[1] In addition, Auerbach was voted one of the NBA 10 Greatest Coaches in history, inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and honored with a retired number 2 jersey in the TD Garden, the home of the Celtics.

"[2] Amid the Great Depression, Auerbach played basketball as a guard at PS 122 and in the Eastern District High School,[9] where he was named "Second Team All-Brooklyn" by the World-Telegram in his senior year.

[14] Auerbach left Duke after a few months when Ben Kerner, owner of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, gave him the green light to rebuild the team from scratch.

Auerbach traded more than two dozen players in just six weeks, and the revamped Blackhawks improved, but ended the 1949–50 NBA season with a losing record of 28–29.

Kutsher's was the center of a summertime basketball league, and players from the New York City area would participate, playing for one of several local country clubs and hotels.

[15] Before the 1950–51 NBA season, Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics, was desperate to turn around his struggling and financially strapped franchise, which was reeling from a 22–46 record.

First, he famously snubbed Hall-of-Fame New England point guard Bob Cousy in the 1950 NBA draft, infuriating the Boston crowd.

With the high-scoring Macauley, elite passer Cousy, and new prodigy Sharman, Auerbach had a core that provided high-octane fast-break basketball.

"[17] As a result, Auerbach sought a defensive big man who could get easy rebounds, initiate fast breaks, and close out games.

[17] Anchored by defensive stalwart Russell, the tough Celtics forced their opponents to take low-percentage shots from farther distances (there was no three-point arc at the time); misses were then often grabbed by perennial rebounding champion Russell, who then either passed it on to elite fast-break distributor Cousy or made the outlet pass himself, providing their sprinting colleague's opportunities for an easy slam dunk or layup.

This included eight consecutive championships—which is the longest championship streak in North American sports—and six victories over the Los Angeles Lakers of Hall-of-Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in the NBA Finals.

With his ex-player Tom Heinsohn coaching the Celtics and led by former sixth man John Havlicek, Auerbach's new recruits won the Atlantic Division every year from 1972 to 1976, winning the NBA title in 1974 and 1976.

He traded away both Silas and Westphal because they wanted salary increases that would have made them higher earners than the best player on the Celtics (Cowens), which was not acceptable to Auerbach.

[21][22] In 1984, after he relinquished his general managing duties to Jan Volk, Auerbach focused on continuing as president and later vice-chairman of the Boston Celtics.

[8] In a surprising move after winning their 15th title, he traded popular guard Gerald Henderson, the game-2 hero in the finals against the Lakers, for Seattle's first-round draft pick in 1986.

Several years later, Celtics star player Reggie Lewis died suddenly in 1993, and without any league compensation for either loss, the team fell into decline, not seeing another Finals in Auerbach's lifetime.

[8] In an interview, Auerbach confessed that he lost interest in big-time managing in the early 1990s, preferring to stay in the background and concentrating on his pastimes, racquetball and his beloved cigar-smoking.

In an interview shortly before his death, he explained that since the 1950s, Chinese takeout was the most convenient nutrition: back then, NBA teams traveled on regular flights and had a tight schedule, so filling up the stomach with heavier non-Chinese food meant wasting time and risking travel-sickness.

[18] In an interview with ESPN, Auerbach stated that his all-star fantasy team would consist of Bill Russell—who in the former's opinion was the ultimate player to start a franchise with—as well as Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, with John Havlicek as the sixth man.

Regarding greatest basketballers of all time, Auerbach's candidates were Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan.

Auerbach talked about his fictional team with journalist Ken Shouler which featured the following: Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain, and Russell at center; Bird, Erving, Pettit, and Baylor at forward; and Robertson, Jordan, Havlicek, Johnson, and Cousy at guard.

Jones, John Havlicek and Larry Bird, as well as contemporaries like Jerry West, Pat Riley, and Wayne Embry universally hailed Auerbach as one of the greatest personalities in NBA history.

As Celtics general manager, he created championship-winning teams around Hall-of-Famers Dave Cowens and John Havlicek in the 1970s and Larry Bird in the 1980s.

Outside the NBA, former Auerbach pupil John Thompson became a highly successful college coach with the Georgetown Hoyas, leading the team to the 1984 NCAA championship and mentored Hall of Fame players Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, and Allen Iverson.

[28] Throughout his coaching tenure in Boston, Auerbach served several other roles including, but not limited to, general manager, head of scouting, personnel director, and travel agent.

During this era, when most team owners not only thought of, but also treated their players as cattle, athletes from all four major professional sports leagues were fighting for their rights and economic fairness.

Then, Auerbach's worst fears came true when Maxwell arrived that fall out of shape, and, suffering from various injuries, provided little contribution as the team lost in playoffs for the first time ever to the Lakers in the 1985 Finals.

Second, Maxwell continues to be embraced as a beloved member of the Celtics, including having his number retired alongside the team's legendary greats.

"[8] While Auerbach was not known for his tactical bandwidth, famously restricting his teams to just seven plays,[8] he was well known for his psychological warfare, often provoking opposing players and officials with unabashed trash talk.

[17] Age did nothing to diminish his fire; in 1983, after star Larry Bird was ejected from a preseason game against Philadelphia at the Garden along with the Sixers' role player Marc Iavaroni, Auerbach stormed onto the court and after taking the officials to task, screamed nose-to-nose with the 6'10" 260-pound Moses Malone.