Free Bird Watching by Larry Bird, Jackie Macmullan Page B

ended up as the Celtics coach, there was no doubt in my mind he’d get them back on track. He seemed like he was the front-runner, but I was guessing. Once I gave the Celtics my list of coaches, I was frozen out. The Celtics weren’t telling me anything.
    Brown interviewed with the Celtics and called me afterward. He sounded excited. He told me, “I think I’ve got the job.” He said Gaston told him he needed just a couple more days, and he’d get back to him with the details. I congratulated him and wished him luck.
    Next thing you know—BOOM!—Larry Brown is
not
the next coach of the Celtics. A couple of days turned into a week, and suddenly Pitino was back in it. I don’t know how it all happened, because I was out in the cold at that point, but various newspapers later reported that Larry Brown and Rick Pitino were playing in a golf tournament in California and Larry told Rick he thought he had the Boston job and he was just waiting for the owner to wrap everything up. The next thing you know, Rick is back into the picture and Larry Brown is out of a job.
    When I heard what happened, I was sick about it. Larry called me up and said, “What is going on?” I couldn’t give him an answer. The truth was, I had no idea what was happening. I called up Gaston and said, “What are you doing? You’ve got this guy sitting over here wanting the job and you’re messing around with him. You’re leaving him hanging. Do you want him or not?” But Gaston wouldn’t really tell me. He said if Larry Brown wants to get another job, then he should do that.
    That’s when I knew Pitino was in and Larry Brown was out, and it really ticked me off. It was done all wrong. I had no problem with Rick Pitino being the coach—it was the way it was handled that bothered me. Larry Brown should have been treated with far more respect throughout the process, and Paul Gaston should have been more straightforward with me. But neither one of those things happened. In the end, all I could do was call Larry and apologize and tell him I was sorry. Soon after that, the Sixers hired Larry Brown. I bet the first thing he did was circle all the dates on his schedule when his team played Boston.
    I knew what was coming next. Pitino officially accepted the job as coach of the Celtics and fired a whole bunch of people who had been with the team for years, which is what I would have done too, if I had taken over some management role in that organization. There’s no question that a fresh start was the best way to go with the Celtics. Actually, Pitino was smart enough to have Gaston fire all those people before he came on board, but everybody knew who was calling the shots. Pitino didn’t fire Red Auerbach, but he changed his title of president to vice chairman of the board.
    I felt really bad for Red, because he’s the reason the Boston Celtics were the best organization in basketball. As far as I’m concerned, he saved the NBA, not just the Celtics, by the way he coached and won championships. From what I understand, Red was pretty upset about it, but he wasn’t too happy with me either. During the process of finding a coach I did an interview with the
Boston Globe,
and in the story I said I could never be coach of the Celtics because I would have to make some tough changes, including firing people I really liked. I said there were too many people trying to make decisions for the team, and then I made a comment about how I hardly ever agreed with Red on anything, so how could I coach his team? It was a joke, but I guess Red didn’t find it very funny. The thing is, he took it the wrong way. I’m telling you right now: if I ever had taken the coaching job or general manager’s job for the Celtics, I would have had Red right there beside me. He would have been president forever if I had any say in it. I have the highest regard for him, and I always will.
    I don’t understand exactly what happened between me and Red, but I’m just as stubborn