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New book provides insight
into the legendary coach
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
John Feinstein, as good a writer about sports as there
is, took on a tyrant in print some 18 years ago in a book called
"A Season on the Brink." His target: Bobby Knight,
basketball coach at the University of Indiana.
The book sat on the best seller lists longer than any sports
book ever published. Readers loved it. Knight hated it. The egocentric
basketball coach, famous for NCAA titles and chair-throwing episodes,
wanted to kill the messenger.
All Feinstein did, with the coach’s permission, was sit
in at his meetings, his practices, his games, his press conferences
and his tirades. He wrote it all down, published a revealing
and remarkable book, and gained Knight’s enmity for life.
Or so it seemed.
Knight and Feinstein stayed apart for those 18 years as Feinstein
rose to journalistic fame and fortune with 16 books and Knight,
fired at Indiana for outrageous conduct, moved on to Texas Tech.
In the confusion, as sportswriters love to say, Feinstein became
a member of Red Auerbach’s Chinese restaurant lunch club
at 11 o’clock in the morning (Auerbach plays cards in the
afternoon) each week near his Washington, D.C. home. Auerbach
always pays.
These are a bunch of guys--writers, businessmen, coaches, former
players, secret service agents--who think it is thrilling to
join Auerbach for lunch each week, pay homage to his incredible
basketball past (Phil Jackson just missed tying Auerbach last
year with nine titles) and listen to his professional tales.
“When are you going to write the book?” Auerbach bellowed
one day behind the thick smoke of his huge cigar.
“I never considered it,” said Feinstein. “I thought
this was a social lunch.”
Feinstein and Auerbach collected these tales about the Boston
Celtics and other Auerbach adventures in a new book called "Let
Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game" (Little, Brown,
$25.95).
Some fascinating basketball stories come out of this book. Not
the least is the association between the aforementioned Knight
and Auerbach, as revealed by both to Feinstein. Auerbach actually
got Knight to talk to Feinstein again after the 18-year break.
“I wouldn’t say we are bosom buddies now,” explained
Feinstein, “but at least he was civil to me.”
Auerbach taught Knight a lot about basketball when the famed
Indiana college coach was at West Point and Auerbach was with
the Celtics. They specialized in Xs and Os on the chalk board
and arrogance off the court.
Both Auerbach, the master, and Knight, the pupil, always specialized
in the intimidation factor with players, press and fans. It all
comes down to an old Joe Louis line about religion: “It
only helps if you can fight.”
The abrasiveness of both only worked because they could coach
and they could win.
Feinstein, as a lunch pal, doesn’t trash his co-author in
this work or reveal some of the nasty intimacies of his conduct
and coaching as he did in the book about Knight’s Indiana
indecencies.
He presents Auerbach as a witty wonder of the courts. Auerbach
is 87 years old now and seems as sharp as he ever was in the
days he led the Celtics to all those titles, humiliated my New
York Knicks (ironically he is from Brooklyn) and dominated the
game as no man had before or ever since.
Feinstein offered up some wonderful stories in the book, especially
the one about a kid from San Francisco named Bill Russell. Auerbach
never saw Russell play but wanted him desperately on the recommendation
of some trusted friends.
“The owner of the Celtics, Walter Brown, also owned the
Ice Capades. Auerbach knew the Rochester team would draft Russell
in 1956. Auerbach traded two future Hall of Famers, Bob Pettit
and Cliff Hagen, for the draft rights to the number two pick.
Rochester had the number one pick but they decided not to pick
Russell after Brown promised the Rochester club a week of the
Ice Capades in their building,” explained Feinstein.
Russell and later Larry Bird were the anchors to the Boston success
under Auerbach. It was easy to tell when Auerbach knew he had
the game or a playoff locked up. That damn cigar would be lit
in the no-smoking area of whatever building, starting with the
Boston Garden, where Auerbach happened to be sitting.
Auerbach spent a good part of his life in a Boston hotel since
his family would not move from their Washington home. It gave
him an opportunity to live without family restrictions most of
the time, so his dining schedule revolved around Chinese restaurants
in Boston.
The Chinese restaurant tradition moved on into Washington lunches
with his retirement from day to day activities of the Celtics,
though he still wears that shamrock on his heart. New York once
went after him but both sides knew it wouldn’t work.
Feinstein describes these animated lunches and the membership--as
difficult to join as the most exclusive, private country club.
He also tells a wonderful tale about a meeting of the group a
few years back after Auerbach’s wife passed away. Auerbach
insisted the scheduled lunch of the group should go on even though
the basketball legend would be involved with his family.
One of the club members agreed to notify the others that the
schedule would be met despite the emotional loss. Then he asked
the caller, “Do you think I should stop by Red’s house
and ask him for his credit card?”
©2004 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001
by Jim Hummel. The photo of Red Auerbach is courtesy of Little,
Brown & Co.
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