# Red Auerbach

Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He was a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. Auerbach also served as the head coach of the Washington Capitols and Tri-Cities Blackhawks. As a coach, Auerbach set NBA records with 938 wins and nine championships. After his coaching retirement in 1966, he served as president and front-office executive of the Boston Celtics until his death. As general manager and team president of the Celtics, he won an additional seven NBA titles for a total of 16 in 29 years, the most of any individual in NBA history, making him one of the most successful team officials in the history of North American professional sports.
Auerbach introduced the fast break strategy as an offensive tool. He coached numerous players who went on to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Auerbach also played a key role in combating racial discrimination in the NBA. He made history by drafting the first African-American NBA player, Chuck Cooper, introducing the first African-American starting five,and hiring Bill Russell to be the first African-American head coach in North American sports in 1966. Auerbach was also well known for smoking a cigar when he thought a victory was assured, a habit that came to be known as "the ultimate symbol of victory" during his tenure in Boston.
In 1967, the NBA Coach of the Year award, which he won in 1965, was renamed the "Red Auerbach Trophy." Auerbach was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1970, Auerbach was named president of the Celtics and first held the presidency from 1970 to 1997. In 2001, after spending four years as the team's vice-chairman, he returned to the role of team president and served in that capacity until his death in 2006 at the age of 89. In 1980, he was named the greatest coach in the history of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America, and was NBA Executive of the Year in 1980. In addition, Auerbach was voted one of the NBA 10 Greatest Coaches in history, inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and honored with a retired number 2 jersey at TD Garden, the Celtics home.

## Early life

Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on September 20, 1917. Auerbach was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant from Minsk, Russia, and Marie Auerbach, née Thompson, was American-born. Auerbach Sr. had left Russia when he was thirteen, and the couple owned a delicatessen store and later went into the dry-cleaning business. Auerbach spent his childhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, playing basketball. Thanks to his flaming red hair and fiery temper, Auerbach was nicknamed "Red."
Amid the Great Depression, Auerbach played basketball as a guard at PS 122 and in the Eastern District High School, where he was named "Second Team All-Brooklyn" by the World-Telegram in his senior year.

## College career

After a season at Seth Low Junior College, Auerbach received an athletic scholarship to play for George Washington Revolutionaries men's basketball in Washington, D.C. Auerbach was a standout basketball player and graduated with an M.A. in 1941. In those years, Auerbach began to develop the technique known as the fast break.

## Coaching career
### St. Albans School (1941)

In 1941, Auerbach began coaching basketball at the St. Albans School.

### Roosevelt High School (1941–1943)

Auerbach coached at Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C. for two years. Two years later, he joined the US Navy for three years, coaching the Navy basketball team in Norfolk.

### Washington Capitols (1946–1949)

At the US Navy, Auerbach caught the eye of Washington millionaire Mike Uline, who hired him to coach the Washington Capitols in the newly founded Basketball Association of America (BAA), a predecessor of the NBA.
In the 1946–47 BAA season, Auerbach led a fast break-oriented team built around early BAA star Bones McKinney and various ex-Navy players to a 49–11 win–loss record, including a standard-setting 17-game winning streak that stood as the single-season league record until 1969. In the playoffs, however, they were defeated by the Chicago Stags in six games.
The following year the Capitols went 28–20 but were eliminated from the playoffs in a one-game Western Division tie-breaker. In the 1948–49 BAA season, the Caps won their first fifteen games and finished at 38–22. The team reached the BAA Finals but were beaten by the Minneapolis Lakers, who were led by Hall of Fame center George Mikan. In the following season, the BAA and the rival league the National Basketball League merged to become the NBA, and Auerbach felt he had to rebuild his squad. However, owner Uline declined his proposals, and Auerbach resigned.
After leaving the Capitols, Auerbach became assistant coach of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. It was assumed that Auerbach would take over for head coach Gerry Gerard, who was battling cancer. During his tenure at Duke, Auerbach regularly worked with future All-American Dick Groat. Auerbach later wrote that he "felt pretty bad waiting for [Gerard] to die" and that it was "no way to get a job".

