Finally someone in the media points out the BB/Red parallels

Thank you, Steve. Now please walk over to Morrissey Boulevard with a printout of your column and stuff it down Bob Ryan's smug, sanctimonious, and hypocritical face.

Steve Bulpett said:

While the somewhat contrived controversies that have enveloped the Patriots the past several months were a summer (and winter and spring) blockbuster to the rest of the country, it was all little more than a sequel for many in these parts.

Nods and wry smiles were very much in fashion for Celtics types who recall well the 1980s. A highly successful team accused of subterfuge? They’d seen that movie — and now the remake.

“Oh sure,” former Celtics general manager Jan Volk said when asked if he had flashbacks amid reports of deflated footballs and general paranoia among Patriots opponents. “I’d been through that experience — not with the same media frenzy because the media environment is very different now than it was then, but in many ways, it looked very familiar.

“There were all sorts of presumed advantages that were being taken by Red (Auerbach) — by our whole organization, but obviously Red was the marquee person.”

Click to expand...

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/..._before_patriots_hate_it_was_celtics_paranoia

Excellent read

Good piece, but that comparison has definitely been made before. It is apt, though.

The difference is, red embraced it and used it as a tremendous edge. He just lit a cigar once, for instance and somebody made a remark about his smugness, whereupon he would light one every time he thought they couldn't lose and it became a thing.

Now that's a lot of pressure on him and the team because they'd look like fools if they lost the lead, but i never recall them losing one.

Of course, he never said it was a victory cigar, that was in the heads of the media and the opposition.

I've told the story about him scouting cowens personally, because he wanted to see if he could start at center [he could play forward, but not worth a top five pick] then walking out with a dismissive look on his face with all the scouts watching him, not the game. So Cowens isn't drafted in the top few and Auerbach takes him.

The master of the psychological edge. I've read more than a few books of the Celtics dynasty - worth checking out.