As the NBA draft approaches, I thought of the story of Red Auerbach’s acquisition of Bill Russell. This story*– told in “Let Me Tell a Story: A Lifetime in the Game”, the autobiography Auerbach wrote with John Feinstein, (a book I very much recommend and is available for less than $6 at Amazon.com) – was going to be re-told in Stumbling on Wins. Unfortunately – in the process of editing the book — it ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor. As we think about how much teams think about today, it is interesting pick this story up from the floor and look back a time when teams had far less information before the NBA draft.
The NBA draft has always been a part of the league. But the resources teams could devote to the process were initially quite limited.
To illustrate, consider how the Boston Celtics came to draft Hall-of-Fame center Bill Russell. The person responsible for acquiring Russell was Red Auerbach. Back in 1950 Auerbach became the Celtics head coach, as well as “general manager, chief scout, and marketing guru.”
For the first six years of Auerbach’s tenure the Celtics consistently posted a winning record but could never get past the Eastern Division Finals. And then in 1956 Auerbach got a call from Bill Reinhart, his old college coach. Reinhart had just visited the West Coast and seen a player from the University of San Francisco named Bill Russell. When Reinhart returned from California he called Auerbach and said: “I’ve seen this guy who can make you into a championship team. You have to get this guy.” Reinhart went on to discuss Russell’s ability to get rebounds and play defense.
Of course Auerbach wondered if Russell could contribute on offense. In Reinhart’s view, Russell was not a very good shooter and couldn’t help Boston much on offense. Nevertheless, Reinhart thought Russell was a player who could help the Celtics win games.
For the remainder of the college season Auerbach tracked Russell and the University of San Francisco (primarily via newspaper reports). When the season was over Russell’s team was undefeated and had won a second straight NCAA title.
We should emphasize that Auerbach claims he never saw Russell play before he was drafted. Auerbach’s interest in Russell was entirely based on what Reinhart told him about his play and the record Russell’s team achieved. Based on this limited information, Auerbach took the following steps to acquire Russell.
The Celtics entered the 1956 draft with the 7th pick. This pick was sent to the St. Louis Hawks – along with Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan, for the 2nd pick. It was believed that the Rochester Royals – who had the first pick – might want to take Russell. Auerbach, though, had a secret weapon. The owner of the Celtics, Walter Brown, was also the president of the Ice Capades. Brown called up the owner of the Royals– Lee Harrison — with the following offer: Brown would send the Ice Capades to Rochester for one week if the Royals would pass on Russell.
Harrison agreed and with the first overall choice in the 1956 draft the Royals selected Si Green, a guard from Duquesne. Green only played 33 games with the Rochester-Cincinnati Royals before he was sent to the St. Louis Hawks. After the Hawks he played for a franchise that transformed from the Chicago Packers, to the Chicago Zephyrs, and finally to the Baltimore Bullets. And then he finished his career in 1965-66 with the Boston Celtics. Across his nine season career Green never averaged more than 12.7 points per game and he was below average in shooting efficiency. Although we can’t measure Wins Produced prior to 1977, one suspects given the data that is available that Green was not one of the better NBA player in the game during his career. In sum, one hopes the shows the Ice Capades put on for that one week in Rochester were simply amazing; because it certainly appears Si Green never came close to the productivity of Bill Russell.
Lessons Learned
Okay, beyond this being a fascinating story about Red Auerbach, what do we learn from this tale?
1. Back in the 1950s, the NBA was a very small business. Can one imagine a team trading the rights to host a show over taking a player with the number on pick? If that is the still the case, what show would the Wizards take to pass on John Wall?
2. This story highlights how little information decision-makers had before drafting talent in the 1950s. Although I believe you need to do more than just watch a player, I wouldn’t think anyone would want to draft a talent they never even saw play. Certainly one wouldn’t expect anyone today to go to this much effort for a player they had never met.
3. And finally, this story also highlights a point we made in Stumbling on Wins. Often the first pick in the NBA draft is far more productive than the second pick (although in this case, Russell was technically the second pick). Therefore NBA teams have an incentive to do whatever they can to land that first pick.
Of course, “often the first pick…” is not “always.” If John Wall does go first in 2010, I am not sure he will necessarily be much better than the players who go afterwards.
