Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. As head coach, he led the Boston Celtics to eight consecutive NBA championships between 1959 to 1966. On retiring in 1966, he held an NBA coaching record of 938 wins. He served as general manager of the Celtics from 1966 to 1984, and later as President and Vice-Chairman of the Board. He won a combined 16 NBA titles in his long career with the Celtics, the most of any individual, making him one of the most successful team officials in the history of North American professional sports. He served as president of the Celtics until his death in 2006 at the age of 89.
Auerbach coached many players who were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He also played a key role in decreasing racial discrimination in the NBA. In 1950, he drafted Chuck Cooper, the NBA's first African-American player. In 1965, he introduced the first African-American starting five. In 1966, he hired Bill Russell as the NBA's first African-American head coach.
Auerbach was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1980, the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America voted Auerbach the greatest coach in the NBA history. He was also named NBA Executive of the Year in 1980.
Early life
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on September 20, 1917. Auerbach was one of four children born to Marie and Hyman Auerbach (; ). Hyman, a Russian-Jewish immigrant from Minsk, Russian Empire (present-day Belarus), arrived in the United States at age thirteen. He married American-born Marie Auerbach (née Thompson). where he was named "Second Team All-Brooklyn" by the World-Telegram in his senior year.
College career
After a season at Seth Low Junior College, Auerbach received an athletic scholarship to play for the George Washington Colonials men's basketball team in Washington, D.C. Auerbach was regarded as a standout basketball player. Auerbach was a three-time letterman, team captain, and led the team in scoring in 1940. Auerbach graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Education in 1940, and a Master of Education in 1941. In those years, Auerbach began to develop the technique known as the fast break.
Coaching career
St. Albans School (1941)
In 1941, Auerbach began coaching basketball and teaching at the St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.
thumb|Auerbach's Navy headshot, likely taken in late 1943.
Roosevelt High School (1941–1943)
Auerbach coached basketball and baseball and taught at Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C. for two years.
On February 4, 1943, Auerbach appeared in a game for the Harrisburg Senators of the American Basketball League (ABL) and scored one point.
United States Navy
Auerbach enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1943. He served for three years as a Rehabilitation and Physical Training officer. He primarily served in a medical capacity at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He was released from active duty as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in October 1946.
The following year the Capitols went 28–20 It was assumed that Auerbach would take over for head coach Gerry Gerard, who was battling cancer. During his tenure at Duke, Auerbach regularly worked with future All-American Dick Groat. Auerbach later wrote that he "felt pretty bad waiting for [Gerard] to die" and that it was "no way to get a job".
Tri-Cities Blackhawks (1949–1950)
Auerbach left Duke after a few months when Ben Kerner, owner of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, gave him the green light to rebuild the team from scratch. Auerbach traded more than two dozen players in just six weeks. The revamped Blackhawks ended the 1949–50 NBA season with a losing record of 28–29. Auerbach resigned when Kerner traded Auerbach's favorite player, John Mahnken.
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. 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. As a result, Auerbach sought a defensive big man who could get easy rebounds, initiate fast breaks, and close out games.
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. The Celtics won the series in seven games.
Executive career
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. 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. 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.
Personal life
thumb|Auerbach was honored on October 25, 2006, three days before his death, for his service in the Navy during World War II.
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.
Auerbach married Dorothy Lewis in the spring of 1941. The couple had two daughters, Nancy and Randy. NBA commissioner David Stern said, "The void caused by his death will never be filled." Players Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, John Havlicek and Larry Bird, as well as contemporaries like Jerry West, Pat Riley, and Wayne Embry, universally hailed Auerbach as one of the greatest personalities in NBA history.
During the 2006–07 NBA season, NBA TV and NBA.com aired reruns of Auerbach's four-minute instructional videos known as "Red on Roundball" previously aired during NBA on CBS halftime shows in the 1970s and 1980s, and as a testament to his importance in the Boston sports world, the Boston Red Sox honored Auerbach at their April 20, 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.