### Tri-Cities Blackhawks (1949–1950)

Auerbach left Duke after a few months when Ben Kerner, owner of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, gave him the green light to rebuild the team from scratch. Auerbach traded more than two dozen players in just six weeks. The revamped Blackhawks improved but ended the 1949–50 NBA season with a losing record of 28–29. When Kerner traded Auerbach's favorite player John Mahnken, an angry Auerbach resigned.
In 1950, Auerbach took a position as the athletic director of Kutsher's Hotel in the Catskills, NY. Kutsher's was the center of a summertime basketball league, and players from the New York City area would participate, playing for one of several local country clubs and hotels.

### Boston Celtics (1950–1966)

Before the 1950–51 NBA season, Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics, was desperate to turn around his struggling and financially strapped franchise, which was reeling from a 22–46 record. Brown, in characteristic candor, said to a gathering of local Boston sportswriters, "Boys, I don't know anything about basketball. Who would you recommend I hire as a coach?" The group vociferously answered that he got the recently available Auerbach and Brown complied. In the 1950 NBA draft, Auerbach made some notable moves. First, he famously snubbed future Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy in the 1950 NBA draft, infuriating the Boston area. He argued the flashy Cousy lacked the poise necessary to make his team, taunting him as a "local yokel". Second, he drafted African American Chuck Cooper, the first black player to be drafted by an NBA club. With that, Auerbach effectively broke down the color barrier in professional basketball.
In that year, the core of the Celtics consisted of Hall-of-Fame center Ed Macauley, Auerbach's old favorite McKinney, and an unlikely addition, Cousy. Cousy had refused to report to the club that had drafted him (which happened to be the Blackhawks, Auerbach's old club), and because his next team (the Chicago Stags) folded, he ended up with the Celtics. With Auerbach's fast-break tactics, the Celtics achieved a 39–30 record but lost in the 1951 NBA Playoffs to the New York Knicks. However, the relationship between Auerbach and Cousy improved when the coach saw that the "Houdini of the Hardwood"—as the spectacular dribbler and flashy passer Cousy was lovingly called—became the first great playmaker of the fledgling NBA.
In the following 1951–52 NBA season, Auerbach made a remarkable draft pick of future Hall of Fame guard Bill Sharman. With the high-scoring Macauley, elite passer Cousy, and new prodigy Sharman, Auerbach had a core that provided high-octane fast-break basketball. Other notable players who joined the Celtics were the forwards Frank Ramsey and Jim Loscutoff. Until 1956, the Celtics would make the playoffs every year, but never won a title. The Celtics often choked in the playoffs, going 10–17 in the postseason from 1951 through 1956. As Cousy put it: "We would get tired in the end and could not get the ball." As a result, Auerbach sought a defensive big man who could get easy rebounds, initiate fast breaks, and close out games.
Before the 1956 NBA draft, Auerbach had already set his sights on defensive rebounding center Bill Russell. Via a draft-day trade that sent Macauley and rookie Cliff Hagan to the rival St. Louis Hawks (Kerner had moved the Blackhawks to St. Louis), he acquired a center in Russell. In the same draft, Auerbach also picked up the forward Tom Heinsohn and guard K.C. Jones, an additional two future Hall of Famers. Emphasizing team play rather than individual performances, and stressing that defense was more important than offense, Auerbach drilled his players to play tough defense and force opposing turnovers for easy fast-break points. Forward Tom Sanders recalled, "defense and conditioning were the best parts of those teams".
Anchored by defensive stalwart Russell, the tough Celtics forced their opponents to take low-percentage shots from farther distances (there was no three-point arc at the time); misses were then often grabbed by perennial rebounding champion Russell, who then either passed it on to elite fast-break distributor Cousy or made the outlet pass himself, providing their sprinting colleague's opportunities for an easy slam dunk or layup. Auerbach also emphasized the need for role players like Frank Ramsey and John Havlicek, who became two of the first legitimate sixth men in NBA history, a role later played by Don Nelson. Auerbach's recipe proved devastating to the opposition. From 1957 to 1966, the Celtics won nine of ten NBA championships. This included eight consecutive championships— the longest championship streak in North American sports—and six victories over the Los Angeles Lakers of Hall-of-Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in the NBA Finals. The streak also denied perennial scoring and rebounding champion Wilt Chamberlain a title during Auerbach's coaching reign.
Flowing from Auerbach's emphasis on teamwork, what was also striking about his teams was that they never seemed to have a dominant scorer: in the 1960–61 NBA season, for instance, the Celtics had six players who scored between 15 and 21 points per game, but none made the Top 10 scoring list. In 1964, he sent out the first-ever NBA starting five consisting of an African-American quintet, namely Russell, Willie Naulls, Tom Sanders, Sam Jones, and K. C. Jones. Auerbach would go a step further in the 1966–67 NBA season, when he stepped down after winning nine titles in 11 years and made Bill Russell player-coach. Auerbach also popularized smoking a victory cigar whenever he thought a game was already decided, a habit that became cult-like in popularity in the Boston area. Furthermore, having acquired a reputation as a fierce competitor, he often got into verbal altercations with officials, receiving more fines and getting ejected more often than any other coach in NBA history.
All in all, Auerbach directly coached nine NBA championship teams and mentored four players—Russell, Sharman, Heinsohn, and K.C. Jones—who would go on to win an additional seven NBA championships as coaches (two each for Russell, Heinsohn and Jones, all with the Celtics, and one for Sharman with the Lakers). Thirteen players who played for Auerbach have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame—Macauley, Ramsey, Cousy, Sharman, Heinsohn, Clyde Lovellette, Arnie Risen, Andy Phillip, John R. Thompson (as a coach), Russell, K. C. Jones, Havlicek, and Sam Jones. Although Don Nelson played for Auerbach only during his last year as coach, his influence was profound: Nelson would later join Auerbach as one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in NBA history. Sharman, Heinsohn, and Russell would become three of only five people to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
Before the 1965–66 NBA season, Auerbach announced the coming year would be his last as coach, stating to the rest of the league, "This is your chance to take your last shot at me." After losing game 1 of the 1966 finals to the Lakers in overtime, he publicly named his successor, center Bill Russell. The Celtics won the series in seven games, sending Auerbach out on top.

