They All Boo When Red Sits Down

Auerbach usually eats delicatessen (Hebrew National is after him to endorse its hot dogs) or Chinese. He goes for chicken wings and oyster sauce, lobster in meat sauce and steamed fish with wine sauce and almonds. When Auerbach recently stated that Boston had better Chinese restaurants than San Francisco, he was blasted in the press. "For what I like," Auerbach insists. "I'm no Danny Kaye. The guy cooks Chinese food. What does he need? Special kitchens? The neighbors' permission? I don't have the time. Mostly I heat it." For a while Auerbach had a piece of a Chinese restaurant in Boston. "The joint was mismanaged," he says. Auerbach likes delicatessen when he is on the road. "You get tired of going out," he says, "sitting down, the soup, the meat, two vegetables." Auerbach does not eat eggs or drink coffee. For breakfast he may have a hot dog and the first of the 10 Cokes he consumes daily.

During the basketball season Auerbach lives in a corner suite on the ninth floor of the Hotel Lenox in Boston's Back Bay. His wife, Dorothy, his two girls, Nancy, 19, and Randy, 13, and his two boxers stay at home in Washington, D.C. "My family is very fortunate," Auerbach says. "They escape the brunt of the great many changes in my emotions." Over Auerbach's bed in the Lenox are two prints depicting an angelic boy and girl; the boy is wearing a sailor suit and holding a sailboat. "What pictures?" Auerbach says. "I don't even know they're there." By his bed is a carton full of Argyle socks. "I'm throwing them out," Auerbach says. " Willie Naulls [the Celtics' forward], my sartorial adviser, says they're out-of-date."

On his mantelpiece, alongside bottles of Chinese noodles and specimens from his collection of 500 letter openers, are jars of nuts. "I'm a great eater of nuts," Auerbach said the other day. " Dr. Paul Dudley White is also a great believer in nuts. We had a conversation in a plane once about our great affinities for nuts. At present I got the shorts. My pumpkin seeds are out. Just the other day I ran out of pistachios and Indian nuts. I got duplicates of these at home and away. All I have now is paper-thin almonds and sunflower seeds—what some people call polly seeds. For a change of pace, I sometimes buy some chiches. A lot of these things come salted and un-salted. I eat them unsalted. I also eat all kinds of candy. I just finished my last coconut-covered marshmallow."

Auerbach gets much of his candy from H. W. Powers, a company which makes most of the nation's fruit slices, and one of Auerbach's accounts. For the past 12 years Auerbach has been a salesman for Cellu-Craft, a flexible packaging concern that manufactures everything from Jell-O bags to Kool-Pop wrappers. "A long time ago I felt my entire income depended on basketball," Auerbach says. "This was a situation which could lead to overcoaching—being so obsessed with the job it takes you over—which is just as bad as undercoaching. I said to myself, I have two degrees [a B.S. in physical education and an M.A. in education from George Washington], but I'm a narrow man. I was at the mercy of other people. I was dealing in a game of touch—the ability to put a ball in a hole. Why should I bank everything on whether a guy has the touch on certain days? Let's be honest—I can't direct the flight of the ball." As Bill Russell, the captain of the Celtics, said in the Boston dressing room the other night, "Red can say he made you, but he can't put that ball in the hoop." "But I pay you," said Auerbach, pointedly.

Auerbach has not punched anyone in the mouth this season, and so far the NBA has only fined him around $1,000, which is well below his league-leading average. "My image has changed," Auerbach says. "There's more to this than a loudmouth, raving guy. I have built up a reputation of saying what I believe. I'm not always right, but at least it's what I believe. People are very curious to know what I'm like off court. Am I articulate? Am I sociable? I'm not an easy man to be friendly with. I'm not a hail-fellow-well-met. I'm a good friend and a good enemy. You mellow with age. Once I was younger, tougher, meaner." According to Jim Loscutoff, who played for the Celtics for eight years, Auerbach told him one time, "If you get obnoxious you build incentive."

"This year Red's mellowed in his dealings with the referees," says Tommy Heinsohn, the oldest Celtic in point of service. "There are a lot of young refs, and I think Red figured these guys are all new guys, so there's no sense getting on them, getting them rattled."

"Study the official's personality. Decide your attitude on this basis." This is a quotation from Basketball for the Player, the Fan and the Coach by Arnold (Red) Auerbach, a book that has sold 600,000 copies, not counting the Russian, Polish and Italian editions. For the most part, it is a first-rate presentation of such subjects as "How to Play the Pivot," but Auerbach doesn't really hit his stride until page 189 and the chapter headed "Individual and Team Strategy." Herein he lists "57 Strategic Moves," which he prefaces with this disclaimer: "How many of these you consider ethical or unethical depends entirely on your organization. I am merely listing them as things that can happen." Among the possible moves are:

?When a player notices an official's indecision as to an out-of-bounds ball, he should run over and pick it up with the full confidence that it is his.

?If the opposing team has a high scorer, keep reminding the other players of their uselessness because the scorer takes all the shots.

?Grabbing or pulling the pants or shirt of the opponent can be very aggravating.