The Death of a Legend: The Bell Tolls for Red
It was a sharp and brutal end to a weekend that had not been what one would deem successful.
Red Auerbach is dead and that, as all the classics say, is that.
After a weekend lost on cricket fields, in drunken stupours and in gambling frenzy, I awoke sometime Monday morning to find out that Red Auerbach had moved on, his number called. Red was dead. I woke up with the intention of watching heavy hitting football but ended up retreating to the silence of the late night and contemplating the news I had just received.
The name Red Auerbach doesn’t mean a whole lot in these parts. Only those involved in hoops or New England celebrity would know the name and what it means. But he was the real deal and as big a wig as you’ll find in Boston or basketball. Nobody personified success like Red.
With his death comes not mass sadness but melancholy reflection on times past and the values of a different era. Times have changed but you only realise it when those who defined a time and a place shuffle off into the ether.
More than Ted Whitten was Footscray and more than Ken Arthuson was Manly, more than Jock McHale was Collingwood and more than Peter Moore was Canterbury, Red Auerbach was the Boston Celtics. He was a winner, a visionary, a pioneer and a man. In one of the great sports cities, he led the most popular team in town and gave a city hope. In one of the great sports, he was the greatest non-player that the game has seen.
It is hard to convey his stature in both Boston and basketball. Words don’t seem to do his grandeur justice. He coached the Boston Celtics to the greatest dynasty in the history of American sports and aside from the St George Dragons in rugby league, probably the greatest dynasty in professional sports. Red, there when the NBA began in 1950, led the Celtics to 9 championships in 11 years, including 8 in a row from 1959-66. Along the way, he smashed the shackles of segregation by drafting the first black player and fielded the first black starting five in NBA history. When he was done on the floor, he took over the team as general manager and led the franchise to eight more championships. He drafted Larry Bird as a junior and he made Bill Russell the first black coach in the NBA.
He led, defined and became the Celtics. And he did it all with dignity, fairness and the finest brain in hoops. He could spot an opportunity as well as he could talent. Even after the Len Bias tragedy (Bias was drafted by Auerbach in 1986, only to die of a cocaine overdose two days later) he marched on still convinced in humanity and his own values.
And when he knew a game was over, he pulled out a cigar and smoked it up like a king. He was a man with no regard for failure or no smoking signs. Even with time on the clock, Red would fire one up and suck it back with a wry smile of victory. He did it as coach, he did it as GM, he did it as president. It infuriated oppositions from New York to Sacramento. But it united a city.
He is regarded as the greatest coach in the history of American sports. He is an icon of Boston, their Celtics and professional basketball. He, with Jackie Robinson, was one of the few who actively sought racial equality in professional sports.
Red, in life and now in death, showed the importance of coaching and team management in the success of a team. Successful teams hire great coaches and great staff. They seek pioneers, geniuses and leaders to run the team and ask for stability, structure and victory in return. The Celtics understood and gave the reins to Auerbach for the better part of four decades.
In hindsight, it is easy to name the genius. The Celtics did it when it really mattered. And that is what we- gamblers, bettors, sports fans and money hungry price hounds- need to do. The punter needs to spot the genius.
When the realisation finally clicks in that coaches are the roller skates to consistent success, punters can then spend time finding who can coach and who can’t. Over the last decade, the only coach to win an NRL premiership who is useless is Ricky Stuart and even he isn’t that bad. In the NFL, Brian Billick is the only fool among a list that includes Bellichick, Cowher and Shanahan to win a Super Bowl in the last ten years. Ditto for the AFL, where only Mark Williams has not convinced those in the know that he is a decent coach.
Good coaches win and bad coaches don’t. Even with good teams. A supremely talented St George Illawarra have not won the title they should have under Nathan Brown. Parramattta were the same with Brian Smith. The exact same Detroit Pistons side that won it all two years back looked pale and lethargic last season when Larry Brown bolted for New York and Flip Saunders took the reins. Australia offered nothing in the soccer world until Guus Hiddink made his way down under.
The point is simple. Never back a team in futures markets if they have a dud coach. And always save on a team where the coach is a genius.
And a little wager on the Celtics to run the boards this season might not go astray. No team would have more to play for. The Celts will be doing it for Red. And every sports fan in some small way should do a little something for Red too. He was a true genius.