## Executive career
### Boston Celtics (1966–2006)

Russell then took over as a player-coach, and so became the first African-American head coach ever in the four major North American professional team sports. While his pupil led the Celtics to two additional titles in 1968 and 1969, Auerbach rebuilt the aging Celtics with shrewd draft picks, namely future Hall-of-Famers Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White, as well as Paul Westphal and Don Chaney. With ex-player Tom Heinsohn coaching the Celtics and led by former sixth man John Havlicek, Auerbach's recruits won the Atlantic Division every year from 1972 to 1976, winning the NBA title in 1974 and 1976. Auerbach also signed veteran forward/center Paul Silas and ex-ABA star Charles Scott.
However, Auerbach could not prevent the Celtics from going into a slump at the end of the 1970s. He traded away both Silas and Westphal because they wanted salary increases that would have made them higher earners than the best player on the Celtics (Cowens), which was not acceptable to Auerbach. While the Westphal trade to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Charlie Scott was considered a success due to the Celtics' 13th title in 1976, Auerbach later admitted he erred in letting Silas go, even after Cowens personally begged him to give Silas a new deal. When Havlicek retired in 1978, the Celtics went 61–103 in two seasons. In the summer of 1978, after the worst in a string of contentious clashes with several different owners after Walter Brown's passing in 1964, Auerbach hopped into a taxi to take him to Logan Airport, where he was to board a flight to New York to consider a lucrative contract offer from Knicks owner Sonny Werblin. However, the cab driver pleaded with him to stay, emphasizing how much Bostonians loved him and considered him family. Soon after, heading a team press conference, and with his typical bravado, Auerbach puffed on his trademark cigar and stated, "I'm not going anywhere. We're going to sign Larry Bird, and we're going to be on top again." Despite knowing that Bird, a talented young player from unheralded Indiana State, had a year of college eligibility remaining, he had drafted Bird as a junior eligible in the 1978 NBA draft. He waited for a year until the future Hall of Fame forward Bird arrived, finally setting aside his team salary rules when it became clear that his choices were paying Bird a record-setting rookie salary or watch him re-enter the 1979 draft. Bird then became the highest-paid Celtic as a rookie, with a $650,000-per-year deal. Auerbach knew the brilliant, hard-working Bird would be the cornerstone of a new Celtics generation.
In 1980, Auerbach pulled off what became known as "The Steal of The Century". He convinced the Golden State Warriors to trade him a #3 overall pick and future Hall-of-Fame center Robert Parish in exchange for two picks in the 1980 NBA draft: #1 overall Joe Barry Carroll and the #13 pick Rickey Brown. With the #3 pick, Auerbach selected the player he most wanted in the draft, Kevin McHale, who would also be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Parish-McHale-Bird frontcourt became one of the greatest in NBA history. Auerbach also hired head coach Bill Fitch, who led the revamped Celtics to the 1981 title.
In 1983, Auerbach named former Celtics player K.C. Jones as the coach. Starting in 1984, Jones coached the Celtics to four straight appearances in the NBA Finals, winning championships in 1984 and 1986.
Auerbach, as a part-time side gig, was the color analyst on NBA and college basketball games for TBS sports from 1982 to 1987.
