The Godfather of Green

938 victories. 9 NBA championships. The architect of the greatest franchise in professional basketball, the Godfather of the NBA, the greatest coach in league history. There are three coaches with more wins (Lenny 'I also have the most losses in league history' Wilkens, Pat 'Backstabber' Riley, and Don 'I was a Celtic so I don't incur the ire of the author' Nelson) and another with the same amount of championships (Phil 'I act like I invented modern basketball coaching when in fact I swooped in on already good teams and Tex Winter was the one who actually implemented the triangle offense' Jackson), but nobody came close to combining Red Auerbach's strategy, gamesmanship, scouting, and love of Chinese food. The stories are legendary:

-Red and Celtics owner Walter Brown traded two All-Stars, Cliff Hagan and Easy Ed Macauley, and two weeks worth of Ice Capades shows (which Brown owned) to the St. Louis Hawks for the draft rights to Bill Russell, the anchor of 11 championship teams.

-In need of a new center after Russell retired, Auerbach sought a replacement through the 1970 draft. Russell recommended that he take a look at Florida State center Dave Cowens. Although undersized at 6'9", Cowens was an excellent rebounder and defender. Red had yet to see him play in person, but he knew that any player he scouted would suddenly move up on his rivals' draft charts. He traveled to a game, stayed for ten minutes, then left grumbling about what a waste of time the excursion had been. Other scouts at the game noted Red's early exit, and quickly wrote off Cowens. In fact, Red had seen plenty and later drafted Cowens, making him the lynchpin of the 70's championship teams.

-The Greatest Trade in NBA History.

-Auerbach pulled out all kinds of tricks for home games. If the weather was hot, he'd instruct the equipment manager to crank up the heat in the visitor's locker room. On the many cold winter days, the windows would be left open, the heat turned off, and wet towels were left for opponents. These less than savory acts and Red's penchant for showing off didn't endear him to opponents. The franchise that the Celtics tormented the most, the Lakers, certainly didn't appreciate his antics. Today's Los Angeles Times article on his passing started off with:

"It was bad enough that the Lakers never beat the Boston Celtics, a string of words Jerry Buss once called "the most odious sentence in all of sport." But did Red Auerbach always have to rub their noses in it?"

As a Celtics fan who grew up in the era of Dino Radja, A.C. Earl, and Greg Minor, it's tough to imagine a time when the Celtics vied with the Yankees for the distinction of being most successful franchise in American pro sports -- 11 out of 13 titles from 1957 to 1969 (including 8 in a row and a 7-0 record against the Lakers in series that mattered), 16 championships in all. But unlike the Yankees, the Celtics always had that tangible, physical presence of the man who started everything. Red Auerbach was the patriarch of a dynasty, a cigar smoking reminder to young 'uns like me that, yes, Celtic glory was a real thing.