Seven "Plays"` In Honor of The Man Who Built The Celtics Dynasty

"Growing up in Boston in the 70's and 80's, we possessed three treasures that nobody else
had: Fenway, The Garden, and Red.  He was our trump card. He had mystical powers.
He made things happen. He fleeced other teams. He found diamonds in the rough. 
He intimidated officials. He stamped his winning imprint on everyone and everything.
He WAS the Celtics. Sixteen championships in 30 years...and they all happened because
of him."

Bill Simmons, "Seeing Red After All These Years"

While there may be no collection of words that better describes the impact Red had on Boston, or the appreciation Bostonians had for him and his immeasureable contribution to the Celtics dynasty-really, the creation of it-you don't have to have been alive for the 50's, 60's, 70's, or 80's to see the impact of his greatness.  At every home game for the Celtics, 23 numbers hang above the floor, and while only one technically hangs in his name, it's not only the #2 that you can attribute to Red Auerbach, for whether it be as a coach, GM, or President of Basketball operations, he had a hand in the careers of every Celtic from his arrival in Boston in 1950, til his death in 2008.  Today, October 28th, marks the 13th anniversary of his death, and in his honor I wanted to give you "7 plays", or 7 things every basketball fan-not just Celtic fan-should know about one of the greatest coaches, leaders, and men who ever lived.

1) Seven Plays
For those who don't understand the reference in the title, Red famously ran only 7 basic offensive plays throughout his coaching career.  His coaching philosophy was built around the fast break, and he built his team around that philosophy.  Upon his arrival in Boston, he had a point guard who could run the fast break in Bob Cousy, he just needed a big man who could rebound and outlet quickly enough that three players in transition could catch the defenders off-guard and score at will.  He found that in Bill Russell, a dominant defender and rebounder out of San Francisco.  He boldly traded a future hall of fame center in Ed Macauley, and rookie Cliff Hagan to the St. Louis Hawks for the pick that he would select Russell with.  He'd pick K.C. Jones and Tom Heinsohn later in that same draft, and they along with Cousy would form the nucleus of the Celtics for what would be an all time great title run.

Red Auerbach, pictured here with Chuck Cooper.

2) Red broke the NBA's "color barrier"
With three major moves, Red was single-handedly responsible for completely demolishing the NBA's "color barrier" in the 50's and 60's.  In 1950, he drafted the first black player Chuck Cooper, a 6'5" swingman out of Duquesne.  Chuck would play 4 years for the Celtics before being traded to the Milwaukee Hawks.  Two years later, his playing career would come to an end due to injuries he sustained in a car crash.

In 1964, Auerbach would again push at the NBA's "color barrier", starting the first all black starting 5, when he sent out Bill Russell, Willie Naulls, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, and Tom Sanders to tip off the game.  That team would go 62-18 that year, winning their 8th title in 9 years under Auerbach.

Then in 1966, Auerbach completed his demolition of the color barrier, stepping down as coach to focus on his GM duties, and making Bill Russell player/coach, and the first black coach in NBA history.  Russell would stay on as player/coach of the Celtics for three seasons, compiling a 162-83 record and winning two championships.

Auerbach's celebratory cigar, when a win was well in hand
became the ultimate symbol of success in Boston.

3) Prior coaching stints
While Red's legacy was built with the Celtics, he actually spent four years coaching other professional basketball teams prior to coming to Boston.  In fact, he had his single best season in terms of winning percentage with the Washington Capitols in their inaugural season, with a record of 49-11, for an .817 win percentage.  While his time with the Capitols wouldn't produce any titles, his three year win percentage of .685 would be better than the 16 years he spent with the Celtics, during which his teams had a total win percentage of .667.  Despite his success in the win/loss column, Red resigned after his third season following philosophical differences with team ownership.

Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale
would become the nucleus the Celtics would
build their 1980's dynasty around, winning
three titles throughout the decade.

4) "The Steal of the Century"
Red was well known for swindling other teams in lop-sided deals.  Perhaps his greatest off-season ever, was in the 1980 off-season, when he made an acquisition later referred to as "The Steal of the Century".  The Celtics had recently drafted Larry Bird, a player who they had to wait a year to suit up as he finished his college career.  During Bird's rookie year, the Celtics went from 29-53 the year before, to 61-21, losing in the Eastern Conference finals to the 76ers.  Then, Cowens retired, leaving a huge void on the interior for the Celtics.

