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Red Auerbach — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Boston Celtics (1950–1966)

Before the 1950–51 NBA season, Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics, was desperate to turn around his struggling and financially strapped franchise, which was reeling from a 22–46 record. Brown hired Auerbach. In the 1950 NBA draft, Auerbach made some notable moves. First, he famously snubbed future Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy. He argued that Cousy lacked the poise necessary to make his team and called him a "local yokel". Instead, he selected Bowling Green center Chuck Share with the first overall pick. Auerbach used the Celtics' second-round pick on Chuck Cooper, the first black player to be drafted into the NBA. This pick effectively broke the color barrier in professional basketball.

Entering the 1951 season, the Celtics core players were Ed Macauley, Bones McKinney and Bob Cousy. With Auerbach's fast-break tactics, the Celtics achieved a 39–30 record but lost in the 1951 NBA Playoffs to the New York Knicks. However, the relationship between Auerbach and Cousy improved when the coach help craft the young guard—an already outstanding dribbler and passer—into a great playmaker.

In the following 1951–52 NBA season, the Celtics obtained guard Bill Sharman. Sharman, who was drafted in the second round of the 1950 NBA draft, played his rookie season with the Washington Capitols. When the Capitols folded after the 1950 season, Sharman was selected by the Fort Wayne Pistons in the dispersal draft and subsequently traded to the Celtics before the 1951 season. With the high-scoring Macauley, elite passer Cousy, and new prodigy Sharman, Auerbach had his team. Other notable players who joined the Celtics during these early years were forwards Frank Ramsey and Jim Loscutoff. For the next five seasons, the Celtics would make the playoffs every year but never won a title. The Celtics struggled in the playoffs, going 10–17 in the postseason from 1951 through 1956. As Cousy put it: "we would get tired in the end and couldn't get the ball." As a result, Auerbach sought a defensive big man who could get easy rebounds, initiate fast breaks, and close out games.

On the day of the 1956 NBA draft, Auerbach acquired Bill Russell, a defensive rebounding center, via a draft-day trade with the rival St. Louis Hawks. Auerbach also selected forward Tom Heinsohn and guard K.C. Jones, two future Hall of Famers. Emphasizing team play rather than individual performances, and stressing that defense was more important than offense, Auerbach drilled his players to play tough defense and force opposing turnovers for easy fast-break points. Forward Tom “Satch” Sanders recalled, "defense and conditioning were the best parts of those teams".

Anchored by Russell, the Celtics forced their opponents to take low-percentage shots from farther distances (there was no three-point arc at the time). This strategy allowed Auerbach's Celtics to take advantage on the fast break. Auerbach also emphasized the need for role players like Frank Ramsey and John Havlicek, who became two of the first legitimate sixth men in NBA history, a role later played by Don Nelson. Auerbach's recipe demoralized the opposition. From 1957 to 1966, the Celtics won nine of ten NBA championships. This included eight consecutive championships—the longest championship streak in North American sports—and six finals victories over the Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. The Celtics' dominance during this time denied perennial scoring and rebounding champion Wilt Chamberlain a title during Auerbach's coaching reign.

In 1964, Auerbach sent out the first African-American starting five in NBA history. The players were Bill Russell, Willie Naulls, Tom Sanders, Sam Jones, and K.C. Jones. For the 1966–67 NBA season, Auerbach appointed Bill Russell as the first African-American coach in NBA history. Auerbach also popularized smoking a victory cigar whenever he thought a game was already decided, a habit that became a popular tradition in the Boston area. Auerbach had a reputation as a fierce competitor. He often got into verbal altercations with officials and was frequently fined and ejected.

Thirteen players who played for Auerbach have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame—Macauley, Ramsey, Cousy, Sharman, Heinsohn, Clyde Lovellette, Arnie Risen, Andy Phillip, John R. Thompson (as a coach), Russell, K.C. Jones, Havlicek, and Sam Jones. Sharman, Heinsohn, and Russell would become three of only five people to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as both players and coaches.

Before the 1965–66 NBA season, Auerbach announced the coming year would be his last as coach, stating to the rest of the league, "This is your chance to take your last shot at me." After losing Game 1 of the 1966 Finals to the Lakers in overtime, he publicly named his successor, center Bill Russell. The Celtics won the series in seven games.

Boston Celtics (1966–2006)

Russell took over as a player-coach for the 1966–67 NBA season, becoming the first African American head coach in the four major North American professional team sports. While his pupil led the Celtics to two additional titles in 1968 and 1969, Auerbach rebuilt the aging Celtics with shrewd draft picks, namely future Hall of Famers Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White, as well as Paul Westphal and Don Chaney. With ex-player Tom Heinsohn coaching the Celtics and led by former sixth man John Havlicek, Auerbach's recruits won the Atlantic Division every year from 1972 to 1976, winning the NBA title in 1974 and 1976. Auerbach also signed veteran forward/center Paul Silas and ex-ABA star Charles Scott.

