Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend

Awesome book. Russell goes into details on his thoughts with Red and how they developed a great respect for each other. Highly recommend.

This is a story about the development of a friendship between two men from very different backgrounds. Bill Russell and Red Auerbach weren't known as sentimental humanitarians. Both were hard men, who grew up in difficult times and tough circumstances. Over the years of their professional association, however, a strong bond developed that was understated, yet extremely powerful. This book explores that relationship and demonstrates that there is more to friendship than never-ending self-disclosure. This is an extremely well-written and engaging book that centers around the power of loyalty, honor and efforts to understand each other in the context of a relationship. It is a story about the power of love between friends that isn't based on hugs or saying, "I love you," but is rather based upon personal integrity and mutual respect. If you like basketball, this book has very interesting stories about the development of the NBA, but I found the life lessons to be even more compelling.

I originally had mixed emotions about this book and would have rated it lower if i had written the review prior to the excellent ending. In summation, this is a very short, fast read where Bill Russell describes his unique relationship and total understanding between two friends who can be so close while communicating so little. But this book needs a better set-up than a book of friendship and Russell supplies that here. He describes his history as a black man and traces his influence to his widowed father who raised him with the ultimate in high standards of integrity. But remember this is also a black player entering sports shortly after Jackie Robinson. Russell had had poor relationships with previous coaches and had been subjected to 1950s racism such as being unable to dine or sleep with the white members of the team in the south. Not mentioned in great detail are the stories of racism when Bill Russell bought a home in Boston and the racism he faced. There is quite a humorous story of trash can noise which police said was racoon caused. Then Russell requested a gun permit. End of noise. But to complete the back story for this book you must know that in addition to be an exceptional athlete, Russell was an incredibly intelligent and private man who even refused autographs to his teammates for their family. With this background Russell describes how he expected another poor relationship with his coach only to find in Red Auerbach a Jewish man who also had suffered racism and was solely focused on winning and treating his players well. Once he knew what was important to Russell, he treated him as an accomplice, always asking his opinion and never disrespecting him. Throughout the book Russell describes the deepening relationships with examples of their unique friendship which in many cases are quite minor and not worthy of a book. BUT, at the end of the book Russell eloquently ties this altogether as he talks of his friends death, their intertwined family, and why the most private man I know would take the time to write a book of arguably the second most important relationship of his life, with his coach and friend, Red Auerbach. This book will appeal to Boston fans, sports fans in general and people interested in interpersonal relationships with only a passing interest in sports. NOTE: While I mentioned racism more than once as it affects the back story of this book, it is not a focus of this book whatsoever other than some early stories in the 50s describing how it impacted parts of their relationship. Please do not let this turn you off this book.

A friend of mine told me about this book coming out. I've read the other books by Red and Russell and found them to be good to great. So this one intrigued me but I thought 'what could be different?' Well, lots is different. Yes it is about relationship and just a little about basketball. But what it is really about is friendship, a unique friendship. Russell starts by doing an excellent job of taking you inside the upbringing of a young black kid in the rural south. Raised by a family and an extended family that cared and taught him valuable lessons that he was able to take with him. What he does best is tells us this story without bitching. It is almost like he is detatched. The message comes acrossed powerfully without him having to tell you. It was a tough life. His Mother, who he adored, died when he was 12. His father left the family, with the support of his Mother, to work in Detroit and support the family back in Louisiana. Its quite a journey for an untrusting soul at the time like Russell to end up in Boston befriended mutually with a Jew in Red. Loved the book and the powerful message of where he came from and where he journeyed to and the struggles in between. Well worth reading for the learnings you can glean from this unique friendship. Excellently written.

I must state for the record that I am not a Boston Celtic fan... but the fact that I openly admired their "team-first" play... and even though I was saddened for decades as they always beat my Lakers in the finals... as a basketball player myself... I was true to the heart of the sport... when I openly said they were the better team. The Celtics of the late 50's and 60's were *THE-GREATEST-DYNASTY-IN-THE-HISTORY-OF-ALL-PROFESSIONAL-SPORTS!* Winning *EIGHT-STRAIGHT-NBA-CHAMPIONSHIPS*... and winning *ELEVEN-NBA-CHAMPIONSHIPS-IN-THIRTEEN-YEARS*! This is a mark that has never been matched... and with the lunacy of free agency... probably never will. At the core of these storied championships were two men. The architect... a small fiery Jew from Brooklyn... the coach and general manager... Red Auerbach... and the winningest player in professional sports history... and Celtic center... Bill Russell. This is not to say there weren't other great players on these Celtic teams... of course there were. The Hall of Fame's walls are lined with many of their plaques... in addition to numerous other Celtic legends as well. Just to name a few: "Da Cooz"... Heinsohn... the Jones boys... Sharman... Sanders... Havlicek... Howell... Loscutoff... and many others. But the most valuable of all these... was center Bill ("Russ") Russell. Russ's unmatched record as the ultimate winner included back-to-back NCAA Championships with USF and an Olympic Gold Medal in 1956 before joining the Celtics. Most of these accolades are known by most Celtic fans and also by true sports fans. But what hasn't been known... until this book... because Russ never let anyone into his heart before... to share his intimate feelings... is how deep the reciprocal friendship... and yes the actual love was... between Russ and Red. The reason these feelings were never laid out in the open like this... is pretty obvious to Russ... and he'll hit you over the head with the reason innumerous times in this book. He and Red... like many of the other men of his time... didn't hug each other... or say I love you. [...] The Celtics became the first team in any professional sport to start an all black team. Asked about it they acted like they hadn't noticed... it was simply a case of putting the best team on the floor. When Red retired from coaching... he named Russ the new Celtic coach. Russell was the first black head coach or manager in professional sports history. Red and Russ never mentioned a thing. When the media asked Red about the significance of having the first "Negro" coach Red said: "LOOK, IT'S NO BIG DEAL. I JUST DID WHAT I THOUGHT WAS BEST FOR OUR TEAM." The powerful impact of this book is that feelings and wisdom is being shared by a legendary sports figure who for decades and decades had kept any emotions... other than complaining about a foul call... locked in a personal vault that many thought even Russell didn't have the combination to. But when his *FRIEND* Red Auerbach died on Oct

Bill Russell was the greatest athlete of his time, or maybe any other. He put results above personal glory and was a model for all who want to be winners to follow. This book offers remarkable insights into his own personal struggles for respect and how his friendship with his Celtics coach, Red Auerbach, allowed him the freedom to pursue his goals. A great book from a tremendous athlete! Highly recommended