Pele, Shane Warne and Bill Russell — just three sports icons who passed away in 2022. AFP Sport looks at their legacies as well as nine other high-profile sports stars to have died over the last year: Basketball Bill Russell— Died aged 88 on July 31– He won a record 11 NBA crowns as a cornerstone of a Boston Celtics dynasty, overcame racism to become the league’s first Black superstar and was a prominent civil rights activist. He was the first Black coach to win the NBA Finals. That triumph came in 1968, especially poignant as it was just weeks after civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s assassination. “A good man and great American who did everything he could to deliver the promise of America for all Americans,” said US President Joe Biden. Boxing Earnie Shavers — Died aged 78 on September 1– “Earnie hit me so hard it shook my kinfolk in Africa,” remarked Muhammad Ali after their 1977 heavyweight world title bout which Ali won after 15 pulsating rounds. One of 10 children, …