Pro Basketball History Blog
A couple of players were in one corner, autographing basketballs. Auerbach was sitting alone, reading mail. We shook hands, and I said, “What about Cousy?”
“What can you say when you know you’re going to lose the greatest backcourtman who ever lived?” Red said. “Nobody will ever take his place. There’s only one Cousy.”
The guiding hand behind those brilliant personnel decisions was, of course, Auerbach, the feisty, little, self-proclaimed “dictator” of the Celtics, who is still the club’s general manager and still producing winners. There is no longer a dynasty in Boston simply because no new Bill Russell has come along—and probably never will.
Few men have the magnetic ability and personality to lift an audience to heights of great emotion and to bring vitality and excitement into the lives of the onlookers. Bob Cousy is one of those men.
Willie is a proud man, but years of being disregarded took their toll.
As provincial as the next town, Boston likes winning teams, and although the Celtics have been close many times, they’ve never taken the big prize. Some critics say it is Auerbach’s fault.
There is an unmistakable quality about Dan Issel on the basketball court: Once he makes up his mind to do something, he will do everything possible to accomplish it. Inexorable.
When Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain was unveiled last summer against a backdrop of the NBA stars against whom the seven-footer will play this winter, only one word described him: Fantastic.
From Way Downtown 