What I've Learned: Red Auerbach

An interview with Red, Esquire Magazine, in 2000.  I bolded my favorite parts.  I realized I was starting to bold them all, so I backed off a bit.

http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/learned-red-auerbach-1200


November 30, 2000, 10:00 PM
What I've Learned: Red Auerbach

Basketball coach, 83, Washington, DC

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE

 

If you're keeping score, win.

I was a coach who listened. I had guys when I was coaching who were in their thirties, like Cousy, Havlicek, Russell, all those guys. They were very bright. I've got to be stupid, as a coach, not to utilize their intelligence.

I don't ever want a guy to say to me, when I tell him to do something, "Why?"

Power is ego.

Bill Russell was an emotional guy with a great mind. You could fool him once, but you'd never fool him twice.

You play as you practice.

You've got to avoid overcoaching. You've got to avoid talking too much. You've got to avoid showing players that you're the boss every time. You don't have to do that. They know you're in charge.

If you're comfortable in a situation, stick with it.

You got to be lucky. Like, for example, one time in the seventh game of a playoff, somebody took a shot -- I think it was Nelson or Ramsey or Sam -- and it hit the backboard, hit the rim, rolled around, went in, and made me a hell of a coach. You know what I mean?

God? I don't want to go into that.

You want an occasional beer, go ahead. But stay off the hard stuff.

What bugs me quite a bit is to have a coach whose team is twenty points ahead with three minutes to go, and he's up there coaching and moving and making all of those kinds of things [waves hands], and -- why? Because he thinks he's on TV. The game is over. He should sit his ass down and relax.

For every hundred autographs you sign, the one you don't sign, you're a louse.

Eighty percent of the announcers who do color on TV are fired coaches. If they were such experts, why'd they get fired?

The hardest thing to do is win it the second time.

Black, white, or whatever, we didn't give a damn. If you could play, you could play, and that's the way we were.

Look after your people.

Paul Silas had been in the league for about eight or nine years, and we got him in a trade. And after about four months in Boston, he came over to me and he says, "You know, I'd like to say something to you, Coach." I said, "What's that?" He said, "When I was in Phoenix, I always felt that the Celtic mystique and pride was a bunch of crap." He said, "I want you to know that it's the greatest thing I ever saw, and I want you to know that I'm happy to be a part of it." That gave me a great, great thrill.

What I'm learning now is how to take care of myself.

Loyalty is a two-way street.

You know what bothers me? All these ballplayers, they all want to play for contenders. That's bullshit. You play where you're playing and do the best you can and let things work out. It's like coaches. When you get a good coach, whether it be a Phil Jackson or somebody else, what the hell does it take to have a ready-made ball club that's star-studded?

Grandchildren will wear you out.

There's no player today who compares to Bill Russell. As great as Shaq is, it would have been interesting to have Chamberlain knock bodies with him or Russell blocking all his shots. See? Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, John Havlicek, shoot! I mean, John Stockton is a hell of a player, but I don't take him ahead of Cousy.

I never had a set of rules. Every situation is different.

There are ways to gain an edge. I'll give you an example: If you're playing against a fast-breaking team, you put new nets up so the ball won't go through quick. It hangs up. In kickball, you water the field the night before or you let the grass grow. In hockey, you make soft ice if you're playing against a fast team. In baseball, you raise or lower the pitcher's mound according to your pitcher, not their pitcher.

If they think we got an edge, we got an edge.

If you get up in the morning and you say, "Goddamn, I got to go to the office. I got to go to work. How can I get out of this?" and, I mean, you've got that kind of a feeling, you're not happy.

It's a great feeling to be the coach of the best team in the world.

If you don't feel like doing something, don't do it. My cardiologist told me that.



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