Since the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's inaugural class of 1959, only five players have also been later enshrined as a coach. 

11-time NBA Champion Bill Russell, a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2021 as a coach, is the latest to join the group. Russell was previously elected to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1975. 

MORE: Teams inducted into HOF | NBA players with multiple retired jerseys

Following Red Auerbach's retirement, during the final three years (1966-69) of the Celtics' successful 13-year run (1956-69), Russell was elevated to the role of a player-coach. That appointment made the 6-foot-10 big man the first-ever African-American head coach in league history. 

After leading the Celtics as a head coach for three years, Russell's coaching career would last another five years. He coached the Seattle Supersonics for four seasons from 1973 to 1977, followed by one season with the Sacramento Kings in 1987-88.

Take a look at the other players that were inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches.

John Wooden

The late John Wooden was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1960, as part of the five-member second class.

A 5-foot-10 guard who played for the Purdue Boilermakers from 1929 to 1932, Wooden was the first player ever to be named All-American three times. After college, he played professional basketball for numerous years, including accolades like the NBL's Scoring Leader in 1933 and a selection to the 1938 All-NBL First Team, while he taught and coached in the high school ranks. 

Overall, his four-decade-long coaching career included 29 years in collegiate basketball when he won 10 NCAA championships (1964, 1965, 1967–1973, 1975) over a 12-year period, including a record seven in a row from 1967 to 1973. 

A five-time AP Coach of the Year (1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973), Wooden was later inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach in 1973. Wooden also received honours like the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 and was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Lenny Wilkens

Lenny Wilkens double as a player and coach in four of the final six years of his playing career, doing so with the Seattle Supersonics (1969-1972) and the Portland Trail Blazers (1974-75).

Over his 15 years in the league as a player, Wilkens was the league's assists champion in 1970 and was named to nine-time All-Star games, one of which he was named All-Star Game MVP in 1971. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1989. 

His 1,332 regular-season wins as a coach, spread across six teams over a 32-year period, are the second-most in NBA history. His lone NBA championship came in 1979 with the SuperSonics while he received the honour of Coach of the Year in 1994 with the Atlanta Hawks. 

Later, over a 12-year period, he was inducted into three more Hall of Fames. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice more – in 1998 as a coach and in 2010 as an assistant coach of the 1992 Dream Team – and in 2006, he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bill Sharman

Sharman is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, first as a player in 1976 and the second as a coach in 2004. 

As an NBA player, he won four NBA championships with the Celtics (1957, 1959–1961), was named to seven All-NBA teams (four-time First Team, three-time Second Team) and eight All-Star selections. 

As a coach, his lone championship came at the helm of the Celtics' rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, in 1972, a year he also won his lone Coach of the Year. 

Tom Heinsohn 

Tom Heinsohn has 10 NBA championships to his name, all of which have come with the Boston Celtics – eight as a player (1957, 1959–1965) and two as a coach (1974, 1976). 

He took over for Russell as the head coach of the Celtics and stayed at the helm for another nine years, where he received his lone Coach of the Year award in 1973. For these incredible accolades, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1986 and as a coach in 2015. 

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