The year before, Red had traded Bob McAdoo to the Pistons for their pick in the 1980 draft.  The Pistons went on to have the worst record in the East, which lead to a coin flip between them and the worst record in the West for the first overall pick.  Red won that coin flip, and armed with both the first overall pick and the knowledge that Warriors GM Al Attles coveted center Joe Barre Carroll in the draft, Red talked him into a deal for the first overall pick.  Golden State would send young developing center Robert Parish and the third overall pick to Boston in exchange for the third overall pick from Golden State-which Red would then used to draft power forward Kevin McHale, out of Minnesota.  Parish, McHale, and Bird would become the nucleus the Celtics would build their championship teams of the 1980's around, leading Boston to three titles in that decade.

5) The 1982 Draft
While Red made a lot of draft picks, and shrewd off-season moves throughout his career, perhaps none was more memorable than a late round pick in the 1982 draft.  Red was good friends with then Indiana coach Bobby Knight, dating back to the 1960's, when Red drafted Knight's college teammate John Havlicek.  Their friendship grew throughout the years, and after Knight and Indiana star Landon Turner lead Indiana to the NCAA championship in 1981, Turner suffered injuries in a horrifying car accident that left him paralyzed, and unable to ever play basketball again.  During a conversation between the two great coaches, Bobby mentioned that it would mean a lot if the Celtics symbolically drafted Turner, which Red was happy to do in the tenth round of the 1982 draft.  But he went a step further, flying Turner to Boston, and presenting him with a Celtics jersey of his own.  According to Bobby Knight in the book "Let Me Tell You A Story", copyrighted in 2004, Turner still talked about it to that day, as the gesture meant the world to him.

6) Red once coached the Washington Redskins
In the 1940's, the NFL wasn't the overly profitable league it is today, and as such players didn't make nearly as much.  In the off-season, they needed additional forms of income, and the Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants had all formed basketball teams, that traveled around, playing each other during the off-season, to generate some off-season income.  While Red was in the Navy, stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he met then starting defensive tackle Fred Davis, for the Redskins, and they would often play one-on-one together.  During one of these sessions, Davis suggested that Red coach their off-season team, given his coaching background at the high school level.  Red agreed, and coached the team for the 1945 and 1946 off-season.  It was here that he got his introduction to Mike Uline, who was part of a group of businessmen starting up a professional basketball league.  Uline owned the arena the Redskins' basketball games were played in, and had seen Red coach.  He offered him $5,000 to coach his new team; the Washington Capitols.  This would be the start of Red's professional coaching career.


7) Red invented the concept of the "Sixth Man"

Red, pictured above with Bill Russell and one of the game's
greatest sixth men; John Havlicek

In today's NBA, the Sixth Man is a common concept, a player who is one of your better players, that doesn't start, but often finishes games.  He comes in fresh, when the other team's starters are beginning to tire a bit.  In the 1940's, general winning philosophy was that you put your 5 best guys out there until they were too tired, then swapped in some subs until your best guys were ready to go back in.  Red-innovator that he was-saw things differently.  "When a game or a half starts, both teams get into a certain rhythm.  After a little while, a little bit of fatigue sets in and everyone begins to lose just a little.  My thought was, If I send one of my two or three best players into the game at that point and he's completely fresh, he's going to be able to take advantage of people.  He'll probably make some plays right away because his legs are fresh.  In turn, that gives my other guys a burst of energy and picks up the whole team."
Red began employing this concept in Washington, where Irv Torgoff served as sixth man.  In Boston, players like Frank Ramsey, John Havlicek, Paul Silas, and Kevin McHale played the sixth man role.  Three of those four players are now in the hall of fame, and all four were selected to all star teams.  The concept of the sixth man was just one of many impactful ideas Red came up with, that we take for granted as just simply a part of the game today.

There they are, seven things everyone should know about Celtics legend Red Auerbach, who in 1980 was voted as the greatest NBA coach ever, and even still today is recognized as one of the ten best coaches of all time.  The man who single-handedly built the Celtics dynasty, and helped transform the NBA into the league we all know and love today.  Rest in peace Red.  

Vinsanity: The Only Word to Describe Such a Career

As I woke up on the morning of June 24, 1998 and prepared for one of the final days of my junior year in high school, before my feet even hit the floor I had one thing on my mind: who would the Celtics draft that night?  They had the tenth pick in the draft, and there were so many possibilities. In the minds of Celtics fans all over Massachusetts, we’d been robbed of Tim Duncan the year before, when the lottery didn’t go our way and the Celtics ended up with the 3rd and 6th picks instead of the 1st overall, taking Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer.  I turned on the radio and would hear a song from an up and coming new artist-Usher-as his new hit single “Nice and Slow” was rising up the charts, and had recently spent it’s first week atop the Billboard top 100. After it finished, the DJ’s came on, to talk about the news, sports, and weather.

