by Timmy Duncan

Created on: February 28, 2010

It is impossible to talk about the Boston Celtics in any sort of meaningful way without mentioning Arnold 'Red' Auerbach. He was the heart and soul of the franchise for 57 years. Red built the Boston Celtics from the ground up, pouring his blood, sweat and tears into the organization. He was the combative and competitive head of professional basketball's greatest dynasty. Auerbach was the stuff that legends are made of.

In 20 years of coaching, Auerbach won 938 games and coached his team to nine titles, a record up until last year when Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson surpassed him. In all of those 20 years, Auerbach coached a losing season only once. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969 and then a second time in 1980 in recognition of all that he had contributed to the league. That same year he was named the greatest coach in NBA history by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America. While there are some that argue Phil Jackson has surpassed Auerbach as the NBA's best coach, the faithful fans of Boston know differently. There will never be another Red.

 Not only was Auerbach a brilliant coach, he was also a genius in terms of evaluating talent and putting teams together. He moved into the Celtics front office in 1966 and in many opinions remains the most brilliant general manager who ever lived. He was responsible for acquiring talent such as Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Dave Cowens.

Red was also an engineer of social change, even if he would never have admitted it. Auerbach drafted the NBA's first African American player, Chuck Cooper. He hired the first African American head coach in all of professional sports when he appointed Bill Russell as player/coach in 1966. He started the first African American starting line up in 1964. He would have told you he was simply hiring the best person for the job, and that was true, but Red had the ability to look beyond racial and cultural lines and he was brave enough to give the right people the job regardless of the backlash.

The cruelest part of Red's passing in 2006 was that he never got to see the Celtics return to glory. At least not here. I will always believe it was Red who guided a wild free throw from Paul Pierce into the basket during his legendary face off with Lebron James in the 2008 playoffs. And when the Celtics clinched their first victory in more than two decades against the Los Angeles Lakers, you could smell Red's famous cigar smoke in the final minutes of the game. I would like to think that he was watching and smiling, smoking his victory cigar from somewhere beyond the rafters.

Resources:

NBA Encyclopedia. Farewell to a Basketball Legend, Red Auerbach:1917 - 2006 http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/auerbach_tribute.htm l 

Boston Celtics. Red Auerbach, President. http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/Red_Auerbach.html

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