Red Auerbach

Arnold "Red" Auerbach (Sept. 20, 1917 - Oct. 28, 2006) was one of the most well-known coach-executives in NBA history. As coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1966, he not only won eight straight titles, a record in North American professional sports. When he took the team over in 1950, he built a fanbase for the bankrupt Celtics by barnstorming all over New England, helping to build the NBA itself. He would eventually win 938 regular-season games and nine titles as Head Coach.

As an executive, Auerbach continued to be directly involved in the Celtics franchise. He was notorious as a dealmaker in the NBA, doing whatever he could to get the best players for the Celtics. In that sense, he was loved and loathed - worshiped by New Englanders, and hated by other NBA fans. In many ways, Auerbach was a polarizing figure, both despite and because of his success.

Auerbach was also a pioneer in race relations; he was color-blind in an era when racial bigotry was the norm. As such, Auerbach selected Chuck Cooper was the first African-American player in the NBA, and fielded the first all African-American starting lineup in the NBA in 1963-64: Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Tom Sanders, Sam Jones, and Willie Naulls. Moreover, when Auerbach named Russell as his successor as head coach in 1966, he hired the first African-American coach of a major-level professional American team. Proving he could do as well with whites in the 1980s, Auerbach's team regularly fielded a five of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, Danny Ainge and Jerry Sichting. Auerbach was a forceful personality that made all his players Celtic Green, and one that put winning above race.

Auerbach's legacy is diverse, controversial, and colorful, but that he made an enormous impact on the NBA - even professional sports in general - is inarguable.

Auerbach was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, an experience that tought him a lot about people. A tough high school star, a college basketball scholarship brought him to the nation's capital before he entered the Navy for World War, the top recruting ground for future pro basketball in 1946. Upon discharge, Auerbach coached high school ball and then coached a squad of Washington Redskin football players, which gave him his foot in the door to pro hoops. Just age 29, he was hired by Mike Uline's BAA Washington Capitols for that league's inaugeral year, 1946-47. Auerbach's Navy-recruited roster easily had the league's best record that year. Bob Feerick, Freddie Scolari, and Bones McKinney were among his first stars. He smartly lured John Mahnken for the NBL's champion Rochester Royals team, and used star Johnny Norlander as his first 'sixth man'. With jump balls so important at this time, he also netted seven-footer Don Otten. But owner Uline and his young coach clashed over roster control, then an unheard of thing. Auerbach was fired and the team sank like a stone without him, barely making it into the new NBA in 1949. Auerbach spent time with Tri-Cities ( the forerunner to today's Atlanta Hawks )but was fired again by another meddlesome owner, Ben Kerner. Considering college coaching, Auerbach nearly went to Duke University, but hated recruiting. Then, newspaper writers convinced Boston's Walter Brown to hire him in 1950. Brown would stay out of the way of the young man, who was one of just four men in the Celtics front office. More than just a coach, Auerbach wore the hat of manager, promoter and scout, doing all better than anyone in his era. Auerbach astutely promoted the team and the game with a slew of pre-season exhibitions in the New England region, then an area much stronger to hockey. Auerbach lured Bill Sharman and others from the folded Washington team, tabbed Ed Macauley from the folded St. Louis Bombers, and was lucky to get stuck with local cutting edge star Bob Cousy. He also obtained draft picks Frank Ramsey and Cliff Hagan from the highly-touted Kentucky program, but their mandatory military service slowed the Celtics ascent. Under Auerbach, the lowly Celtics, an early BAA/NBA laughingstock, became the most exciting team in the league, the first to consistently average 100 points per game. But one last piece was needed by the man who already innovated so much. In 1956, the Rochester Royals were trying to draw fans to their arena, and Bill Russell, a 6'10 college center who could rebound and block shots like no other, had finished college. A trade with Ben Kerner's St. Louis Hawks was expensive, costing him Macauley and Hagan for just a #2 draft slot in the first round. Then, Auerbach convinced Brown, also the president of the Ice Capades, to help Rochester with an extended tour of the skaters in exchange for word the Royals would not take Russell, who had already indicated he would not play for the Royals. A good deal all around, but one which elevated Boston to the level of unmatched basketball dynasty. Auerbach saw Russell's role, made sure his center was surrounded with good shooters, Cousy, and other veteran role-players, and off the Celtics went. Decades later, Auerbach's Celtics are still the template for basketball success. 11 NBA Titles in the next 13 years resulted. There certainly was some real luck in that peerless achievement, but the teams were built to contend, year-after-year, with new players coming in when old ones retired.

He allowed Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn and K.C. Jones, his former players to coach the team. Owners came and went after Brown's death in 1965. But it was still Auerbach's team in every other sense. Trading for Paul Silas and Charlie Scott, Auerbach brought him two more titles past Milwaukee and Cleveland with John Havlicek, Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White now the stars. In 1979, he used a little-remembered rule to net Indiana State's Larry Bird, then fleeced Golden State's Al Attles for Robert Parish and their #2 pick, which became Kevin McHale, in exchange for talented headcase Jo Barry Carroll.

He created pro champions in five different decades, 1940s - 1980s, of pro basketball altogether. His innovations touch every phase of the game from marketing to general management, to trades, to coaching. The pro game will never see a bigger figure.

[edit] See Also

• Red Auerbach Memorial Page, created upon his death in October 2006