Before Boston's season opener against the Wizards, his signature was officially placed on the parquet floor near center court, thereby naming the court as "Red Auerbach Parquet Floor". The ceremony was attended by his daughter Randy and Celtics legends. The signature replaced the Red Auerbach memorial logo used during the 2007 season.
Writing
Auerbach 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 best-selling basketball book in print. The NBA's Coach of the Year Award is named in his honour. Auerbach is remembered as a pragmatic coach and executive with a sense of loyalty to his players. Many of his former players, including Bill Russell and Don Nelson, became successful coaches in the NBA.
In 1985, the Celtics retired a number 2 jersey with Auerbach's name, to recognize his significant contributions to the franchise.
thumb|left|95px|In 1985, the Boston Celtics retired the #2 jersey with Auerbach's name.
In 1985, a statue of Auerbach was unveiled outside of Quincy Market in Downtown Boston
Auerbach was included in the 2008 documentary The First Basket, which chronicles the history of Jews in Basketball.
In 2018, the Celtics opened the Red Auerbach Center as the team's new practice facility and headquarters.
Coaching pioneer
Auerbach favoured the fast break strategy, which involved a quick outlet pass to fast-moving guards who attempted to score before the opposing team could re-establish its defensive position. He also invented the concept of the role player and the sixth man, stating: "Individual honors are nice, but no Celtic has ever gone out of his way achieving them. We have never had the league's top scorer. We won seven league championships without placing even one among the league's top 10 scorers. Our pride was never rooted in statistics."
NBA coach statistics
|-
| align="left" |Washington
| align="left" |
|60||49||11||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||6||2||4||
| align="center" |Lost in BAA semifinals
|-
| align="left" |Washington
| align="left" |
|48||28||20||||align="center" |2nd in Western (tie)||-||-||-||
| align="center" |Lost division tiebreaker
|-
| align="left" |Washington
| align="left" |
|60||38||22||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||11||6||5||
| align="center" |Lost in BAA Finals
|-
| align="left" |Tri-Cities
| align="left" |
|57||28||29||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||3||1||2||
| align="center" |Lost in Division semifinals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|69||39||30||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||2||0||2||
| align="center" |Lost in Division semifinals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|66||39||27||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||3||1||2||
| align="center" |Lost in Division semifinals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|71||46||25||||align="center" |3rd in Eastern||6||3||3||
| align="center" |Lost in Division finals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||42||30||||align="center" |3rd in Eastern||2||0||2||
| align="center" |Lost in Division finals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||36||36||||align="center" |4th in Eastern||7||3||4||
| align="center" |Lost in Division finals
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||39||33||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||3||1||2||
| align="center" |Lost in Division semifinals
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||44||28||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||10||7||3||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||49||23||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||11||6||5||
| align="center" |Lost in NBA Finals
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|72||52||20||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||11||8||3||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|75||59||16||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||13||8||5||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|79||57||22||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||10||8||2||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|80||60||20||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||14||8||6||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|80||58||22||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||13||8||5||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|80||59||21||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||10||8||2||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|80||62||18||||align="center" |1st in Eastern||12||8||4||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-! style="background:#FDE910;"
| align="left" |Boston
| align="left" |
|80||54||26||||align="center" |2nd in Eastern||17||11||6||
| align="center" |Won NBA Championship
|-class="sortbottom"
| align="left" |Career
|||1417||938||479||||||168||99||69||
See also
- The First Basket
- List of select Jewish basketball players
- List of NBA championship head coaches
- List of coaches in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
- List of Boston Celtics head coaches
- Statue of Red Auerbach
- Auerbach Center
References
Notes
- Obituary (January 19, 2007), Jewish Chronicle, p. 45
- Halberstam, David. The Breaks of the Game. Random House. 1981
External links
- Info page from Boston Celtics official site
- Coaching statistics at basketball-reference.com