The time Red Auerbach tried to recruit a Young Wilt chamberlain to join the Celtics

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Auerbach, being Auerbach, knew it was time to recruit Chamberlain. He would let Wilt serve him drinks and cigars while he was playing poker at night, building a relationship with the young man. Then he made his move.

“Why don’t you go to Harvard. kid?” he said. “And then I’ll be able to pick you off in the territorial draft for the Celtics.”

"He showed he could do it all," said Boston Celtics President Red Auerbach about Wilt. "He was such a great scorer, he could get you 50, 60 points like it was nothing. There were very few players you feared more."

Wilt on the Celtics? I can’t process that Wilt on those 60's Celtic teams would have been so unfair.

However, Wilt Chamberlain so despised Red that much until his death, he would not speak Auerbach's name, referring to him only as "that man I don't like."

However Wilt praised the man before his death “Red Auerbach helped the Celtics to win, immeasurably,” Los Angeles Lakers great Wilt Chamberlain said prior to his death in 1999. “I’ve never been a huge Red Auerbach fan. He was the adversary and sometimes he really ticked me off. But he was able to do things with his team that no other coach did and he helped to make them the best franchise in sports. Just like John Wooden did for UCLA Red did so in spades in basketball professionally.”

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Haskell Cohen was working public relations for the NBA in the 50s when he spotted a kid playing ball in Overbrook High in Philadelphia. He knew a player that spectacular is just what the NBA needs, so he set him up with the best position a high school kid in need of development could get. A job as a bellhop on a resort in the Catskills. Wilt Chamberlian was 17 years old, 6 feet 10 1/2, and been playing against older players, doing quite well.

It sounds weird, but those summer jobs were the closest thing to an AAU circuit back in those days. A lot of college players would get summer jobs in such resorts, and they all had teams. Work during the day, play when your shift was over. Wilt was still in high school, but he could handle the college players. But, his coach didn’t like the way Wilt played defence. His coach was “the man with the cigar,” Red Auerbach. That’s right, one of the greatest coaches and GM’s in basketball history was coaching Wilt’s summer resort team.

“Looking back on it Wilt said I think maybe it was my attitude that first touched off Auerbach. You know, I wasn’t exactly the most modest kid in town, and I had a lot of moves for a high school freshie playing with the big boys. And when Red would call practice he would sort of talk to me in that voice that catches you right here, right between the ribs. He especially didn’t like the way I played defence. “Don’t you think, Chamberlain,” Red would growl, “that it might be sort of a good idea to defence your man from in from of him instead of behind him? What the hell are you doing back there?” But I went on defending the guys from behind, reaching around with my arms to get the ball, waiting to fall on them when they wheeled around to shoot.”

When it comes to character, Wilt was the complete opposite of everything Auerbach believed a basketball player should be. We know that for sure because we saw what Bill Russell did with Red and how they played. So a game against Shawanga Lodge was the perfect opportunity for Red to teach Wilt a lesson in humility and team-first basketball. Shawanga Lodge had B.H. Born on the team, an All-American from the University of Kansas. Red announced the game by saying Wilt that Born “is going to make chopped chicken liver out of you.”

“At the half-time break I had scored 30-some points and Born had scored exactly two. And I came ambling back into the dressing room and flopped myself down on the training table and folded my arms behind my head. I was whistling, you know, doe de doo de doo, and sort of looking side-wise at old Red while he looked back at me with a steely stare.”

Red had to acknowledge that Wilt was special. All it took was a simple gesture of respect from the great Red Auerbach. He started the halftime talk with “Now, Mr. Chamberlain, may I please have your attention for a moment?” He got Wilt’s attention. Chamberlain did what most coaches talk about being crucial – he allowed himself to be coached. Wilt started playing defence the way Red wanted him to play defence, and he learned a lot that summer.

