Red Auerbach
| Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach | |
 Red Auerbach at Boston Garden by Steve Lipofsky
| |
| Born | September 20 1917 Brooklyn, New York, USA |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Hall of Fame NBA coach |
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20 1917 – October 28 2006) was both a highly successful head basketball coach and an influential front office executive for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
As coach of the Celtics from 1950 to 1966, Auerbach won nine NBA titles, including eight straight from 1959 to 1966 – the longest consecutive string of championships in the history of North American professional sports. After retiring from coaching, he continued to serve as the general manager or president of the Celtics from 1966 until 1997, and again as president from 2001 until his death.
In 1980 he was named the greatest coach in the history of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America.[1]
Early years
Born and raised in a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Auerbach was the son of Hyman and Marie A. (Thompson). He received the nickname "Red" from his fiery hair, just like fellow Brooklynite and NBA coach Red Holzman.
Auerbach began playing basketball as a youngster on the playgrounds of Brooklyn. He recalled that "In my area of Brooklyn (Williamsburg) there was no football, no baseball. They were too expensive. They didn't have the practice fields. We played basketball and handball and some softball in the street."
He attended Eastern District High School, where he played guard and made the All-Brooklyn second team his senior year, in 1935.
He then attended the Seth Low Junior College (part of Columbia University) for one year before transferring on a basketball scholarship to George Washington University in 1940. He played three years of college basketball at GW, and was the team's leading scorer and a defensive specialist. He received a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1940, and a Master of Arts in Education from GW the following year.
Auerbach coached high school basketball for three years, and played professionally with the American Basketball League/Eastern Basketball League Harrisburg Senators for one season, in 1942-43.
Auerbach enlisted in the U.S. Navy June 19, 1943. He advanced to Chief Specialist and received a direct commission on July 20, 1944. He served most of his time at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland as Rehabilitation/Physical Training Officer. He was released from active duty as a Lieutenant junior grade October 11, 1946.
Coaching
Auerbach coached the now-defunct Washington Capitols to two division titles in 1947 and 1949. The 1947 team's .817 winning percentage remained the NBA record for the next 20 years. The 1947 team also won 17 straight games at one point during the season — a streak that would remain a league record until 1969 (Auerbach later did tie the record in 1959 while coaching the Celtics). The 1949 team's 15-0 start is still the best start to a season in NBA history, albeit tied in 1993-94 by the Houston Rockets. In the 1950 season, he coached the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, where at 28-29 he had his only losing season as a coach.
For a brief period (1949-1950), before returning to the NBA, Auerbach was an assistant coach at Duke University. He was hired to replace the aging head coach of the men's basketball team, Gerry Gerard, who had been diagnosed with cancer. However, Auerbach only stayed at Duke for three months; he didn't want to get the job due to the passing of Gerard, a close friend.
Celtics
The next season, Auerbach began coaching the Boston Celtics, where he achieved unparalleled success as a professional basketball coach. During his 20 years as a coach, Auerbach won 938 regular season games, a record that stood until Lenny Wilkens broke it in the 1994-95 season. Auerbach is tied with Phil Jackson for the most NBA championship rings as a coach with nine. Auerbach was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1965.
As a coach, Auerbach was a pioneer in race relations and was fortunate to work for an owner Walter Brown who was equally progressive in this area. In Auerbach's first season coaching the Celtics in 1950, Brown and Auerbach chose Chuck Cooper of Duquesne University as the first black player selected in an NBA Draft. During the 1963-64 season, Auerbach's starting lineup of Bill Russell, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tom Sanders and Willie Naulls, made the Celtics the first team with five black starters. When Auerbach named Russell as his coaching successor in 1966, it was the first hiring of a black coach by a major American pro sports team.
Coach Auerbach was no great strategist; he believed in fast-break basketball; he knew that he needed at least one great rebounder and an outstanding point guard; and he knew the value of defense. But the Celtics ran very few offensive "plays" and Auerbach did not make strategic breakthroughs.
His forte was in recognizing talent, assembling a group of very fine basketball players, molding them into a unit and then motivating them. Winning was everything to Red Auerbach and he made his players see that everything he did was designed to win. He could be callously cruel at times, or extremely generous. But his obsession was with winning; all the tricks, all the goading and screaming was to support this goal.
In addition to an unparalleled coaching career of his own, Auerbach has the distinction of seeing three players whom he coached to championships, Bill Russell, Tommy Heinsohn and K.C. Jones each in their own time, coach the Celtics to championships. Don Nelson, who also played for Auerbach's championship team in the 1965-1966 season (Auerbach's last season), has also had a successful career as an NBA coach.
Executive
Although Auerbach stepped back from coaching in 1966, he remained as the Celtics' general manager until 1984 and served as the team's president from 1970 to 1997 and from 2001 until his death.[2] He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Auerbach raised eyebrows around the league in 1978 when he drafted Larry Bird as a "junior eligible" and then had to wait a year while Bird finished playing at Indiana State University.[3] If Auerbach and Bird's representatives had not been able to come to an agreement, Bird would have been free to reenter the next year's draft, but Auerbach was confident he could sign Bird and he did.
In 1980, Auerbach made his last great coup — convincing NBA colleagues that he coveted guard Darrell Griffith, and coaxing the Golden State Warriors to trade him a #3 overall pick and center Robert Parish in exchange for the #1 pick in the draft. Parish ultimately became a Hall of Famer. With the #3 pick, Auerbach selected the player he most wanted in the draft, Kevin McHale, who would also join the Hall of Fame.
In 1986, in a move designed to further solidify the Celtics excellence, Auerbach signed University of Maryland standout Len Bias. Sadly, Bias' professional greatness would never be realized; he died of a cocaine-related heart attack less than two days after being drafted.[4]
John Feinstein wrote a book with Auerbach entitled Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game.