In 1984, after he relinquished his general managing duties to Jan Volk, Auerbach focused on continuing as president and later vice-chairman of the Boston Celtics. In a surprising move after winning their 15th title, he traded popular guard Gerald Henderson, the game-2 hero in the finals against the Lakers, for Seattle's first-round draft pick in 1986. Two years later, after the Celtics defeated Houston in the finals for their 16th championship, he used the second overall pick in the 1986 draft, the pick acquired from Seattle, to take college prodigy Len Bias from Maryland, arguably the most brilliant coup in Auerbach's stellar career. With the team's star players still in their prime, the defending champions appeared set to compete at the top for years. However, tragedy struck just two days later, when Bias died of a cocaine overdose. Several years later, Celtics star player Reggie Lewis died suddenly in 1993. Without any league compensation for either loss, the team fell into decline, not seeing another Finals in Auerbach's lifetime.
In an interview, Auerbach confessed that he lost interest in big-time managing in the early 1990s, preferring to stay in the background and concentrating on his pastimes, racquetball and his beloved cigar-smoking. He would, however, stay on with the Celtics as president until 1997, as vice chairman until 2001, and then became president again, a position he held until his death, although, in his final years, he was weakened by heart problems and often used a wheelchair.

## Personal life

Auerbach was one of four children of American-born Marie Auerbach and Russian Jewish immigrant Hyman Auerbach in Brooklyn. His brother Zang Auerbach, 4 years his junior, was a respected cartoonist and portraitist at the Washington Star. Zang also helped create the iconic Boston Celtics leprechaun logo. He married Dorothy Lewis in the spring of 1941. The couple had two daughters, Nancy and Randy. They also helped raise Nancy's daughter Julie.
Auerbach was known for his love of cigar smoking. Due to his affinity for victory cigars in the 1960s, Boston restaurants often said "No cigar or pipe smoking, except for Red Auerbach". In addition, Auerbach was well known for his love of Chinese food. In an interview shortly before his death, he explained that since the 1950s, Chinese takeout was the most convenient nutrition: NBA teams used to travel on regular flights and had a tight schedule, so filling up the stomach with heavier non-Chinese food meant wasting time and risking travel-sickness. Over the years, Auerbach became so fond of this food that he even became a part-owner of a Chinese restaurant in Boston. Despite a heart operation, he remained active in his 80s, playing racquetball and making frequent public appearances.
Despite his fierce nature, Auerbach was popular among his players. He recalled that at his 75th birthday party, 45 of his former players showed up; and when he turned 80, his perennial 1960s-era foe Wilt Chamberlain showed up, a gesture Auerbach dearly appreciated.
In an interview with ESPN, Auerbach stated that his all-star fantasy team would consist of Bill Russell—who in the former's opinion was the ultimate player to start a franchise with—as well as Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, with John Havlicek as the sixth man. As for the greatest basketballers of all time, Auerbach's candidates were Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan. Auerbach made multiple such "all-time" rankings over the years, with his last one being in June 2006, months before his death. Auerbach talked about his fictional team with journalist Ken Shouler which featured the following: Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain, and Russell at center; Bird, Erving, Pettit, and Baylor at forward; and Robertson, Jordan, Havlicek, Johnson, and Cousy at guard.

