Watch Boston Celtics great Tommy Heinsohn praise Red Auerbach in Hall of Fame speech
Tommy Heinsohn the player was already in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
On Friday, Tommy Heinsohn the coach entered the hall — becoming only the fourth person to do so as both. In his enshrinement speech at Springfield Symphony Hall, the Boston Celtics great and current color commentator thanked who else but his coach and mentor, the late Red Auerbach.
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“I mean you’re able to get your players to give their total personhood to what they do, to give their body, their mind, and their spirit to winning, and Red accomplished this with a simple little thing: He listened to his players,’’ Heinsohn, a Holy Cross alumnus, said.
“Red’s style of play, the philosophy was to destroy the will of the other team to beat you,’’ he said. “ … He made us believe that the Boston Celtics and winning was our thing.’’
Heinsohn, who coached the Celtics to two NBA championships (and won eight previously as a player), joined one of his players, Jo Jo White, as a 2015 inductee.
With longtime referee Dick Bavetta in attendance as an inductee, Heinsohn, who’s known for his homerism during Celtics broadcasts, couldn’t help but take a shot.
“I didn’t know he was that humorous,’’ Heinsohn said of Bavetta’s speech. “That kind of explains all the funny calls he made.’’
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