Bill Russell and Red Auerbach watch over a league that has made a quantum leap on race issues in the last four decades. Jesse Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

What was the old man thinking? How was his mind sifting through all he had seen to process what was transpiring before his eyes? He was always sitting across the way in the old Boston Garden, arms folded across his chest, rarely smiling, always watching.

What was the old man thinking?

After all, Red Auerbach is of that era, a time that helped define championship achievement for all of sport in an era many of us can envision in nothing but grainy black-and-white. Think Casey Stengel's New York Yankees. Think Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. And think Auerbach's Celtics. Every other championship team since -- especially in this Technicolor age -- is merely a descendent.

But after you've met him, absorbed basketball insights from him or, if you're lucky enough, shared a cigar with him, you understand that Red Auerbach is black-and-white.

Things were always clear to him. How to play the game. How to win. How to treat people. So what was he thinking as the Celtics went from great in his day, to unbearable, to great, to boring, to whatever they are now?

You probably know that Red was in a hospital as of Monday. The latest word was that he's improving from tests and surgeries and from being dang near 88 years old. Our prayers ask that he may he continue to do so.

When word spread last week that he was in a bad way, obit editors and writers around the nation sprang into action. But Red wasn't through quite yet, stubborn man that he is.

Auerbach will always be celebrated for winning. (And for being a hero to guys who long for an era when they could light up a cigar in a sports arena.) He won nine NBA titles in Boston and nearly 1,000 games on the bench.

Heck, if the basketball Hall of Fame wasn't already named for the game's founder, that building in Springfield would be called The Red. James A. Naismith handed the baton to Auerbach, who, for all intents and purposes, is still holding onto it. (Sorry, Phil.)

Before we let Red go -- whether it's today or years from now -- we should also praise him as one of the most vital "race men" in sports history. Not because he led any protests, or raised his fists or even talked much about it -- the issue was just too black and white for Red to do anything but what was right.