The whole country was buzzing that year about the potential impeachment of president Bill Clinton, who had been caught with an intern.  His impeachment would be complete by the end of that year. The biggest movie of perhaps my lifetime until that point, Titanic, was still in theaters and had just recently passed the billion dollar in sales mark.  The European union was only a few years old, their central bank had just been established earlier that month, and the euro’s value would be established permanently later that year. In a few months, a muscle bound slugger named McGwire would break a decades old home run record, and a tech start up would be founded.  Larry Page and Sergey Brin would call it “Google” and it would change the internet-and perhaps the world-as we know it. But for me, that morning, there was only one thing going on: the NBA draft. The DJ’s finally stopped talking news, and for a few short minutes I’d get to hear the latest speculation regarding the draft that night.

A great deal of the pre-draft buzz had centered around an athletic scorer out of UNC; Antawn Jamison, who had won the NCAA Player of the Year award the prior season, averaging 22.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.  During that season, he’d had one game where he dropped 35 points on Duke, despite touching the ball for just 53 seconds. He was known for his flashy dunks, often off alley oop passes from lesser known teammate Vince Carter, who had also declared for this draft, and was projected by most to end up in Sacramento.

While Jamison had created a lot of buzz with his exciting plays and high scoring affairs, it was pretty much universally agreed that the number one pick-controlled by the Los Angeles Clippers-would be either a little known Nigerian center Michael Olowakandi, or a flashy point guard from Arizona, Mike Bibby.  Neither were the locks that Duncan had been the year before, but in a sport dominated by the center position, Olowakandi was someone that had to be considered, along with the point guard who had lead his college team to the 97 NCAA championship in his freshman season.

As the radio finally got around to the sports reporter, he talked about the usual names that year.  Bibby, Olowokandi, and Jamison all came up as expected top 5 picks. A player from Kansas widely considered the best all around prospect in the draft Paul Pierce was also mentioned, and there were rumblings about a talented European prospect Dirk Nowitzki, who nobody quite knew what to expect out of.  I was excited about what would come that night, and as it turned out my excitement was justified, as the 1998 NBA draft would change the future for at least three NBA franchises.

The draft finally came that night, and I watched excitedly as exactly what everyone expected began the draft, with Olowakandi and Bibby coming off the board first, to the Clippers and Vancouver Grizzlies, respectively.  Kansas big man Raef LaFrentz went next, followed by the pair from UNC; Jamison and Carter, who went to Toronto and Golden State respectively, and were immediately traded for one another.  

Looking back, trades really defined the pick that Vince Carter was selected with even for years before it was made, as the pick had been traded by the Warriors to the Magic (along with Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway), for Chris Webber in 1993, then traded by the Magic to the Washington Bullets in the summer of 1994 along with Scott Skiles for a second round pick (that would later become Randy Livingston) and their 1998 first round pick (which would become Keon Clark), then traded BACK to the Warriors with Tom Gugliotta and two other picks, for Chris Webber in November of that same year, meaning before he was even drafted, Vince Carter would be involved in TWO trades for Chris Webber, and end up back in Golden State where he wouldn’t play a minute because he’d be traded away from Golden State AGAIN for an All Star caliber forward, to begin his career in Toronto, alongside his cousin Tracy McGrady, who had been selected directly out of high school the year before by the young Raptors team with the 9th overall pick.

Carter’s first season with the Raptors wouldn’t begin until early in 1999, as the NBA lockout took it’s course, but on February 5th, 1999 10 days after his 22nd birthday, Carter and the Raptors would open the season in Boston with an 11 point win over the Celtics.  Carter would start that day alongside Kevin Willis, who had been acquired via trade from the Rockets just over 2 weeks before Carter was drafted. The fact that Carter played his first two and a half seasons with Willis wouldn’t really seem significant until about 2 decades later, when their names would again appear together, just in a much more exclusive group of players.

Carter really made a name for himself during the 2000 All Star
Weekend Dunk Contest, where his athletic dunks won over fans.

