New England Patriots: The history lesson Bill Belichick never learned
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick failed to learn the lessons of history
The lesson to be learned was from another all-world coach who also happened to be another Boston coach. He was a basketball coach.
His name was (especially for our younger readers) Arnold “Red” Auerbach. Red was the coach and then the General Manager plus for the Boston Celtics for decades.
The Celtics practice facility you can see on the Mass Pike is named after this coaching legend. What Belichick could have learned (again if he were interested) emanated from Auerbach.
How good was Russell? Well, he was inducted into the basketball Hall-of-Fame both as a player and as a coach good. He dominated the early NBA. He won 11 championships as a player.
Auerbach was a brilliant coach and talent evaluator. He was also a player acquisition talent almost without peers. The story of how he landed Bill Russell is a fascinating one.
He was also a great people person. Auerbach reportedly reached an interesting accommodation with his best player, Bill Russell.
Russell was the greatest winner in the history of major American team sports. And Red Auerbach knew it.
The lesson Auerbach teaches was this. He seemed he treated his best player, the best player in the league no differently than any other player.
In other words, ostensibly, everyone was treated the same. But, in reality, it was a mirage. His best player was treated, well, as his best player.
The coach wanted Russell to know that he appreciated him as his best player but didn’t want the other players thinking he got special treatment.
Here’s what one source notes,
"During the Celtics run, Bill Russell saw first hand how everyone was handled differently. Auerbach would yell at Tom Sanders and Don Nelson with incredible frequency. Meanwhile, as the best player on the team, Auerbach would often ask for permission to yell at Russell in future practices when he felt the team needed it. Russell would usually comply, but not always."
So, if this is accurate, Auerbach reportedly asked for Russell’s permission to yell at him in practice at times as he would any other player, but it was a sham. He knew it. And Russell knew it.
And that was all that counted. Everyone else must have thought, “If he can yell at Russell, he can certainly yell at me”. Brilliant in its simplicity.
But it was all just an arrangement. And even better put, it was an accommodation for the singular greatness of this once-in-a-lifetime player.