Boston Celtics: The legacy of legendary head coach and owner Red Auerbach
The Boston Celtics are a historic franchise that are known for their tradition of winning. Without Red Auerbach, this team may have never been relevant.
The seventeen banners that hang in the rafters. The world-famous parquet floor. These are both iconic structures located inside the TD Garden. Without Red, the Boston Celtics seemed destined for mediocrity, not immortality. Arnold “Red” Auerbach is for the most part responsible for this teams name becoming synonymous with winning championships. The Celtics were not always the first class organization that they are today.
Auerbach won an outstanding nine world championships as the head coach of Boston from 1950-66. He is widely known as someone who was a truly great leader of men. Red knew how to motivate each and every player on his team, he understood that in order to win he would need to keep morale high. Winning was always the ultimate goal for Auerbach and his teams, which is a major reason as to why he was so successful.
As a coach and later an owner, Red was partially responsible for 16 of the 17 Celtics championships. It is impossible to encapsulate the entirety of Auerbach’s impact on this franchise in just one article. He turned this organization around from a mediocre, dying franchise to a consistent contender. His mere presence was enough to inspire his players to not only play well, but play well as a team.
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Red is someone who will never be forgotten. His coaching methods have been used by a countless number of people throughout all of sports and his greatness has led to other all-time great coaches such as Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. Like Auerbach, they realize that the mental side of the game of basketball is very important to being successful as a team. The NBA Coach of the Year Award is even named after Red which magnifies his tremendous influence on the basketball world.
As fans of the Celtics, we should be very thankful that Red Auerbach was alive. He created the winning tradition and culture in Boston, and that is something to be appreciated. Without the basketball genius of Red Auerbach, the Boston Celtics as we know them would not exist.