<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Red Auerbach, who died Saturday at age 89, did a lot of great things during his long pro basketball career as a coach and an executive with the Boston Celtics. But the biggest thing he accomplished was helping integrate the NBA when he had a role in drafting Charles Cooper of Duquesne in April 1950. I was there in Chicago drafting for the Minneapolis Lakers. When the choice was announced by Celtics owner Walter Brown, you could hear a pin drop in the room. It was then at the suggestion of Eddie Gottlieb of the Philadelphia Warriors that a recess was called. Auerbach wasn't named Celtics coach until two days after the draft, but I know he was involved in the decision to take Cooper. In those days, most of the NBA teams couldn't exist financially without the doubleheaders they held with the Harlem Globetrotters. Gottlieb was close to Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein. He told everybody in the room that once Cooper was taken, Saperstein would cancel all of his games in NBA cities, which would come close to putting some franchises out of business. I recall Gottlieb, Ben Kerner of the Tri-Cities Hawks and Ned Irish of the New York Knicks begging Brown to continue to allow Saperstein the monopoly on black players. But Brown stood by his and Auerbach's decision. The next day, Saperstein cancelled every Globetrotters date, including one in Minneapolis Auditorium. And it took some time before NBA teams were able to get the Globetrotters back on their schedule. Auerbach also hired the first black coach when he named Bill Russell to succeed him as Celtics coach in 1966. And Auerbach pulled off another one that I recall, when he drafted three Kentucky juniors -- Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey and Lou Tsioropoulos in 1953, even though they all had a year of college eligibility left and had to wait the year before joining the NBA. Not everybody thought it was legal. But he got away with it because he was Red Auerbach. I recall Auerbach coming into Minneapolis Auditorium and hiring a man with a ladder to measure the height of the basket because he believed Lakers star George Mikan had an edge. Until Auerbach got Russell in 1956, he never won many games against the Lakers, as little Slater Martin would always tie up Celtics scoring star Bob Cousy. Loved Washington team Auerbach's first experience against the Lakers was as coach of the Washington Capitols, and Mikan, playing with a broken wrist, and company beat Auerbach's team in the 1949 finals in a game played at St. Paul Auditorium. When we would meet, he would always recall that series because he had a great team with players such as Bob Ferrick, Bones McKinney, John Norlander and others. And Red should always have had a soft spot in his heart for former Lakers star Vern Mikkelsen, whose refusal to go to Boston in the middle of the 1955-56 season resulted in a trade between the Lakers and the Celtics being called off. The Lakers would have gotten the three Kentucky players, all of whom were in the military at the time. We made the trade because Auerbach believed he could win the NBA championship with a center, and it was a good deal for a Lakers team that was rebuilding. I still have the papers from the league putting the OK on that deal. The trade would have gone through had Mikkelsen not convinced Lakers owner Ben Berger to make me call it off. And that finished my days with the Lakers. Had the trade happened, the Lakers would have finished last in the league and they could have drafted Russell first in the 1956 draft, and maybe that Celtics dominance would never have happened. The Lakers also wouldn't have moved to Los Angeles. Red never denied the trade, but he always said he didn't remember making the deal. The last time I saw Auerbach was at my 2003 induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. We had a nice chat and talked about old times. I appreciated the fact that when local radio people called Auerbach, he always had a good word for that Lakers operation. </div> Source
Has Bill Russell said anything publicly about Auerbach since he died? He seems to be MIA. Hope he's in good health.
