Red the Mathematician

Excerpt from Red and Me by William Felton Russell:

“To say that Red Auerbach was supremely confident would be an understatement. He loved to play gin rummy. I can’t think of anyone who won a lot of money off Auerbach in gin. The reason was that he was a mathematician of the highest order. He understood the efficacy of equations, especially in terms of problem-solving. Instead of numbers, in basketball Red applied human elements. Take these human elements, and put this together with this, and that together with that, and here’s how we get another win.”

[Bill described how, in his rookie season, during those rare minutes when Red rested him, Red would yell: “Russ! Get your ass over here next to me!”]

“It was no ordinary few minutes when you sat next to Auerbach. It was like being at a 3-D movie: everything came at you so fast, you could barely react. One night, as I was sitting next to him, one of our guys scored a basket. When the other team inbounded the ball, Red said, “Shit!” That got my attention. I said, “What? Nothing’s happening.” He said, “That guy’s got the shot!” I looked up to see one of our opponents running down the opposite sideline, and sure enough, they passed him the ball and he got the open shot. Red saw it coming even before it hatched. I said, “Now, what the hell did you see there?” He said, basically, “This is what this guy does, this is what that guy does, this is what the defense does, so that guy will be wide open.” Throughout our games, he was constantly calculating these things in his head – not for fun, but to help us find more ways to win. Nothing could have suited me more.

“On a similar occasion, I was sitting there and Red grunted, “Shit! We’ll lose this one one-twenty-five to one-twenty-three!” Well, the game had just started – we were maybe four minutes in. When it was over, the final score was 125-122. I said, “Goddamn it, Red. How the hell did you know that?” He said, “In the second half, when fatigue sets in for both teams, here’s what happens. When guys get tired, the first thing they do is start taking it easy on the defensive end …” and he went on and on. He had calculated the effects of fatigue into this complicated equation for the final score, and, even with forty-some minutes to go, he came up with an Auerbach = mc2”

Greatest coach!!!!!!!!!! PERIOD

Phil is so far in the rearview mirror you can't een see um!

beat

Here's another revealing quote about Red, from Dolph Schayes of the old Syracuse Nats:

"In later years, Red Auerbach realized that you could nullify a player's offensive output if you made him work harder at the other end of the court. So he did that with Frank Ramsey, who would give me a lot of trouble. I was much taller than he was but I was basically an inside player, so Ramsey would make it difficult for me to guard him at the other end of the court, what with all the switches I'd have to make. The advent of the theory, of making an offensive player work harder, bothered my game quite a bit."

It would be fascinating to come up with a list of changes Red introduced to the game: the emphasis on physical conditioning, the emphasis on team play and defense over offense, the sixth man, the constant motivational strategies, the inside-outside paradigm of a rebounding center combined with a playmaking point guard, - the list is probably endless.

Come to think of it, you may not be able to make a list because there are so many innovations Red introduced, such as making the offensive threat work harder on defense, that he never gets credit for.

HR

Sad part is each year fewer remember his greatness. Newbees have no clue as to what he accomplished beyond the staight numbers.

I know Sam is at the forefront of setting the record stright as are you but anyone whom puts any NBA coach ahead of him when it comes to greatness doesn't even begin to understand.

I've wondered how much he would appriciate all that Ainge is trying to do to make our current squad the best he can and leave it up to Doc how to use the parts................thing is RED did all of that with his teams and more.

I'm glad I am old enough to have actually witnessed a small part of it.

beat

David Stern: "He would always accuse me of being too soft on one thing or another, and he did it very colorfully. He would describe some part of the male anatomy that I was missing."

Stern got a dose of Auerbach's feistiness before he joined the NBA. He was a young lawyer defending depositions Auerbach was one his company's clients.

Auerbach's response to a particular question was, "Listen, kid, I'm not going to answer that."

Stern says after some coaxing, Auerbach finally answered the question.

When Stern became NBA commissioner, he found Auerbach to be just as ornery.

"We had an avuncular relationship," Stern says. "He was the uncle and I was the dutiful nephew. He would start each session by saying, 'now listen, stupid.' I thought that was my name as he would explain a basketball subtlety. I got a promotion. I went from 'listen, kid' to 'listen stupid.'."

Even though Auerbach didn't become kinder or gentler, that didn't prevent Stern from turning to him for advice.

"Until this day, when I would talk to him and say talk to me about this," Stern said last fall, "He would say something like, 'listen, stupid. If you raise the hoop, who's going to get the rebounds? The big guys. OK. That's exactly what you're trying avoid, isn't it stupid?'."

Spike - Don't forget that Red also introduced black basketball players and a black head coach into the NBA. Now those were some innovations, seeing past the racism of the 50s and 60s.

worcester

can you please send me your last im again? I accidentally erased ALL my im's

jeb