GREATEST COACH EVER? GREATEST COACH EVER? Blog: Was Red Auerbach the greatest coach in the history of American sports? PHOTO GALLERY PHOTO GALLERY Red Auerbach 1917-2006: Look through the late Celtics coach's extraordinary career in pictures REFLECTIONS ON RED REFLECTIONS ON RED Legend passes at 89: Celtics and NBA lose indomitable figure and social pioneer Audio: USA TODAY remembers the Hall of Fame career of the legendary Celtics coach Appreciation: Red taught respect and fairness Different sides to late coach: Celtics leader could be both gruff and endearing Who's saying what: Basketball world reacts to death of pioneer AUERBACH TIMELINE AUERBACH TIMELINE Sept. 20, 1917: Born Arnold Jacob Auerbach in Brooklyn, N.Y. 1946-47: Coaches Washington Capitols (Basketball Association of America) to league-best 49-11 record. 1949: Quits Capitols and accepts job as coach of Duke University but soon leaves to take over NBA's Tri-Cities Blackhawks for one year. It is only losing season (28-29) of coaching career. Aug. 27, 1950: Named head coach of Boston Celtics for reported $10,000. Leads them to 39-30 record and first playoff appearance. June 30, 1950: Makes Chuck Cooper NBA's first black player drafted. April 29, 1956: Trades Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to St. Louis for Hawks' first-round pick. With that selection, Celtics choose Bill Russell. April 13, 1957: Wins first of his nine championships, vs. St. Louis Hawks in double OT of Game 7. April 9, 1959: Captures second overall title and first of eight in row (1959-66). 1963-64: Starts Russell, Tom Sanders, Willie Naulls, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, first all-black starting five. April 28, 1966: Wins ninth and final title as coach; becomes general manager full time. 1966: Names Russell the first black head coach in major American sports. May 2, 1968: Wins first of seven titles (1968, '69, '74, '76, '81, '84, '86) with teams he built solely as GM. April 13, 1969: Inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame. June 9 1978: Drafts Indiana State forward Larry Bird (sixth overall) a year before Bird is eligible in NBA. 1980: Named greatest coach in history of NBA by Professional Basketball Writers Association of America. June 9, 1980: Trades first and 13th overall draft picks to Golden State for center Robert Parish and third overall pick. Selects forward Kevin McHale to form, with Bird, one of most dominant frontcourts. July 11, 1984: Steps down as GM, serves as president into mid-1990s. Jan. 4, 1985: No. 2 is retired by Celtics in his honor. October 2002: Again named president, a position he held until he died. Sources: USA TODAY research, The Boston Globe Basketball legend Auerbach dies The NBA lost one of its icons Saturday when Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C. Auerbach, 89, had been in failing health in recent years and had been in and out hospitals with unspecified health problems that his family requested not be made public. Auerbach was part of the NBA from its inception in 1946. He coached 11 Hall of Famers and was one the most influential figures the league has known. He set the standard for coaches and personnel directors with his keen eye for talent and his innovative thinking as he had a role in all the Boston Celtics' record 16 NBA titles as a coach or team executive. "He was always intensely focused on the game, the game, the game and the respect people have to have for the game," NBA commissioner David Stern said. Auerbach is seventh all-time among NBA coaches with 938 victories and is credited with several innovations that have become league staples. He created the sixth man role with Frank Ramsey filling it originally, and he was the first NBA coach to place a premium on defense. In the early days of the league, coaches wanted stars who could fill their arenas. That meant high-scoring players. Auerbach bucked that trend in 1956 when he orchestrated a trade with the St. Louis Hawks to acquire Bill Russell, a defensive center from the University of San Francisco. Russell became the cornerstone of the Celtics championship teams of the '50s and '60s. "He was certainly one of the most outstanding coaches, general managers and, for that matter, characters that came the NBA's way," said Satch Sanders, who played on eight championship teams with the Celtics and later coached them. "It was his ability to be so far ahead of the game that set him apart. He went after players who could play other parts of game, rebound, defend," Sanders said. "That put him years ahead of everybody else." Auerbach also went after players from winning college programs. He believed "if you had guys who averaged 25, 30 points and not used to winning, his thinking might be different than guys from a winning tradition," Sanders said. With Auerbach as the patriarch, the Celtics were more like a family than a team. "The first thing he did was make sure everybody was talking to each other," Celtics TV analyst and former player and coach Tom Heinsohn said. "He got you where you believed that the Celtics were basketball's Costa Nostra and that it was our thing." Auerbach once proclaimed "The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team. They are a way of life," and even today the prevailing attitude among athletes who've played for Boston is once a Celtic, always a Celtic. "He meant everything to all of us," Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird said. "When I first I got to the Celtics I knew they won championships but I didn't know the magnitude of it until I started meeting Russell and (John) Havlicek and all the guys who came around out of respect for Red." Bird said the thing that he noticed when he played for the Celtics and Auerbach was their president, whenever Auerbach had something to say, everybody listened. His presence was that commanding. "It's like that today," Bird said months before Auerbach's death. " When I call him, I don't talk to him long but when I hang up, I'm like man, I