The Red Auerbach Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Wednesday, August 28th, 2002
I mail my questions and follow this with a phone call a few days later.
“Hello?”
It’s him. I introduce myself again, and he remembers me. He is in his office, the one he still works from two or three days a week. It is a museum in itself, full of Boston Celtic history – photos, books, letters, awards – all of it the fruit of Auerbach’s labor.
I hear paper rustling on the other end of the line, and then he cuts loose: “Look, I can’t answer these questions. I’m not answering them because I’m working on another book and I’m not giving that information away. What’s this for?”
I pitch Celtic Nation again, and the Red Auerbach feature that is being planned for the launch.
“The Internet – no, no, no…I can’t do this. How much are you making on this?”
I counter by asking for one question from my list. One question to include in the feature, something for the thousands of Celtic fans who visit the site.
“I’ll give you one,” he says at last, the paper still rustling. “I’ll answer the Asimov question and that’s it. I’m busy.”
Answer it he did. And then a funny thing happened – he answered another. And another. Questions on the paper in front of him, questions that shot into my mind as we talked. And somewhere during the course of our conversation it dawned on me; black limousines and cinderblock shoes be damned, I was talking shop with the cigar-smoking Godfather of the Boston Celtics.
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