Red Auerbach

This past saturday one of, if not the, greatest basketball coaches and owners died. Red Auerbach spent close to half a century coaching and building the Boston Celtics franchise into one of the proudest NBA teams in history. In his tenure with the Celtics, Red won 16 Championships as well as coaching 11 Hall of Famers in the process. He was one of the msot respected figures in basktball in history. He was known for lighting a victory cigar at the end of every game the Celtics had won, which was more frequent than anyone during the times. He coached greats such as Bill Russell and drafted Larry Bird when everyone had said what a bad idea it was at the time. Everyone during the draft time would always try and see who Red was looking at because they knew that if he had an eye on a player, that player was destined for greatness. No other teams would make trades with him because they knew that Red would always get the better of the deal in the long run. He helped basketball break the color barrier by drafting the first African-American player ever as well as hiring the first African-American coach in history. He will be greatly missed in the basketball world.