip Kearny Jr.

Stirling Township in Somerset County, near his home in Basking Ridge, and Sterling, Massachusetts were named for him. So were a middle school built on land once occupied by the Long Island battlefield, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn; and an elementary school in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he had once been stationed.