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Auerbach, being Auerbach, knew it was time to recruit Chamberlain. He would let Wilt serve him drinks and cigars while he was playing poker at night, building a relationship with the young man. Then he made his move.

“Why don’t you go to Harvard. kid?” he said. “And then I’ll be able to pick you off in the territorial draft for the Celtics.”

The drinks and cigars did work however Wilt went to Kansas to play for Phog Allen, whom he admired, and later to Philly and the Lakers. Wilt on the Celtics? is a monster team that would have more than likely would have won 10 plus titles with Wilt.

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Now this is an underrated what if all Wilt had to do was yes and he would have been a Celtic. However, I don't think the Celtics draft Russell if they have Wilt waiting in the wings instead as Russell hated st Louis he stills gets traded but instead to the warriors where he played his college days at in the bay area. Is Wilt the undisputed goat if he is a Celtic they still win lots of titles with Wilt instead of Russell and maybe Russell is not even a top ten player all-time any more if never gets drafted by the Celtics.

[86Celtics]

Would it really have made such a difference though? Boston won 11 titles with Russell, how many more would they have won with Chamberlain? Would Chamberlain and Auerbach be able to co-exist long enough? Russell was the perfect professional player for Auerbach, Chamberlain was a bit more lackadaisical and aloof. Not to say that the Celtics with Chamberlain wouldn't enjoy tremendous success together.

It would however have a huge impact in how Russell and Chamberlain are perceived and ranked.

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Would it really have made such a difference though? Boston won 11 titles with Russell, how many more would they have won with Chamberlain? Would Chamberlain and Auerbach be able to co-exist long enough? Russell was the perfect professional player for Auerbach, Chamberlain was a bit more lackadaisical and aloof. Not to say that the Celtics with Chamberlain wouldn't enjoy tremendous success together.

It would however have a huge impact in how Russell and Chamberlain are perceived and ranked.

I agree 11 in 13 is hard to top the Celtics would still win lots of titles with Wilt and maybe Wilt gets more than 4 MVPs. I have to think that Red makes Wilt play like he did with the sixers so no 100 point game for Wilt and most of his scoring records would be gone but however he would have a lot more rings and finals MVP's and MVP's. Russell I still feel gets three rings with the warriors before Wilt comes in 1959 with the Celtics. so the 1967 version of Wilt is how I think red would have tried to make Wilt play in the Celtics system at the time.

[Psileas]

Would it really have made such a difference though? Boston won 11 titles with Russell, how many more would they have won with Chamberlain? Would Chamberlain and Auerbach be able to co-exist long enough? Russell was the perfect professional player for Auerbach, Chamberlain was a bit more lackadaisical and aloof. Not to say that the Celtics with Chamberlain wouldn't enjoy tremendous success together.

It would however have a huge impact in how Russell and Chamberlain are perceived and ranked.

The difference would be that rings+high scoring = more valid GOAT argument, at least going by the logic of modern fans. People constantly use Russell's low scoring as a slight against him, so as not to have him as a valid GOAT candidate. They wouldn't be able to do this against Wilt and it wouldn't matter even if Wilt won a little less than 11 titles, because very few would dare assume that Russell would be able to win more in Wilt's place. So, they would have to bring Wilt's era even lower than they already try to. It would literally be their only constant argument, especially since Boston's main adversary in the Finals was a team that wasn't that good at the C position and Russell was having huge series against them. Wilt would feast on the Lakers, like he was doing in the regular season and that would be a Finals resume, the Holy Grail of modern fans arguments. Their second best argument would be if Wilt's Boston happened to lose some Finals' series and there might appear some "6/6 > 10/11" crap here and there, but that's totally ridiculous and even most casual fans try to find something better to come up with.

[guy]

I don’t see why the Celtics wouldn’t have still done the trade to get Russell first. There’s 3 years between those two. I don’t know if Russell would be considered too big for a PF but he was incredibly athletic that I don’t see why he couldn’t play the position. Pretty crazy what-if.