### Death

Auerbach died of a heart attack on October 28, 2006, at the age of 89. NBA commissioner David Stern said, "The void caused by his death will never be filled" and players Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, John Havlicek and Larry Bird, as well as contemporaries like Jerry West, Pat Riley, and Wayne Embry universally hailed Auerbach as one of the greatest personalities in NBA history. Bird stated "Red shared our passion for the game, our commitment to excellence, and our desire to do whatever it takes to win." Auerbach was survived by his daughters, Nancy, Randy, Julie, and Julie's children Peter, Hope, and Noelle. Auerbach was interred in Falls Church, Virginia at King David Memorial Gardens within National Memorial Park on October 31, 2006. Attendees included basketball dignitaries Bill Russell, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, and David Stern.
During the 2006–07 NBA season, NBA TV and NBA.com aired reruns of Auerbach's four-minute instructional videos known as "Red on Roundball" previously aired during NBA on CBS halftime shows in the 1970s and 1980s, and as a testament to his importance in the Boston sports world, the Boston Red Sox honored Auerbach at their April 20, 2007 game against the New York Yankees by wearing green uniforms and by hanging replicated Celtics championship banners on the "Green Monster" at Fenway Park. Boston won 7–6.
Before Boston's season opener against the Wizards, his signature was officially placed on the parquet floor near center court, thereby naming the court as "Red Auerbach Parquet Floor". The ceremony was attended by his daughter Randy and some of the Celtics legends. The signature replaced the Red Auerbach memorial logo used during the 2007 season.

## Writing

Auerbach was the author of seven books. His first, Basketball for the Player, the Fan and Coach, has been translated into seven languages and is the best-selling basketball book in print. His second book, co-authored with Paul Sann, was Winning the Hard Way. He also wrote a pair of books with Joe Fitzgerald: Red Auerbach: An Autobiography and Red Auerbach On and Off the Court. In October 1991 M.B.A.: Management by Auerbach was co-authored with Ken Dooley. In 1994, Seeing Red was written with Dan Shaughnessy. In October 2004, his last book, Let Me Tell You a Story, was co-authored with sports journalist John Feinstein.

