That was how Red Auerbach summed up his life, as a player, coach, general manager, president and family man. Having read and watched so much about basketball, I could say Auerbach was someone who showed how basketball was meant to be organized and played in its infancy, with enduring techniques and streetwise tactics that both infuriated and earned the respect of opponents. He was a throwback and a visionary.
For this piece, I have taken the liberty of putting together a fictional interview with the legendary coach, with the questions that I would have loved to have asked him had I been part of the Tuesday lunches he regularly had with a tight group of friends and contemporaries in Washington each week. But make no mistake, the replies are all very real, very Red.
ME: How did you go about building a team that played consistently excellent, no-frills basketball?
RED AUERBACH: "I wanted a certain type of player on the Celtics, a player with no questions about his character or his work habits. It takes more than talent. And I’ve turned down deals for talented players because I didn’t believe they would fit in with the Celtics. I can’t stand a ballplayer who plays in fear. Any fellow who has a good shot has got to take it and keep taking it. So he misses – so what?
"The other thing I did was keep my team together. After the Russell trade, I didn’t make a major trade for 13 years. I’d pick up a guy like Wayne Embry of Carl Braun at the end of their careers, but my top 7 to 8 players, they knew they weren’t going anywhere. They could play out their careers with the Celtics. Too many teams think the grass is always greener; they overrate players on other teams and underrate their own players. If you want to win, pick your team carefully, and give it time."
ME: The Celtics always seemed to be able to bring out a second life from players who were considered over the hill. How did you do it?
RED AUERBACH: "You take a guy who’s supposedly too old and if you instill his pride again and create desire, you can squeeze a good year or two out of him, maybe even more."
ME: What did you tell Bill Russell after he had won an NCAA title and an Olympic gold medal, before he came to the Celtics?
RED AUERBACH: "I told Bill that I didn’t care how many points he scored. What I wanted him to do was get me the ball – rebounds, blocked shots. Then get the ball to our shooters: Sharman, Cousy, Heinsohn, Ramsey. These guys can put the ball in the basket. Just do what you do best."
Other teams were so paranoid of Auerbach’s intensity that they would suspect him of anything from having them waken up in the middle of the night at their hotels, keeping the dead spots on the Boston Garden floor, maintaining the tiny visitors’ locker room without air conditioning or hot running water, and generally making life miserable for them on and off the court in Boston.
ME: Almost everybody else in the NBA hated the ‘victory cigar’. Where did you get the idea for it?
RED AUERBACH: "I used to smoke a pipe in college, then I switched to cigars. There was a game where we were ahead of Philly by 30-40 points. I just took out the cigar because it seemed like the natural thing to do."
There were also many other things about Red Auerbach that illustrated how big a part of the Boston Celtics he was. For instance, Red initiated the move to retire a certain player’s jersey, and would ultimately be the one to give it a thumbs up and make it so. He was also reportedly the only one who could get Bill Russell to sign autographs. And, as long as Red was involved, the Celtics would not have the "distraction" of having their own cheerleaders.
ME: What was your regular routine like?
RED AUERBACH: "When I coached, win or lose, I’d calm down after the game and unwind. Before too long, I was scheming for the next game, remembering the mistakes and going to work on them to do my best to see that they didn’t happen again. This is the only way a team improves – by working on their mistakes, correcting their weaknesses."
Me: You were always so controversial around the league. How did you deal with it?
RED AUERBACH: "A boo is a boo. Generally, you don’t take the time to figure out what kind of boo it is, whether it’s a good-natured boo, for instance. It’s a boo and the heck with it."
ME: In your last game as a coach in 1966 (the last championship in the Celts’ eight-year run), how would you have felt if you had lost?
RED AUERBACH: "I don’t know. I would really be down, but a lot would have depended on how we lost. If we went down swinging, it wouldn’t be so bad. I wouldn’t have said anything to the team. Certainly not about choking in the clutch. How could I have said anything after all these years?"
That would have been a heck of an interview.