Word: auerbach
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...court; Bill Russell seems to own the backboards with nearly 24 rebounds a game; Sam Jones averages 20 points a game; and John Havlicek is the odds-on favorite for Rookie of the Year honors. Yet other teams have their full share of stars. By common consent. Auerbach is the difference in the Celtics, the man who makes them the best team in basketball...
Feel of the Game. Every coach knows a good player when he sees one, can devise clever strategy to prey on an opponent's weakness. But when to substitute and when not to is the key to the fast-moving play, and Auerbach has what basketball men call the ''feel" of the game. He seems to know instinctively when a player starts to go sour, has a rare sixth sense for getting just the right man-into the pivot, the corner, the backcourt-at precisely the right moment. And because he does, he has survived...
Born in the teeming Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Auerbach was a standout player himself in high school and at George Washington University in Washington. D.C. He watched how his coach, Bill Reinhart, welded a strong team together from the diverse styles practiced around the country. In 1946 Auerbach talked a Washington. D.C., arena owner into sponsoring a pro team in the newly formed Basketball Association of America. "It cost me less than $500 in phone calls to assemble the club." says Auerbach, "and I stuck to Bill Reinhart's theory...
...three seasons, Washington won 115 games, lost only 53. Soon it was on to Boston to coach the Celtics, whose record was dismal and attendance little better. Auerbach's first move did nothing to endear him to the fans: in the player draft he imperiously rejected a popular All-America from Holy Cross named Bob Cousy. "What do you want me to do," growled Auerbach. "win basketball games or satisfy the local yokels?" Cousy, insisted Auerbach, had yet to prove himself. The Celtics got Cousy back by a stroke of luck. When the Chicago Stags, a team that...
...Auerbach has made few mistakes since. He cannot afford to, since the team with the best record gets last choice in the annual player draft. Doing his own scouting, he landed Havlicek. who played in the shadow of highly touted Jerry Lucas at Ohio State, and was passed over by other teams. A clever trade gave him Bill Russell. He has the knack of picking up older players-such as Clyde Lovellette-who still have some good seasons left...