There have been many coaches that have been labeled with the "genius" tag. Don Shula, Vince Lombardi, Phil Jackson, current Tigers manager Jim Leyland, Bob Knight (as much as he can be a jerk) all come to mind, but there are plenty of others. It's worthwhile, though, to break down the work of a coach into three parts, and consider the genius in each separately.
There's the "X's and O's," or designing plays and a game plan that will defeat an opponent given whatever the talent at his disposal. Of Bear Bryant it was said he "could take hiz'n and beat your'n and then take your'n' and beat hiz'n." Current New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has had, in the past, a remarkable ability to create defenses that limit the damage that Peyton Manning can do. Maybe the best example was Bill Walsh of the 49'ers.
Then there are the inspirational leaders, the guy that can get his team to run through a brick wall, to come out breathing fire and letting nothing stand in their way. Of course, it's a lot easier to accomplish this if you've taken care of business on the "X and O" and preparation side of things, so the team has confidence in the game plan. Pat Summit at Tennessee and Bob Knight probably fall here more. George Halas and Vince Lombardi definitely had this as well.
Finally there's the architect, the coach that assembles the team, building it in a way that churns out championships. Currently most coaches don't have this responsibility; the job falls to general managers and player personnel directors and directors of scouting. In the past, though, before the finances of player procurement became unmanageable for a coach alone, it was often the coach who did it. And no coach ever did that part of the job better than Arnold "Red" Auerbach of the Boston Celtics, who passed away last night at 89.
The stories will tell you that he got Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Dave Cowens, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge and others, and may even tell you that Bird was drafted as a "junior eligible" a year before he came out. It's worthwhile to keep these acquisitions as a group, and remember how each one happened. You do it once or twice and it could be luck. If you do it over and over and over, well, it's not luck.
Auerbach had a reputation as a keen judge of talent, seemingly always getting the best of trades with fellow coaches and general managers.
In 1956, he traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to St. Louis for the Hawks' first-round pick and ended up with Russell - probably the greatest defensive center of all time and the heart of 11 championship teams.
In 1978, he drafted Bird in the first round even though he would have to wait a year before Bird could become a professional.
Before the 1980 draft, the Celtics traded the No. 1 overall selection to Golden State for Parish and the No. 3 pick. The Warriors took Joe Barry Carroll. The Celtics chose McHale.
In 1981, Boston chose Brigham Young guard Danny Ainge in the second round. Ainge was playing baseball in the Toronto Blue Jays organization at the time, but was freed after a court battle to play for the Celtics.
In June 1983, another one-sided deal brought guard Dennis Johnson from Phoenix for seldom-used backup center Rick Robey.
Bill Russell had led the University of San Francisco to consecutive national championships, along with a guard named KC Jones - who also ended up a Celtic. Cliff Hagan and "Easy" Ed McCauley were solid NBA players already. Yet both were traded for the chance to draft a 6'9" college center, Russell. In the thirteen years he played, the same era that Wilt Chamberlain played, the Celtics won 11 NBA titles.
That Celtics team that Russell joined already had a slick-passing point guard named Bob Cousy. And who drafted Cousy? Auerbach did, as coach of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in 1950, then managed to acquire him for the Celtics when he became their coach later in the year.
Russell retired after the 1968-69 season, and the Celtics were in need of a center. This was the era of Wilt, Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bob Lanier. Red Auerbach drafted a 6'9" white center out of Florida State in the first round in 1970, one whose main asset was he worked his butt off for 48 minutes every game. That guy, Dave Cowens, was the NBA's co- Rookie of the Year in 1971 and MVP in 1973, and the Celtics added two more championships in '74 and '76.
The building blocks for the championship teams of the 1980's were all obtained shrewdly. We'll touch on the frontcourt. Larry Bird had initially enrolled at Indiana, coached by Bob Knight, as a 6'4" guard, but left after a month. He later enrolled at Indiana State, but had to sit out a year for transferring, then was able to play three college seasons from '76-'79. Now a 6'9" forward, Bird was drafted by Auerbach after the second of these seasons, his junior year, as his initial enrollment at Indiana had been a full four years earlier. Auerbach managed to get him signed after his ISU team's magical run to the title game against Magic Johnson's Michigan State team in 1979 and before the next NBA draft took place.
The biggest steal, perhaps, was the acquisition of both Kevin McHale and Robert Parish for, essentially, Joe Barry Carroll. Carroll was an offensively skilled 7 foot center from Purdue and widely regarded as the top player in the draft in 1980. Robert Parish was also a seven-footer, from Centenary, and had been in the league for four undistiguished years. Auerbach traded the first and 13th picks for the third pick and Parish. The third pick became McHale. As for Carroll, he put up some good numbers in the NBA ... but it wasn't numbers that Auerbach wanted.
I could go on, but I suspect this is plenty of evidence. Red Auerbach had the "X's and O's" thing down, and obviously he could motivate his players. But his genius really lay in knowing exactly what types of players he needed, and for getting them. This is one of those "end of an era" passings, and those who follow Celtics basketball, as I obviously do, will remember it vividly.
Red was famous for lighting up a cigar when the game's outcome was decided in the Celtics favor.
As the Celtics' routinely whipped the opposition, Red would frequently sit back and enjoy the end of the game--always with a cigar. "I smoked all different cigars at that time," he says. "Sometimes fans would give me some. I did TV promotions for King Edwards." Hence, the "victory cigar." "It all boils down to this. I used to hate these college coaches or any coach that was 25 points ahead with three minutes left to go, and they're up there yellin' and coachin' because they're on TV, and they want their picture on, and they get recognition. To me the game was over. The day's work is done. Worry about the next game. This game is over. So I would light a cigar and sit on the bench and just watch it..."
I've collected some sports memorabilia over the years. One of the items in my collection is an Auerbach-signed cigar box. It doesn't get much better than that. And, no, it's not for sale.
Comments