RIP Red Auerbach
Red Auerbach, the greatest sports executive in history and a great basketball coach as well, died yesterday. He has long been one of my heroes—because of his ability to thoughtfully break through the conventional wisdom and develop innovative ways of building and coaching a basketball team; because of his wisdom about human beings and the variety of things that motivate them; because he was a good man who helped break down racial barriers in sports; because he was incredibly funny and did not take himself too seriously; and because one of my other great heroes, Bill Russell, loved him. I didn’t know Red but did meet him twice. The first was at basketball camp when I was twelve. He gave an incredible talk and I followed him around the rest of the day soaking in every word he said. He said something that day that has always stuck with me:… Continue reading