Red Auerbach Was A Savage

Deflated footballs, sign-stealing in baseball, the city of Boston has a long and sordid history of sports scandals.

But long before Bill Belichick and J.T. Watkins, there was Red Auerbach, who did anything and everything to gain a leg up on his competition.

All the Bullshit Red Did

This is how legendary Lakers two-guard Michael Cooper described Red’s gamesmanship.

I would refer to it as being an absolute mf’n savage.

What are some of the cold-blooded things he did to merit such a label? It all starts with the old Boston Garden, in which the Celtics’ won nine of their NBA record 17 championships.

See, the old Garden first opened all the way back in 1928 – yes there were people around back then and they wanted to be entertained. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most modern building.

This is a nice way of saying the Garden had no air conditioning.

Numerous visiting teams, including the crybaby Lakers complained that the heat in the visitor’s locker room was unbearable.

M.L. Carr, who played six seasons with the C’s from 1979-85 and won two titles, has said that he doesn’t think Red actually turned the heat up in the opposing locker room. He just turned the cold water off😓

**Red Auerbach called Bill Russell “the ultimate player to start a franchise with.” Get your authentic Bill “The Hill” Russell Swingman Jersey and a discount.**

At one point during the 1984 NBA Finals, Red’s last year as Celtics’ GM, the heat got so bad that then Lakers head coach Pat Riley considered giving his players IV’s before game 7 in the Garden.

But we’re just getting started.

It’s been widely reported that Red would also turn off the hot water in the visiting locker room.

Even the Celtics’ famous parquet floor was apparently in on the skullduggery. Red pledged alliance to the parquet, which has been a fixture in the Garden since 1952, and said it was better than many of the more traditional plywood floors.

One reason for this was allegedly due to the floor containing a number of unpredictable dead ball spots on it, which the home team was well aware of and exploited to their advantage.

How F’ing Stupid Can You Be?

It should be noted that the man himself has flat-out denied all of this.

Before passing away in 2006, the old codger said:

“This is the truth – I had absolutely no control over anything in the Garden. I mean, how f’ing stupid can you be.”

Interestingly, none of these rumors were ever dispelled by Big Red while he was still coaching. Which may have been an act of gamesmanship itself.

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