The Red Zone
In a town of imported celebs, Red Auerbach is the District's real deal.
Cover Story
In a town of imported celebs, Red Auerbach is the District's real deal.
The lobby of the New Mexico Avenue office building in Wesley Heights has an exotic aroma: a mixture of delicacies from the adjoining upscale food emporium and the redolence of a Hoyo de Monterrey. None of the building's occupants complain about the notorious habit of tenant Red Auerbach, ranked by Cigar Aficionado as the eighth most famous cigar smoker in history. (Winston Churchill was No. 1, Groucho Marx No. 11.) The menu of Legal Sea Foods in Boston says, "No cigar or pipe smoking, except for Red Auerbach"; the 84-year-old legend appears to have been granted a similar de facto exemption from D.C.'s anti-smoking ordinances.
Auerbach's second-floor office consists of one modest-sized room. His name is on the door. There is no secretary: If you knock on the door and Auerbach is in residence, you are greeted by the man himself.
The walls are crammed with pictures of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Tom Heinsohn, Sam Jones, and other Boston Celtics, the team he coached to eight National Basketball Association championships in a row between 1959 and 1966--a record that will never, ever, be broken. In a corner is a replica of the statue of a seated Auerbach (with cigar) that greets visitors to Faneuil Hall, the Boston market built in 1742.
Auerbach's memory seemingly is intact. He sees and hears just fine. His handshake is firm. He chooses his words carefully, speaking each slowly with a scratchy Runyonesque voice that retains his native Brooklyn. And he does not suffer fools.... Continued 
Issue of Mar. 22 - 28, 2002
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