However, Auerbach could not prevent the Celtics from going south at the end of the 1970s. He traded away both Silas and Westphal because they wanted salary increases that would have made them higher earners than what he believed to be the best player on the Celtics (Cowens), which was not acceptable to Auerbach. While the Westphal trade to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Charlie Scott was considered a success due to the Celtics' 13th title in 1976, Auerbach later admitted he erred in letting Silas go, even after Cowens personally begged him to give Silas a new deal. When Havlicek retired in 1978, the Celtics went 61–103 in two seasons. In the summer of 1978, after the worst in a string of contentious clashes with several different owners after Walter Brown's passing in 1964, Auerbach hopped into a taxi to take him to Logan Airport, where he was to board a flight to New York to consider a lucrative contract offer from Knicks owner Sonny Werblin. However, the cab driver pleaded with him to stay, emphasizing how much Bostonians loved him and considered him their family. Soon after, heading a team press conference, and with his typical bravado, Auerbach puffed on his trademark cigar and stated: "I'm not going anywhere. We're going to sign Larry Bird and we're going to be on top again." Despite knowing that Bird, a talented young player from unheralded Indiana State, had a year of college eligibility remaining, he had drafted Bird as a junior eligible in the 1978 NBA draft. He waited for a year until the future Hall of Fame forward Bird arrived, finally setting aside his team salary rules when it became clear that his choices were paying Bird a record-setting rookie salary or watching him re-enter the 1979 draft. Bird then became the highest-paid Celtic as a rookie, with a $650,000-per-year deal. Auerbach knew the brilliant, hard-working Bird would be the cornerstone of a new Celtics generation.

In 1980, Auerbach pulled off what became known as "The Steal of The Century". He convinced the Golden State Warriors to trade him a #3 overall pick and future Hall-of-Fame center Robert Parish in exchange for two picks in the 1980 NBA draft: #1 overall Joe Barry Carroll and the #13 pick Rickey Brown. With the #3 pick, Auerbach selected the player he most wanted in the draft, Kevin McHale, who would also be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Parish-McHale-Bird frontcourt became one of the greatest in NBA history. Auerbach also hired head coach Bill Fitch, who led the revamped Celtics to the 1981 title.

In 1983, Auerbach named former Celtics player K.C. Jones as the coach. Starting in 1984, Jones coached the Celtics to four straight appearances in the NBA Finals, winning championships in 1984 and 1986. Auerbach also made a pair of shrewd trades that led to those titles, acquiring Dennis Johnson before the 1984 season to strengthen their backcourt defense, and Bill Walton before the 1986 season to provide much-needed bench scoring.

Auerbach, as a part-time side gig, was the color analyst on NBA and college basketball games for TBS Sports from 1982 to 1987.

In 1984, after he relinquished his general managing duties to Jan Volk, Auerbach focused on continuing as president and later vice-chairman of the Boston Celtics. In a surprising move after winning their 15th title, he traded popular guard Gerald Henderson, the Game 2 hero in the Finals against the Lakers, for Seattle's first-round draft pick in 1986. Two years later, after the Celtics defeated Houston in the finals for their 16th championship, he used the second overall pick in the 1986 draft, the pick acquired from Seattle, to take college prodigy Len Bias from Maryland, arguably the most brilliant coup in Auerbach's stellar career. With the team's star players still in their prime, the defending champions appeared set to compete at the top for years. However, tragedy struck just two days later, when Bias died of a cocaine overdose. Several years later, Celtics star player Reggie Lewis died suddenly in 1993. Without any league compensation for either loss, the team fell into decline, not seeing another Finals appearance in Auerbach's lifetime.

In an interview, Auerbach confessed that he lost interest in big-time managing in the early 1990s, preferring to stay in the background and concentrating on his pastimes, racquetball and his cigar-smoking. He would, however, stay on with the Celtics as president until 1997, as vice chairman until 2001, and then became president again, a position he held until his death, although in his final years, he was weakened by heart problems and often used a wheelchair.

Personal life

Auerbach was one of four children of American-born Marie Auerbach and Russian-Jewish immigrant Hyman Auerbach in Brooklyn. His brother Zang Auerbach, 4 years his junior, was a respected cartoonist and portraitist at the Washington Star. Zang also helped create the iconic Boston Celtics leprechaun logo.

Auerbach married Dorothy Lewis in the spring of 1941. The couple had two daughters, Nancy and Randy. They also helped raise Nancy's daughter Julie.

Auerbach enjoyed smoking cigars. In the 1960s, some Boston restaurants displayed signs stating, "No cigar or pipe smoking, except for Red Auerbach". In addition, Auerbach was well known for his love of Chinese food. In an interview shortly before his death, he explained that since the 1950s, Chinese takeout was the most convenient nutrition: NBA teams used to travel on regular flights and had a tight schedule, so filling up the stomach with heavier non-Chinese food meant wasting time and risking travel-sickness. Over the years, Auerbach became so fond of this food that he even became a part-owner of a Chinese restaurant in Boston. Despite a heart operation, he remained active in his 80s, playing racquetball and making frequent public appearances.

Despite his fierce nature, Auerbach was popular among his players. He recalled that at his 75th birthday party, 45 of his former players showed up; and when he turned 80, his perennial 1960s-era foe Wilt Chamberlain showed up, a gesture Auerbach dearly appreciated.

In an interview with ESPN, Auerbach stated that his all-star fantasy team would consist of Bill Russell—who in the former's opinion was the ultimate player to start a franchise with—as well as Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, with John Havlicek as the sixth man. As for the greatest basketball players of all time, Auerbach's candidates were Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan. Auerbach made multiple such "all-time" rankings over the years, with his last one being in June 2006, months before his death. Auerbach talked about his fictional team with journalist Ken Shouler which featured the following: Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain, and Russell at center; Bird, Erving, Pettit, and Baylor at forward; and Robertson, Jordan, Havlicek, Johnson, and Cousy at guard.

Auerbach was elected to the American Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1993, Auerbach received an honorary Doctor of Public Service from George Washington University.