Update: Some people have questioned whether the Celtics gave up the seventh pick in the 1956 draft to acquire Bill Russell. Here is what Auerbach and Feinstein said in their book: “(Auerbach) called his old boss Ben Kerner, who by then owned the team in St. Louis. He offered (Ed) Macauley and a swap of first round draft picks — Kerner’s number two slot for Red’s number seven slot. According to Red, Kerner said, “Deal”.”
- DJ
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*-This story is told in Feinstein and Auerbach (2004), pp. 73-76.
Thanks for posting this, Dr. Berri. I’ve not heard that story before and appreciate reading it.
I find it interesting that Auerbach felt the need to inflate his side of the trade in retrospect. He always claimed he gave up Macauley, Hagan, AND his own first-round pick; the last is not accurate. He made a territorial selection, which used up his first-rounder in that year’s draft–which turned out pretty well, too, since Tommy Heinsohn was the player he selected.
I’ll hazard a guess that Red felt guilty for fleecing the Hawks–giving them an aging all-star and a guy leaving the military after three years, and getting the greatest winner in NBA history. Hagan turned out to be great, and Russell didn’t go to racially-challenged St. Louis of the 50′s, where he might have had a very different future; all’s well that ends well–unless you’re a Laker fan.
(Dammit.)
“I find it interesting that Auerbach felt the need to inflate his side of the trade in retrospect. He always claimed he gave up Macauley, Hagan, AND his own first-round pick; the last is not accurate.”
?? Dave is referring the the 7th overall pick, which was a first round pick. I believe territorial picks were supplemental picks, which I always thought was ridiculously unfair but it highlights how financially precarious the league was in those early days.
Purportedly, back in the day the Packers and the rest of the National Football League relied on Street & Smith magazine’s player evaluations for their draft selections.
I’m not sure I wholeheartedly believe that, but I know the teams didn’t put a lot of capital in their player evaluation departments.
Seems like they didn’t lose their pick really at all. Maybe they traded it but then then could still use it as a territorial pick?
link
Off-topic I know, but when should we expect part two of the two-part post on the Houston Rockets?
Basketball reference doesn’t mention any draft pick at all in that transaction.
Through the 1965 season, teams could select players within their immediate geographical area (variously reported as 50 or 75 miles), regardless of the actual draft order. That team then forfeited their normal first-round pick. Details for the 1956 draft are sparse, but you can verify at prosportstransactions.com.
This was traditionally a way for franchises to keep the local hero, in a effort to boost ticket sales. It was supposed to be for local COLLEGE players, though Eddie Gottlieb used it to take Kansas’ Wilt Chamberlain in 1959. His argument was that Wilt didn’t graduate from Kansas, and/or that he played high school in Philadelphia, so the Warriors should have territorial rights; it was the only time the rule was employed this way, so one wonders what Gottlieb had up his sleeve. (He singlehandedly created the league schedule for many years, so maybe he threatened to leave it for someone else!)
One would have to believe the Celtics could have offered Macauley and their own first pick for Russell, and kept Hagan; Heinsohn was a big college star, and unlikely to have lasted until late in the second round, so he would have ended up somewhere besides Boston. Would this outcome have made a major difference in the Celtics’ success over the next several seasons? I think probably not. Hagan was productive in the NBA through ’66, Heinsohn through retirement in ’65; both were forwards, but Heinsohn was the better rebounder–Russell would have had to snag a few more, I guess.
I don’t usually get too excited for the draft (for the reasons stated in previous articles posted here) but I am THOROUGHLY enjoying the re-runs of old drafts on NBATV. Seeing a young, happy Rasheed Wallace was mind-blowing but it was nowhere near as entertaining as watching GSW, Don Nelson & Chris Webber. Knowing how it all turned out after the fact made it exceedingly enjoyable.
I noticed the update; doesn’t affect the facts. My original point was that, for whatever reason, Red always misstated the trade after the fact; a post using his statements to refute that is not useful. He traded Macauley and the rights to Hagan, and nothing else, for the Hawks’ first pick (Russell, #2 overall); he used his own first-rounder for Heinsohn as a territorial pick–or Heinsohn was selected by another team and played his career somewhere else. You can’t have it both ways. Red can remember it wrong, but he’s still wrong–or fudging. He built up the legend of Mel Counts until the Bullets gave up Bailey Howell; you think he was afraid to bend the truth?
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