Red's Ode to Basketball

In the midst of March madness, while the pros are gearing up for the playoffs, this seemed a perfect time to post Red Auerbach's ode to basketball as the greatest sport. Just to add to what Red said, basketball is the only purely American game of the major team sports.

RED AUERBACH:

"Basketball is a game of fun. Even at the pro level, I've always believed that basketball should remain a game of fun. Sure, there's a lot of conditioning and discipline involved in it, too, but basically it's still a game of fun. Why is it fun? Because there's no other game in history that people play for pure enjoyment as much as they play basketball. You'll find it on every playground: One-on-one, two-on-two, or maybe just a kid killing hours with his jump shot. You won't find that in baseball, football or any other sport.

"To me it's the superior sport, played by superior athletes.

"Football's an extremely rigid game where most guys operate in a limited area of assignment. If you're a tackle, you do this; if you're a guard, you do that. When the defense has the ball, you sit on your butt and do nothing. When you have the ball, you still get to rest 30 seconds between each play. And did you ever watch them working out in camp? They push a sled up and down the field. That's fun?

"Hockey? They're all little guys. Once in a while they get a big guy and they make him a defenseman. It's a game that's played exclusively on the ground. All you need is a stocky little guy with good legs and strong wrists. The whole human race is getting bigger, but in hockey the players have got to remain small because their game is played on the floor.

"Baseball people always amaze me. They live in the past. Spring training: Sure, I can see going to Florida where the weather's warm, but what's this crap about bringing the wife and kids and your golf clubs? I've heard of ballplayers singing in nightclubs during spring training. Believe me, no Celtic ever felt like singing after a day at one of our camps. . . .

"I'll take basketball over any game that's ever been played. Of the four major team sports it's the only one that's truly a natural sport. In baseball you've got special equipment: Gloves and bats. In hockey you've got pads, skates and a stick. In football your helmet is a weapon, and your whole body's wrapped in padding. In all these games you're using equipment you weren't born with.

"Okay, you weren't born with sneakers either. But you could play our game barefooted; they certainly do in a lot of places. You've got no pads, no artificial help; there's complete freedom of movement.

"In basketball you have none of the artificial helpmates. You have continuous motion. You have eye-hand coordination. And you have touch. You can play it on the ground or play it in the air, and it brings in all phases of running: Backward, forward, sideward. You start and you stop, then you start again. The main thing is continuous motion.

"Hockey has continuous motion, but you're on skates and you have an artificial propulsion. In football you rest between each play. In baseball you run only when the ball is hit to you or when you hit the ball. And even then, you're just running to a base where you stop. Other than that, you could be standing in left field doing nothing for thirty minutes.

"Basketball combines more facets of skill than any other sport. You could be a tremendous power in the line in football, yet all you've got to do is run eight feet. Then you rest. Sure, there's body contact; I understand all of that. But the basketball player's got to run, jump, react, be ambidextrous and creative, and all the while remain in continuous motion.

"There's no other game like that."