Red Auerbach was a polarizing figure; many loved him — and many others couldn't stand him. Harry Gallatin, the former star of the New York Knicks once said "Nobody has to get me up to play the Celtics. All I have to do is look over at Auerbach, that bastard!" Celtics star Bill Russell said fondly: "I never knew anyone who played for Red who didn't like him...Of course, I never knew anyone who played against him who did like him."
Auerbach is also famous (some say infamous) for lighting up a victory cigar (usually a Hoyo de Monterrey) before the final buzzer, but when the score dictated that victory was assured. Opposing teams often loathed this spectacle as the height of disrespect, and even Auerbach's own players sometimes moaned that just the sight of the cigar incited opponents to compete more fiercely at the end of games. But Celtics fans — and later, television producers — loved the gesture. It was dramatic, and became one of Auerbach's signatures.
When the Celtics home arena, the FleetCenter, banned smoking, an exception was made for Auerbach.
Auerbach also won the NBA Executive of the Year Award with the Celtics in the 1979-80 season. He remained to his death the best-known NBA executive and was named the greatest coach in the history of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America in 1980.
Writing
He was the author of seven books. His first, Basketball for the Player, the Fan and Coach, has been translated into seven languages and is the largest-selling basketball book in print. His second book, co-authored with Paul Sann, was Winning the Hard Way. He also wrote a pair of written with Joe Fitzgerald: Red Auerbach: An Autobiography and Red Auerbach On and Off the Court. In October, 1991, M.B.A.: Management by Auerbach, was co-authored with Ken Dooley. In 1994, Seeing Red was written with Dan Shaughnessy. In October 2004, his latest book, Let Me Tell You A Story, was co-authored with sports journalist John Feinstein.
Personal life
Auerbach was married to the former Dorothy Lewis from June 6, 1941 until her death in 2000. They had two children: Nancy and Randy.
In his later years, Red Auerbach was still working with youngsters, coaching at the Red Auerbach Basketball School. He was also the chairman of the Red Auerbach Youth Foundation. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.
Auerbach also had basketball season tickets at the George Washington University and his seat is colored red, in contrast to the rest of the seats which are blue.
In recent years, Auerbach had been in and out of hospitals for unspecified health problems. (Auerbach's family has requested that information on his condition not be released.) In the summer of 2005, he was unable to attend his own basketball camp and in September he was hospitalized again, but he was released from the hospital in October. Auerbach received the 2006 United States Navy Memorial Lone Sailor Award on October 25th. This was his last public appearance. He was last interviewed and photographed during this event by Lance Corporal Robert Durham of Navy/Marine Corps News.
Auerbach died after a heart attack in front of his home in Washington, D.C. on October 28 2006, some five weeks after his 89th birthday.[5] A private ceremony was held and attended by 150 close friends and family members. Legendary basketball dignitaries included David Stern, Bill Russell, John Thompson, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale, Bill Mortimer and Larry Kennard (E.U.X.). During the Monday night visitation, Hall of Fame players Bob Cousy and Larry Bird were in attendance. In his honor, the George Washington mens basketball players wore red ribbons on their uniforms during the 2006-2007 Centennial Season of GW Colonials Basketball.
Red Auerbach was buried in Falls Church, Virginia at the King David Memorial Gardens / National Memorial Park on October 31, 2006.
Other information
- Auerbach posthumously appears in a series of NBA commercials where he breaks down formations like "3 on 2 situations" and "rebounding".
- The Boston Red Sox honored Auerbach at their April 20th, 2007 game against the New York Yankees by wearing green uniforms and by hanging replicated Celtics championship banners on the "Green Monster" at Fenway Park. Boston won 7-6.
Notes
- ↑ "Red Auerbach, Who Built Basketball Dynasty, Dies at 89"
- ↑ http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/view.bg?articleid=164654
- ↑ http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/view.bg?articleid=164621&format=&page=1
- ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061801051.html
- ↑ http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-obit-auerbach&prov=ap&type=lgns
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Obituary, Jewish Chronicle, Jan. 19 2007, p.45
External links
- Basketball Hall of Fame
- Coaching Record
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Red Auerbach
- ESPN Sports Century biography
- Red's Army: Boston Celtics Fan Site
- YouTube: Auerbach and Russell lecture on defense
- YouTube: Auerbach interview I
- YouTube: Auerbach interview II
- Video on the life of "Red" Auerbach on espn.com
- Passing of a Celtics legend — The Boston Globe October 28 2006
- Auerbach Is Dead at 89: Celtics Patriarch 'Invented Professional Basketball' — The Washington Post October 29, 2006
- Red Auerbach timeline — The Boston Globe October 28 2006
Template:Boston Celtics 1956-57 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1958-59 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1959-60 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1960-61 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1961-62 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1962-63 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1963-64 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1964-65 NBA champions Template:Boston Celtics 1965-66 NBA champions
| Preceded by: Initial coach |
Washington Capitols Head Coach 1946–1949 |
Succeeded by: Bob Feerick |
| Preceded by: Roger Potter |
Tri-Cities Blackhawks Head Coach 1949–1950 |
Succeeded by: Dave McMillan |
| Preceded by: Doggie Julian |
Boston Celtics Head Coach 1950–1966 |
Succeeded by: Bill Russell |
Red Auerbach • Chuck Daly • Bill Fitch • Red Holzman • Phil Jackson • John Kundla • Don Nelson • Jack Ramsay • Pat Riley • Lenny Wilkens
Template:AtlantaHawksCoach Template:BostonCelticsCoach
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Auerbach, Red |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Auerbach, Arnold Jacob |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Hall of Fame basketball coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 20 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 28 2006 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Washington, D.C., United States |
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