Red and Me

By: Bill Russell

Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez

New York Times Bestseller

""On the subject of his love of Red Auerbach and his Celtic teammates, Russell is loud and clear. He might object to my use of the word 'love,' but deny it though you will, Mr. Russell, that's what sits at the heart of this beautiful book."" — Bill Bradley, New York Times Book Review

In Red and Me, Boston Celtics basketball legend Bill Russell pays homage to his mentor and coach, the inimitable Red Auerbach. A poignant remembrance of a life-altering relationship in the tradition of Big Russ and Me and Tuesdays With Morrie, Red and Me tells an unforgettable story of one unlikely and enduring friendship set against the backdrop of the greatest basketball dynasty in NBA history.

Red Auerbach was one of the greatest basketball coaches in sports history. Bill Russell was the star center and five-time MVP for Auerbach's Celtics, and together they won eleven championships in thirteen years. But Auerbach and Russell were far more than just coach and player. A short, brash Jew from Brooklyn and a tall, intense African-American from Louisiana and Oakland, the men formed a friendship that evolved into a rare, telling example of deep male camaraderie even as their feelings remained largely unspoken.

Red and Me is an extraordinary book: an homage to a peerless coach, which shows how he produced results unlike any other, and an inspiring story of mutual success, in which each man gave his all and gained back even more. Above all, it may be the most honest and heartfelt depiction of male friendship ever captured in print.

©2009 Bill Russell; (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Amazing book

An amazing book with amazing stories about two absolute legends. This is a must listen

A Great Walk Through Basketball History

I'm a basketball fan, but even if I weren't, I would have still enjoyed this audio book as much as the most ardent fan.

The only missing is that it would have been even better if we could have enjoyed Bill Russell's one of a kind voice throughout the book.

Very good read for everyone!

An awesome story of Very respectable people

I love this listen. Great story, not only as a Celtics fan, but as someone that admires what these men accomplished on and off the court.

You don't hate be a Celtics fan to appreciate the story, but if you weren't before you give it a try, you maybe after ☘

Why Did Sanitize This Version?

In general, Mr Russell’s premise for this book is that he and Coach Auerbach deeply respected and appreciated each other from the first day they met. They also achieved everything that anyone could ever hope to achieve on a basketball court when they worked together with the Celtics. Unfortunately, that lack of conflict doesn’t lead to a very compelling narrative. I left this book looking forward to reading a more journalistic history of the Boston dynasty.

What is puzzling is that Mr Russell has told many of these stories before in interviews or in other books, and in previous narratives, the stakes are higher and the images are more graphic. This has the time of a history written for youth.

For instance, in “Red & Me”, Mr Russell rather comically tells how he scared off racists who had vandalized his home in the town of Reading Mass. He says the local police told him that his garbage cans were probably knocked over by raccoons, and the raccoons were smart enough to stop bothering him once he applied for s as gun permit at the town hall.

In an earlier telling of the same story, Mr Russell explained that racial epithets were written in excrement on the walls INSIDE his house—the same house where his wife and daughter lived alone when he was playing ball on the road. I have no idea why he includes that story in this book and takes the horror out of it. It’s hard to believe that his relationship with Coach Auerbach wasn’t effected by the pain of these racist attacks that threatened his family’s safety. There is also no mention of any thought of leaving Boston for a less segregated community. It’s understood that Coach Auerbach (and owner Walter Brown) were notably anti-racist which was
not common in the NBA, yet they couldn’t control the racism of their fans.

Likewise, Mr Russell describes Coach Red as a basketball genius because the Celtics won 11 championships, but the most specific stories he related are all about Auerbach letting Russell do whatever he thinks will be most successful. The problem is that in the same book, Russell demonizes his college and olympic coaches for not understanding his basketball talents. But those teams also won championships. One could read this and think that any coach of Bill Russell’s was bound to win no matter how they behaved—because in fact, they did.

I wish “Red & Me” had presented instances of failure—most people learn more from failure than success. In truth, the Celtics were a last place team during a period in the 70s when Auerbach was still general manager. He brought in highly questionable players and they under performed. Likewise, Russell had some success as a coach away from Boston, but he was also fired from at least one job. Nothing from this period is mentioned and it would’ve been valuable to know how these great men supported each other when times were hard.