9.10.2019

Red Knows Winning

April 17, 1985

RED AUERBACH: A BORN WINNER

Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach, the basketball impresario, is chomping on a cigar. Auerbach, president of the Boston Celtics, is a man of macho mystique who exudes impatient energy and sly charm. During his 17-year (1950-'66) reign as Celtics' coach, his teams won nine world championships. He was coach of All-Star eams for 11 years in a row. Under his leadership as coach, general manager or president, the Celtics have won 19 divisional championships and 15 National Basketball Assn. titles.



New York-born Auerbach, who now lives in Washington, was named to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield in 1968.

Auerbach and his wife of 44 years, the former Dorothy Lewis, have two children, Nancy, 39, and Randy, 33. He graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1940 and, a year later, earned a master's degree in education. He plans to retire this year.

"Some people are born losers. Some people are born winners. Success is often based on luck. I've heard it said that great teams make their own luck. That's only partially true. Luck is the fortune of the gods. It drops in your lap. There is no way to predict it. One time, in a playoff, a guy threw the ball and hit the rim, it went up and hit the edge of the rim again and finally slopped in. After that, they began to call me a great coach. Sure, a win is preceded by blood and sweat. But the ball that I'm talking about was a fortunate ball.

"When a coach wins, he tends to use the personal pronoun, I. 'I won,' he says. When he loses, he says to the team: 'You lost.' Coaches end up a losing season listing all the faults of the players. Then it's predicted the team will finish fourth next season. If it happens to finish second, if they get lucky, everyone thinks they're heroes. Seldom does a coach say: 'Hey, we've got a damn good ballclub. We can win if our key players don't get hurt.' I believe in convincing players they have the ability to execute a win. I've always hated negative approaches.

"I believe if you work hard, if you pay the price to develop your abilities, you've got a shot at success. I was always competitive. See, I was never afraid of losing my job. I kept my job through winning. When I started coaching on the professional level (1946), some team players were my age. These players said: 'I know as much as he does. How can this guy give me orders?' So I told them: 'This is my job. I hired you and I can fire you. If I lose my job, it won't be because of you.'

"I'm not cocky. There's a difference between confidence and cockiness. I'm not a great extrovert away from the job. When you have the courage of your convictions, people call you cocky. If I make a mistake, and I've made many, I admit it. After we've lost certain ballgames, I've gone into the dressing room and it was like a morgue. I've told the guys who were moping there: 'You played a good game. I did a lousy job on the bench.'

"Some coaches love the power and authority of the job. They revel in the idea they hold the future of men in their hands. They like the sound of their own voices. A lot of coaches think they're above making mistakes. They like being on the showboat, like they're on stage.

"My style was always to focus on the players. It takes time to get a player's respect. I always wanted the players to kind of like me. Coaches who are respected are usually disliked. I had to convince players my word was good. I demanded loyalty and I made sure I was prepared to give loyalty back. When a player had a problem, I made it my business to know the problem. Players aren't numbers. They're people. I don't think I've ever given anybody a raw deal, even in a trade. Yet I did what I had to do.

"Coaches have a tendency to get down on players. A player loses. The coach then trades the player just because he's mad at the player. So he gets rid of him. I don't fine my players. Coaches generally use fines as a form of power. If a player isn't deliberately flaunting disdain for my authority, I just don't fine him. I like to think of myself as a boss who has compassion. I don't threaten. There are a lot of rules. But I don't say: 'Damn it, if you do this, I'll do that to you.' I leave it kind of general. I say: 'If you do such-and-such, it's your butt.'

"I never had to convince players that I was the boss. But let me tell you what I tell them. I say: 'Hell, this is no democracy. This is a dictatorship.' I tell them: 'When I tell you to do something, do it. Immediately. Don't ask why.' If a player needs to know 'why,' he can ask me later. Really, though, it's a compassionate dictatorship. But you can't have a debate everytime you suggest a play. See, I want reaction. Damn right I get it. There's a toughness about me, sure. I'm sarcastic. But I do have a sense of humor and a feeling for the humanity of the person.

"I've worked hard all my life. But I don't like coaches who say they live the game 24 hours a day, that the game comes ahead of family. I've heard coaches say: 'I would die if I didn't coach.' Bunk. That's bunk. People adjust. I have sold polyethylene packaging on the side. I did it to distract me from the game, to keep a balance, to give me distance. I've never wanted to be on a narrow track, just live basketball. That's what makes you stale.

"The secret of a successful coach is the ability to communicate. You have to make sure you don't say much but what you say is understood. Some coaches are screamers and yellers. They scream so much that the players automatically turn them off. Very little is absorbed. Oh yeah, I can scream and yell. But I can also change my pace. That's what orators do. There's a time to yell. There's a time to be sarcastic. There's also a time to be funny. And a time to turn it all off, to lower your voice, to say nothing.

"Pressures never bothered me. Maybe it's because I know my competitors are pressured, too. Once, before a big game, I said to the team: 'You nervous? Are your hands wet? What the hell, forget it. Those guys in the next dressing room, the ones you're going to beat, they're nervous, too. They're sweating, too.' All I know is that my team wins.

"I've been married 44 years. My wife is a special woman. My family lives in Washington. My oldest daughter had asthma when she was very young. So the family stayed put in Washington and I went on the road. My wife's primary objective was to see that my kids were raised properly. I've got great kids. She was the traditional wife. She could have had a career of her own. She made me her career.

"When a woman is with a man all the time, constantly, it's a rockier marriage. If I lose a game, I go off and talk to myself. But if I went home, to the family, in a lousy mood and my wife said: 'We have to have dinner with so-and-so,' I'd want to kill her. The plus of a commuter marriage is the time it gives me to unwind. That has been the big plus of living apart."

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