History Red and Black
posted by on October 30 at 10:46 AM
NBA legend Red Auerbach died this weekend. He was 89. Auerbach was the coach of the unstoppable Boston Celtics during the team’s inimitable championship tear—1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966. (They also won in ‘68 and ‘69, after Auerbach had retired as coach to become the team’s general manager.)
Auerbach started out in the NBA’s earliest days as a coach of Washington, DC’s Capitols in 1947. And through the 60s, he personified the NBA’s thuggish, travelling-circus early days as the cigar-chomping coach, clutching the game program in his hand as he badgered the refs non-stop from the sidelines. These were the days when fans tossed eggs, beer bottles, lit cigarettes, and tomatoes at the players and coaches and refs.
More important, these were also the days (and this is what I think is overlooked about Auerbach … thanks to the Celtics lily-white Larry Bird image) when the league was changing from a game played by white, muscle-bound ex-Marine types to a predominantly black league. And Auerbach was a catalyst for this change.
In 1950, in his first year as Boston’s coach, Auerbach shocked everyone by picking Chuck Cooper (a black player) in the draft. Cooper was the first black player ever drafted into the NBA. (He didn’t turn out to be much of player, but in no short time, with Auerbach’s Celtics leading the way—black players would come to dominate the league.) This was no easy trick for Auerbach. At this time, Boston’s fan base was all Southie—the same working-class white crowd that would make Boston infamous in the mid-’60s and early ’70s for its anti-busing riots. After Auerbach picked Cooper, the owner of the New York Knicks asked if the Celtics realized Cooper was black. The Celtic’s owner, Walter Brown, reportedly replied, “I don’t care if he’s plaid, as long as he can play.”
In 1956, Auerbach drafted Bill Russell the NBA’s first black superstar. In 1963, Auerbach’s Celtics were the first NBA team to field an all-black starting 5, with Russell at center. In 1966/67, Auerbach hand-picked Russell as the new coach. It was another first—the NBA’s first black coach.
Mind you, I’m not much of a Celtics fan (nor an Auerbach fan really). I’m partial to Baylor and West on the Lakers… and of course, Chamberlain’s 1965-68 ‘76ers. (Although, all props to Russell.)
And really, my favorite Auerbach story has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the freak show years of the early NBA. Before the first game of the 1957 finals in St. Louis (the Celtics’ first trip to the finals…and Russell’s first season…go figure), Auerbach got into a yelling match with the St. Louis Hawks’ owner Ben Kerner. Auerbach had accused the Hawks of tampering with the height of the Celtics’ basket. Anyway, Kerner walked out onto the court to see what Auerbach was doing (Auerbach was out on the floor measuring the basket) and Auerbach just flat turned around and clocked Kerner in the mouth.
It is interesting that the Celtics led the way with black players, something I did not know, because by the 80's, when the league was majority black, the Celtics were quite white. Ainge, McCale, Bird, etc.
Wouldn't it have been freaky if Kerner was carrying a concealed weapon, and shot "Red" in self-defense?! That would have been an extra double Freak Show!
All those European and South American teams that now regularly kick the crap out of team USA look like they’ve watched a lot of film of those great Celtic teams: all five players pass well and constantly move—a rarity in the NBA these days, where everyone sits around and waits for the point guard to do a crossover dribble and get it started.
Red HATED the flashy rival ABA league. In an HBO documentary nearly 20 years after the ABA's final game, Red was sitting there with his cigar snidely saying, "Screw em. Let em rot."
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