## Legacy

Among Auerbach's accomplishments during his 20-year professional coaching career were eleven Eastern Division titles (including nine in a row from 1957 to 1965), eleven appearances in the finals (including ten in a row from 1957 to 1966), and nine NBA championships. With a total of sixteen NBA championship rings in 29 years (1957–86) as the Celtics coach, general manager, and team president, Auerbach is the most successful team official in NBA history. He is credited with creating several generations of championship Boston Celtics teams, including the first Celtics dynasty with Bill Russell, which won an NBA record eight titles in a row (1959–66). As Celtics general manager, he created championship-winning teams around Hall-of-Famers Dave Cowens and John Havlicek in the 1970s and Larry Bird in the 1980s.
In addition to coaching, Auerbach was a highly effective mentor; several players coached by Auerbach became successful coaches. Bill Russell won two titles as Auerbach's successor, Tom Heinsohn won a pair of championships as a Celtics coach in the 1970s, K.C. Jones led the Celtics to two further titles in the 1980s, and Bill Sharman coached the Los Angeles Lakers to their first title in 1972. In addition, prototypical sixth man Don Nelson had a highly successful coaching career and joined his mentor Auerbach as one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in NBA history. Outside the NBA, former Auerbach pupil John Thompson became a highly successful college coach with the Georgetown Hoyas, leading the team to the 1984 NCAA championship and mentored Hall of Fame players Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, and Allen Iverson.
Throughout his coaching tenure in Boston, Auerbach served several other roles including, but not limited to, general manager, head of scouting, personnel director, and travel agent. In the early off-seasons, he would take the Celtics on barnstorming tours around New England, promoting the still fledgling NBA. At the end of every season, regardless of their on-court success, he approached owner Brown and asked, "Walter, are our last paychecks going to clear?" to which Brown would always positively respond, and they would. Despite Brown's close association with the NHL's Boston Bruins, whose owners also possessed the Boston Garden, the Celtics were fleeced on concessions and profits as tenants. During this era, when most team owners not only thought of but also treated their players as cattle, athletes from all four major professional sports leagues were fighting for their rights and economic fairness. As Auerbach represented the management of the Celtics, team members frustrated with their salaries had only him to complain to, or about, in their role in the players' union. These interpersonal dynamics are construed as follows by journalist David Halberstam:
   The hard core of the union came from the Celtics. That was not surprising; Red Auerbach went after the players of the highest intelligence and character, and then of course paid them horribly. That made the Celtics a mass of contradictions. They had a great team spirit, personal loyalty to each other, respect and love for Auerbach, who had created this unique institution and honored each of them by making him a part of it, and then of course great anger at him for paying them so little.
Auerbach was known for his firm stance in contract negotiations, typically starting discussions with what he considered a fair offer and maintaining his position throughout the process. In the summer of 1984, Auerbach signed former finals MVP Cedric Maxwell to a lucrative guaranteed contract to stay with the Celtics. Auerbach faced a setback when Maxwell arrived that fall out of shape and, suffering from injuries, contributed little as the team was defeated by the Lakers in the 1985 Finals. Two key events followed: Auerbach traded Maxwell to San Diego in exchange for former MVP Bill Walton, who played a significant role in winning its 16th title in 1986, the last championship during Auerbach's tenure. Second, Maxwell remains a respected figure within the Celtics organization, with his number retired alongside other notable players.
In Auerbach's honor, the Celtics retired a number-2 jersey with his name, recognizing his significant contributions to the franchise, second only to founder Walter Brown, who is honored with the number-1 'BROWN' jersey.
His story is portrayed in the 2006 documentary The First Basket. It focuses on the history of Jews in Basketball. He is also featured as an interview subject for the film.

### Coaching pioneer

From his early days, Auerbach was convinced that the fast break, where a team used a quick outlet pass to fast guards who ran downcourt and scored before the opponent had re-established position, was a potent tactical weapon. This new strategy proved lethal for the opposition. Further, Auerbach moved the emphasis away from individual accolades to teamwork. He also invented the concept of the role player and the sixth man, stating: "Individual honors are nice, but no Celtic has ever gone out of his way achieving them. We have never had the league's top scorer. We won seven league championships without placing even one among the league's top 10 scorers. Our pride was never rooted in statistics."
While Auerbach was not known for his tactical bandwidth, famously restricting his teams to just seven plays, he was well known for his psychological warfare, often provoking opposing players and officials with unabashed trash talk. For his fiery temper, he was ejected more often and received more fines than any other coach in NBA history. Age did nothing to diminish his fire; in 1983, after star Larry Bird was ejected from a preseason game against Philadelphia at the Garden along with the Sixers' role player Marc Iavaroni, Auerbach stormed onto the court and after taking the officials to task, screamed nose-to-nose with the 6'10" 260-pound Moses Malone. Concerning his own team, Auerbach was softer. Earl Lloyd, the first black player to play in the NBA, said: "Red Auerbach convinced his players that he loved them ... so all they wanted to do was please him."

