is constructor required to initialize a static variable?

Question

I have the following java code for insert and delete in a binary search tree. But it's my very first attempt with java, and would like to seek help for certain things before I can google the concepts.

public class BinarySearchTree {
    public static  Node root;
    public BinarySearchTree(){
        this.root = null;
    }

    public boolean find(int id){
        Node current = root;
        while(current!=null){
            if(current.data==id){
                return true;
            }else if(current.data>id){
                current = current.left;
            }else{
                current = current.right;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    public boolean delete(int id){
        Node parent = root;
        Node current = root;
        boolean isLeftChild = false;
        while(current.data!=id){
            parent = current;
            if(current.data>id){
                isLeftChild = true;
                current = current.left;
            }else{
                isLeftChild = false;
                current = current.right;
            }
            if(current ==null){
                return false;
            }
        }
        //if i am here that means we have found the node
        //Case 1: if node to be deleted has no children
        if(current.left==null && current.right==null){
            if(current==root){
                root = null;
            }
            if(isLeftChild ==true){
                parent.left = null;
            }else{
                parent.right = null;
            }
        }
        //Case 2 : if node to be deleted has only one child
        else if(current.right==null){
            if(current==root){
                root = current.left;
            }else if(isLeftChild){
                parent.left = current.left;
            }else{
                parent.right = current.left;
            }
        }
        else if(current.left==null){
            if(current==root){
                root = current.right;
            }else if(isLeftChild){
                parent.left = current.right;
            }else{
                parent.right = current.right;
            }
        }else if(current.left!=null && current.right!=null){

            //now we have found the minimum element in the right sub tree
            Node successor   = getSuccessor(current);
            if(current==root){
                root = successor;
            }else if(isLeftChild){
                parent.left = successor;
            }else{
                parent.right = successor;
            }           
            successor.left = current.left;
        }       
        return true;        
    }

    public Node getSuccessor(Node deleleNode){
        Node successsor =null;
        Node successsorParent =null;
        Node current = deleleNode.right;
        while(current!=null){
            successsorParent = successsor;
            successsor = current;
            current = current.left;
        }
        //check if successor has the right child, it cannot have left child for sure
        // if it does have the right child, add it to the left of successorParent.
//      successsorParent
        if(successsor!=deleleNode.right){
            successsorParent.left = successsor.right;
            successsor.right = deleleNode.right;
        }
        return successsor;
    }

    public void insert(int id){
        Node newNode = new Node(id);
        if(root==null){
            root = newNode;
            return;
        }
        Node current = root;
        Node parent = null;
        while(true){
            parent = current;
            if(id<current.data){                
                current = current.left;
                if(current==null){
                    parent.left = newNode;
                    return;
                }
            }else{
                current = current.right;
                if(current==null){
                    parent.right = newNode;
                    return;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public void display(Node root){
        if(root!=null){
            display(root.left);
            System.out.print(" " + root.data);
            display(root.right);
        }
    }

    public static void main(String arg[]){
        BinarySearchTree b = new BinarySearchTree();
        b.insert(3);b.insert(8);
        b.insert(1);b.insert(4);b.insert(6);b.insert(2);b.insert(10);b.insert(9);
        b.insert(20);b.insert(25);b.insert(15);b.insert(16);
        System.out.println("Original Tree : ");
        b.display(b.root);      
        System.out.println("");
        System.out.println("Check whether Node with value 4 exists : " + b.find(4));
        System.out.println("Delete Node with no children (2) : " + b.delete(2));        
        b.display(root);
        System.out.println("\n Delete Node with one child (4) : " + b.delete(4));       
        b.display(root);
        System.out.println("\n Delete Node with Two children (10) : " + b.delete(10));      
        b.display(root);
    }
}

class Node{
    int data;
    Node left;
    Node right; 
    public Node(int data){
        this.data = data;
        left = null;
        right = null;
    }
}

I have two questions as follows

1. Does it make sense to have root,(which is a static variable) initialized to null inside the constructor? Thinking so, because, there is only root no matter how many objects get created(since root is static), so, why is it necessary to declare inside the constructor which is called every time a new object is created.
2. Why is the constructor necessary at all? Can't we declare/initialize all variables at the time of creation, like the following

public class BinarySearchTree {
    public static  Node root = null;
    ... 
}

Answer 1

Having a static member variable means that it belongs to the class itself, not a specific member. In other words, it's shared between all the instances. Now that we understand that, it's clear why having a static root member is a questionable design - it doesn't allow you to have two disconnected trees, as they all share the same root node.

If this is indeed what you intended, root should definitely be initialized inline (private static Node root = null;) and not in the constructor. Having this logic in the constructor means that every time you create a new tree all the existing trees will lose their root.