Quote:

True story. In 1995, I studied for more than a month on an island off the coast of Chile in a farming community with no electricity or running water. One day I overheard two young men talking and one said, "Esta cosa es Bill Russell!" I did a double take: "This thing is Bill Russell???" I asked what they were talking about and learned that to say something was "Bill Russell" in their community was an expression for something truthful and not to be doubted. It was a way to end an argument without further discussion if you were utterly confident that you were factually correct. Apparently years earlier there had been a huge dust-up between two young men on the island about whether Bill Russell had gone to the University of San Francisco or UCLA. It lasted hours. When they finally were able to take a boat into town and look up the fact that yes he went to San Fran, the community vowed to never again waste time on such pointless debates. From then on, a person who was deeply confident in a factual position could just say, "It's Bill Russell" and the discussion would cease. "Bill Russell" was the truth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/thats-bill-russell_b_576893.html

theres more @ the link, but i thought this was the best part of the article.