Red

All weekend I thought of Red Auerbach.

I never knew Auerbach as a coach, only as a general manager attempting to configer coach after coach, player after player, into one team after another worthy of his legacy. As a coach--before I reached the age of reason--he won nine championships. As a general manager--after much of the league had caught up to his style of play, his emphasis on team defense, and his indifference to race--his Celtics won seven more.

Funny to watch the arc of a career.

The Celtics dynasty began with Auerbach's drafting of Bill Russell, who won 11 champioships in 13 years. It ended with his drafting of Len Bias, by all accounts the second-most talented player in the history of the ACC (behind Michael Jordan), a swingman who could shoot anywhere off the dribble and jump out of the gym, a talent who could run with the guards and block out with the forwards. Bias was talent who put a Hall-of-Fame career and maybe four NBA championships straight up his nose and into his heart, and was dead sixty hours after the draft.

People have their memories of Auerbach's career. Mine was at home, two days after Len Bias was drafted by the reigning NBA champs, all set to fit in right behind the Celtics' power forward, Kevin McHale, and their everything forward, Larry Bird. My brother Rob heard the news at a pool he was lifeguarding; he ran to a phone and called me and I heard the news and I got in one of my parents' car and just drove and drove.

I had lived through Thurman Munson's death and would one day deal with Corey Lidle's, but this--this was the worst, a death that impacted the history of an entire league. Without Bias, Bill Walton threw himself into Herculean efforts to get in shape to be the sixth man, and broke his ankle. Almost in sympathy, Scott Wedman ripped up his foot. Jerry Sichting, who had relied on his anonymity to throw up his uncontested jumpers, suddenly found himself guarded off the bench, and receded into nothingness. The Celtics' Fab Five (Bird, McHale, Parish, DJ, Ainge), pushed into extra duty, paid the price: McHale playd the season throw with a broken foot, Parish limped through the final two rounds, DJ suffered from four different injuries, Ainge had a bad knee. Larry Bird--"The Overrated Bird," as Isiah Thomas would have it--simply screamed for the ball at every opportunity, playing all 48 minutes of a Game 7 against Detroit in the conference finals, but pushed against his limits, in the end, playing one-against-five against the Lakers.

My point? Without Bias, without Walton, without Wedman, essentially without Sichting, with McHale and Parish on one good foot, Larry Bird and the walking wounded pushed the Lakers to six games.

And these were a great Lakers teams, never forget.

Lots of memories about Auerbach;s teams. That's mine.