Happy Birthday

Red Auerbach.  96.











To get Bill Russell required some legendary maneuvering that would take its place in Celtics lore. Rochester was drafting first, with St. Louis second, and the whole world knew about Russell’s exploits at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and at the University of San Francisco, where his team won 55 straight. Rochester was strong up front and looked to draft Sihugo Green. Brown gave Rochester team manager Les Harrison additional incentive to avoid Russell. If Harrison passed on Russell, Brown would arrange for Rochester to get the touring Ice Capades two weeks later.

Recalled Auerbach: “Walter got him the Ice Capades, and Harrison said, ‘I give you my word that we’ll stay away from Russell.’”

But all this would have been for naught if St. Louis had picked Russell second. Auerbach called Ben Kerner to see if he would make a deal. Auerbach offered All-Star Macauley. Kerner badly needed stars to keep his franchise afloat, so he asked for Cliff Hagan, too. Auerbach agreed.

Auerbach dealt the first and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA Draft to Golden State for the third pick in the 1980 Draft and four-year veteran center Robert Parish. The Warriors selected Purdue center Joe Barry Carroll with the first pick and tabbed Mississippi forward Rickey Brown 13th. The Celtics took forward Kevin McHale of Minnesota, and thus added Parish and McHale to a frontcourt that already featured Larry Bird and Cedric Maxwell. In one trade, Auerbach had acquired a frontcourt for the next decade.

Thanks to Red, the Boston Celtics were the first NBA team to have a black player, the first NBA team to have a black head coach and the first NBA team to start an all-black starting 5.

Happy Birthday, Red, happy birthday, and thanks for everything.


bob


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Perhaps the most amazing thing about Red was that everything he thought and did had a huge element of simplicity.   Seven basic plays with myriad options.  Happy Birthday Arnold.

Sam

bob



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