Red Auerbach- the Last of a Generation

By C. Eric Lincoln

My first impression of Red Auerbach will be my lasting impression of Red Auerbach. Red Auerbach was a New York guy who grew up on tough New York streets, a guy who might well have been a character created by Damon Runyon. Red would have been a Runyon race track guy with a racing form rolled up in his pocket and a dead cigar in hand, always looking for angles — always looking for a winning edge. And for the better part of his 89 years Red Auerbach always found a winning edge.

A genuinely brilliant man, a streetwise guy before that phrase meant something entirely different, Red Auerbach cataloged a lot more than street smarts. Red Auerbach was a 1940 graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he met his wife and made his home and where he died on October 29. The stuff that made Red Auerbach brilliant could not be found in your Clair Bee basketball manual, or a book on Zen meditation.

Auerbach represented a generation that is slowly passing away, a generation that survived the great depression, a generation that by hardscrabble means learned the value of a job, and how valuable it was to keep a job at almost any cost. Red Auerbach learned to keep an edge and an eye on the other guy.

And that’s how Red led the Celtics to nine straight titles.

When an insider gave him a shot at coaching a sport he loved, Auerbach figured he`d better take it, just in case the jobs all dried up. In 1950 he signed on with the Celtics and never left the organization.  In 1956 Auerbach traded for the rights to draft a fellow named Bill Russell and thus began the most illustrious dynasty in the history of the National Basketball Association.

I first met Red Auerbach in 1970. I was a rookie reporter. As green a sports writer as anyone could be, I had somehow been handed the plum assignment of covering the World Champion New York Knickerbockers of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett, and the late Dave DeBusschere.

On this particularly chilly New England evening, a day after Thanksgiving, the Knicks’ traveling party strolled across the parquet floor at Boston Garden. Red Auerbach was sitting a few rows behind the home bench and reading the newspaper as a few players nodded in deference to the old coach. It was two hours before tip off and the ever-ubiquitous Garden popcorn machines were just heating up.

The only thing in the old Boston Garden that had heat.

The visitor’s locker room had one light bulb hanging from the ceiling and was chilled by a dank New England dusk. Dank would have been a generous description. Dave DeBusschere said the entire Garden had been constructed out of “the shells of old U Boats.”

Meanwhile, the Knicks coach, the late Red Holzman, saw a wonderful opportunity to haze a rookie reporter while sticking the needle to his rival Brooklyn hoopster, Red Auerbach.

Holzman walked over to me and said, “I bet you’d like to meet Auerbach, wouldn’t you? That would be right up your alley. I’ll tell ya he’s a very good guy…Why don’t you go over and ask him if we can get some heat in here and some hot water and then get yourself that interview. Give it a shot, lad.”

What a set up. Give it a shot? Blow your brains out while you’re at it, lad?

I went over to the world’s most famous coach, and reached out my hand to introduce myself. Auerbach offered a hand that seemed to be saying there’s a whoopee cushion around here someplace.

Before I knew it, I was asking Red Auerbach if the Knicks “could have more heat and some hot water in the…” I assure you I never completed the sentence. Auerbach slid his cigar inside the breast pocket of his blazer. His hands were trembling.

“You guys are joking. This is a joke. You guys are asking for heat? And who are you, again? “

His voice could be heard in the hallowed rafters of the old joint. “Tell that little SOB that if he wants hot water come over and pay our heating bill. Tell `em we’ll be lucky if the fans are warm. Tell em everyone in here will be wearing overcoats like they do in New York.”

It was epic vaudeville and master gamesmanship on the part of  two old pros.

Holzman came and grabbed me and asked me if I  “got the interview.” He was laughing so hard he could barely speak. I later found out it was rare that any visiting team got hot water or, for that matter, a warm dressing room, whether Auerbach had a hand in that choice or not. It was also known that some teams found their street clothes near-frozen after a game. It happens, Auerbach once said.

Arnold Auerbach was a master of gamesmanship. His victory cigar was years ahead of end zone celebrations. Does anyone think opponents enjoyed seeing Auerbach light up a stogie?

Red Auerbach was also a good and generous man, and always the thoughtful interview Red Holzman said he was. A good and decent man who whenever we would meet in intervening years he would always, unfailingly, offer to buy me a cup of coffee “on the Celtics,” and then ask me, no matter the venue, whether “it was warm enough for me.”

Thanks for the memories, Red.

C. Eric Lincoln is a former sports writer for Newsday and the New York Times