### No color barrier

Auerbach was known for choosing players for talent and motivation, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. In 1950, he made NBA history by drafting the league's first African-American player Chuck Cooper. He constantly added new black players to his squad, including Bill Russell, Satch Sanders, Sam Jones, K. C. Jones, and Willie Naulls. In 1964, these five players became the first African-American starting five in the NBA. When Auerbach gave up coaching to become the Celtics general manager in 1966, he appointed Bill Russell his successor. Russell became the first black NBA coach and was the first black coach of a professional sports organization since Fritz Pollard in 1925. As the Celtics general manager in the 1980s, Auerbach fielded an earnest, hardworking team derided as being "too white". While the 1980s Celtics were not predominantly white or black, the NBA at the time was predominately black. White players like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, and Bill Walton played alongside Tiny Archibald, Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish, and Cedric Maxwell to bring three more championships in the 1980s under coaches Bill Fitch (white) and Jones (black).

### Arnold "Red" Auerbach Award

To honor Auerbach, the Celtics created the Arnold "Red" Auerbach Award in 2006. It is an annual award to the current Celtic player or coach who "best exemplifies the spirit and meaning of a true Celtic."

### NBA Coach of the Year Award

The NBA gives out an annual coach of the year award to honor the league's best coach as voted by a panel of sportswriters. The trophy is named the Red Auerbach Trophy, which depicts a figure of Auerbach sitting on a bench.

## NBA coach statistics

| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
| Washington | 1946–47 | 60 | 49 | 11 | .817 | 1st in Eastern | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | Lost in BAA semifinals |
| Washington | 1947–48 | 48 | 28 | 20 | .583 | 2nd in Western (tie) | - | - | - | – | Lost division tiebreaker |
| Washington | 1948–49 | 60 | 38 | 22 | .633 | 2nd in Eastern | 2 | 6 | 5 | .000 | Lost in BAA Finals |
| Tri-Cities | 1949–50 | 57 | 28 | 29 | .491 | 2nd in Eastern | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | Lost in Division semifinals |
| Boston | 1950–51 | 69 | 39 | 30 | .565 | 2nd in Eastern | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | Lost in Division semifinals |
| Boston | 1951–52 | 66 | 39 | 27 | .591 | 2nd in Eastern | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | Lost in Division semifinals |
| Boston | 1952–53 | 71 | 46 | 25 | .648 | 3rd in Eastern | 6 | 3 | 3 | .500 | Lost in Division finals |
| Boston | 1953–54 | 72 | 42 | 30 | .583 | 3rd in Eastern | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | Lost in Division finals |
| Boston | 1954–55 | 72 | 36 | 36 | .500 | 4th in Eastern | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | Lost in Division finals |
| Boston | 1955–56 | 72 | 39 | 33 | .542 | 2nd in Eastern | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | Lost in Division semifinals |
| Boston | 1956–57 | 72 | 44 | 28 | .611 | 1st in Eastern | 10 | 7 | 3 | .700 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1957–58 | 72 | 49 | 23 | .681 | 1st in Eastern | 11 | 6 | 5 | .545 | Lost in NBA Finals |
| Boston | 1958–59 | 72 | 52 | 20 | .722 | 1st in Eastern | 11 | 8 | 3 | .727 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1959–60 | 75 | 59 | 16 | .787 | 1st in Eastern | 13 | 8 | 5 | .615 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1960–61 | 79 | 57 | 22 | .722 | 1st in Eastern | 10 | 8 | 2 | .800 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1961–62 | 80 | 60 | 20 | .750 | 1st in Eastern | 14 | 8 | 6 | .571 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1962–63 | 80 | 58 | 22 | .725 | 1st in Eastern | 13 | 8 | 5 | .615 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1963–64 | 80 | 59 | 21 | .738 | 1st in Eastern | 10 | 8 | 2 | .800 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1964–65 | 80 | 62 | 18 | .775 | 1st in Eastern | 12 | 8 | 4 | .667 | Won NBA Championship |
| Boston | 1965–66 | 80 | 54 | 26 | .675 | 2nd in Eastern | 17 | 11 | 6 | .647 | Won NBA Championship |
| Career | | 1417 | 938 | 479 | .662 | | 168 | 99 | 69 | .589 |