Carter ended his first season with the Raptors averaging 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.0 assists a game, en route to winning Rookie of the Year beating out Jason Williams of the Kings and Paul Pierce of the Celtics in decisive fashion.  He’d even pick up a 5th place vote for MVP in the process. Carter would go on to play 6 full seasons with the Raptors before being traded to the Nets 20 games into the 04-05 season for Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams, and 2 first round draft picks.  Over the course of his time in Toronto he averaged 22.4 points, 5 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, was selected to 5 All Star teams, lead his team to the playoffs twice-going as far as the second round in the 00-01 season. He would also really make a mark on NBA fans during his dunk contest win at All Star weekend in 2000.

In New Jersey, Carter would team up with All Star point guard Jason Kidd and a young Richard Jefferson, and together the trio would lead the Nets to three consecutive playoff appearances.  After nearly 5 full seasons with the Nets, Carter would again be traded, this time at the age of 32, to the Orlando Magic along with Ryan Anderson for Rafer Alston, Tony Battie, and Courtney Lee.  During those years with the Nets Carter averaged 23.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game, and was selected as an All Star three times. His time in Orlando, would mark the next phase of his career, as he would never again be selected to another All Star team.

Over the next 5 seasons, Vince Carter would play for the Magic, the Phoenix Suns, and the Dallas Mavericks, playing 25+ minutes per game in every season except his final season in Dallas when he would play 24.4 minutes per game, and begin to find his place in the league as a role player, coming off the bench for the Mavericks over his final 2 and a half seasons there.  His field goal attempts would go from roughly 10 a game in Toronto and New Jersey to 4-5 a game, and he’d begin to take a higher percentage of three point shots, as they’d comprise roughly 30% of his attempts-or about double what they did during his first ten years in the league.

Carter's career has evolved, from superstar to role player
to the role he's taken on in recent years: mentor

By the time his time in Dallas was over at the end of the 2013-14 season, Vince Carter would find himself something of a dinosaur in the league.  At 37 years old he was already the oldest player in a league whose average age was something around 26, and the league, the country, really, the whole world, had changed drastically since the day he was drafted.  He’d seen “Y2K”, 2 presidential administrations, and a huge number of fads, fashions, musicians, and trends come and go. The rise in popularity of the internet, smart phones, and social media, the downfall of business giants like Kodak and Blockbuster.  

He’d played with and/or against the likes of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and also seen hundreds, perhaps thousands of NBA players come and go.  Stars, busts, and everything in between. He’d seen a whole new playing style take over the league, and adapted so his game better fit that mold. The wisdom he’d accumulated over his 16 seasons in the league was immeasurable.  And so began the third phase of his memorable career, from Vince Carter the star, to Vince Carter the role player, to now, Vince Carter the mentor.

The evolution of both his game and outlook on his place in the league is evident in both his statistics, and transaction log, as his volume and production dipped, but so did the activity in his transaction log.  He stopped being traded from team to team, or waived like he was in Phoenix. He developed a new value to his teams over the years, mentoring younger players. Over the next 5 seasons he made stops in Memphis, Sacramento, and Atlanta, doing almost the opposite of ring chasing, popping up on youthful rosters and helping guide young players as they make the transition into the league that he’d seen so many make since he made his own, before many of these new teammates were born.

One of the greatest dunks of Carter's career took place
on Team USA, when he leapt over 7 footer Frederic
Weis, of the French national team.

In June he spoke with Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN in detail about his role as a mentor, and what he’d find himself speaking with young players about.  This advice would cover topics like hygiene, partying, frustration with play time, financial advice, and how to ingratiate yourself to your teammates as a rookie just entering the league.  The tips, the tricks, the little and big things. All the wisdom that one picks up on a journey through the league that will soon see him be the only player to ever lace up sneakers in four separate decades, and culminate in him being the only player to ever play in 22 seasons in the league, and just one of seven to have played over 20 seasons, joining ex-teammate Kevin Willis, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parrish, Kevin Garnett, and another member of the 1998 draft class Dirk Nowitzki.

We’ve all seen other players stubbornly insist on playing “their game”, quickly and in some cases abruptly playing themselves right out of the league (Carmelo Anthony comes to mind as a glaring and recent example of this).  We’ve seen players chase rings, in an effort to add meaningless jewelry and bolster their resume, or earn one elusive championship. These methods of ending a career are far more common than what we’ve seen Vince Carter do, which was to adapt both his game and personality on the fly to fit what his teams needed, and the results speak for themselves.  In 2015-16, Carter won the Twyrman-Stokes “Teammate of the Year” award, and will begin his record breaking 22nd season this year as a rotation player and mentor for the Atlanta Hawks. His farewell tour will be-among many other things-well deserved as an epic career comes to an end when the final active player drafted in the 90’s rides off into