just talked to Red Auerbach, and I met him 25 years ago." Several former Celtics became coaches and personnel executives in the league, further extending Auerbach's influence. Besides Bird, Heinsohn, Sanders and Russell, the list includes Bill Sharman, K.C. Jones, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, Paul Silas, Chris Ford, Bob Cousy, Paul Westphal, Billy Knight, Don Nelson, Jim Paxson, Wayne Embry, Dave Cowens, Rick Carlisle, Quinn Buckner and Don Chaney. "There's a reason so many former Celtics are successful in coaching" Auerbach said during in an interview with USA TODAY in 2001. "They learned from the Celtics organization how to treat people and what was important and not important.. It's the way the organization treats athletes. We don't treat them like kids. We don't treat them like cattle." "You were always taught to be a thinking player, how to think through the game rather than how to execute the coach's thoughts (as) it is in the current era," Heinsohn said. "He wasn't domineering." Auerbach spent his first three years in the league coaching the Washington Capitols and the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. He joined the Celtics in 1950 led them to nine championships in 10 seasons from 1956-66, eight of them coming consecutively starting in 1959. The Celtics won seven more titles after Auerbach moved to the front office in 1966 and turned the coaching reins over to Russell, making him the first black head coach in major American sports. Auerbach continued in the Celtics' front office until his death. Auerbach was almost as well-known for his sideline antics as he was for the Celtics' winning ways. His trademark was lighting a cigar when it was apparent that the Celtics had notched another victory, a move that infuriated opposing teams and fans. "Anything about Red has to begin with the reality of his extraordinary and unparalleled success with the Celtics and the legends that grew from it that the leprechauns were in the building doing everything they could to assure the Celtics would win," Stern said. Opposing teams frequently accused Auerbach of creating an extra home-court advantage when they played at the Boston Garden. They said the water in the visitors' locker room was always cold, the heat was turned off and the water fountain was connected to the sewer system, all of which were done to give the Celtics an edge. Auerbach's former players say dirty tricks had nothing to do with his success. "He knew what it took to win," Sanders says. "I don't know if you call it vision, but he wanted to win. The surprising thing is how many other coaches didn't share in that philosophy." A Celtic trademark when Auerbach was coach was their fast starts at the beginning of the season. Their early record was usually 12-1, 15-1, 22-5. "He insisted everybody come to camp in shape," Sanders said. "Other teams' vets worked to get in shape during the early part of the season. While they worked to get in shape we had the division won. That was huge advantage." Underneath his gruff exterior, Auerbach was a players' coach who had very few rules and allowed players to have input into game plans. "At the end of a ball game and we were down 10 points, we were consulted on what we thought would work and then he would make a decision," Heinsohn said. "He was a brilliant manager of people. A lot of the things that we did were things players came up with, not that he didn't have ideas. You were always consulted. That's how he got you involved. You had pride of authorship, so when you stepped up and said, 'I think I can do this,' you were damn sure you going to make it work." Auerbach was masterful at playing mind games with opposing teams, fans and even game officials. "From his cigar smoking to inciting people on other teams, verbal attacks on referees when he thought they weren't doing the right thing to colorful language, he kept the heat on," Sanders said. "When there were altercations, he had no problems taking a part in them. He was a feisty guy. He always spoke his mind. Ask Stern or any commissioner." Said Stern: "He would always accuse me of being too soft on one thing or another, and he did it very colorfully. He would describe some part of the male anatomy that I was missing." Stern got a dose of Auerbach's feistiness before he joined the NBA. He was a young lawyer defending depositions Auerbach was one his company's clients. Auerbach's response to a particular question was, "Listen, kid, I'm not going to answer that." Stern says after some coaxing, Auerbach finally answered the question. When Stern became NBA commissioner, he found Auerbach to be just as ornery. "We had an avuncular relationship," Stern says. "He was the uncle and I was the dutiful nephew. He would start each session by saying, 'now listen, stupid.' I thought that was my name as he would explain a basketball subtlety. I got a promotion. I went from 'listen, kid' to 'listen stupid.'." Even though Auerbach didn't become kinder or gentler, that didn't prevent Stern from turning to him for advice. "Until this day, when I would talk to him and say talk to me about this," Stern said last fall, "He would say something like, 'listen, stupid. If you raise the hoop, who's going to get the rebounds? The big guys. OK. That's exactly what you're trying avoid, isn't it stupid?'." Auerbach was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969 and has received seven honorary degrees from various universities, including his alma mater, George Washington University, where he started his basketball career. He served in the Navy in World War II. Last week the United States Navy Memorial presented him with the Lone Sailor Award in recognition of his lifetime of achievements and service to his country. Auerbach is survived by two daughters, one granddaughter and three great-grandchildren. Enlarge By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY Red Auerbach and his famous cigar during a 2001 interview at his office in Washington, D.C.