Red Auerbach: the architect of a dynasty

The Boston Celtics hung championship banner after championship banner, but the constant behind them wasn't a player — it was Red Auerbach. As coach and then as the executive running the franchise, Auerbach assembled and guided the dynasty that dominated the NBA for more than a decade. He was gruff, combative and endlessly clever, a man who seemed to be several moves ahead of every rival, both on the court and in the deals that built his teams.

Auerbach's signature was a small act of swagger that infuriated opponents: once he was sure a game was won, he would light a cigar on the bench, an unmistakable signal that it was over. It was arrogant, theatrical and utterly him. But the cigar only worked because the winning was real — behind the showmanship was one of the sharpest basketball minds the sport has produced, obsessed with team play, conditioning and finding an edge nobody else had spotted.

His boldest decisions were about people, and they went beyond basketball. Auerbach helped break the league's colour barriers — his Celtics were pioneers in drafting and starting Black players when others hesitated, and he later made Bill Russell the NBA's first Black head coach. He judged players on whether they could help the team win, full stop, and in doing so he pushed the sport toward where it needed to go, years before it was comfortable.

Auerbach proved that a team's most important figure is often the one who never scores a point. He built through smart drafting, ruthless trades and a fierce belief in the collective over the individual — a blueprint that front offices still study. Long after his death in 2006, the Celtics' identity, and much of how great teams are assembled, traces back to the man with the cigar. The players raised the banners; Auerbach designed the machine that made them possible.