Celtics’ Red Auerbach, as feisty as ever at NBA season opener

Last November 3, Boston Globe sportswriter Peter May paid homage to one of the true giants of professional basketball, Arnold "Red" Auerbach, the 88-year old, cigar-chomping former head coach of the Boston Celtics and now the team’s president.

The reason for the homage was Auerbach’s presence at what he guessed was his 50th season opener. And if anything was different than normal, this time he was seated courtside, near the Knicks' bench, rather than in his usual loge seat. After what he has been through, any seat in the building had to look good to him that night.

Two months earlier, the lovable, legendary curmudgeon had been struggling to stay alive with the help of a ventilator in a Washington, DC hospital’s intensive care unit. It was there that he made a bet with visiting Celtics coach Doc Rivers and basketball boss Danny Ainge, that he'd up and present for the season opener. Having made his doubted presence a fact, you can be certain he has collected already from each of them.

Auerbach showed the press and others in attendance, he has lost little of his legendary gruffness. He was OK. The mind was still sharp, and he was in full-tweak mode, as evidenced by his reaction to a reporter’s question regarding Los Angeles Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson,

May wrote in the Globe, "Jackson has been a convenient and consistent foil for years, or ever since the soon-to-be Hall of Famer threatened to overtake Auerbach for most NBA titles. Each has won nine. Auerbach did it with the greatest winner of all time, Bill Russell. Jackson did much of it with the individual many feel is the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan.

"Asked if he had heard from Jackson while in the hospital, Auerbach said he had not. That surprised no one. Then someone asked Auerbach if he thought Jackson would ever win a 10th title.

"What's ever? Who knows what 'ever' is? Phil obviously is a good coach," Auerbach said. "You don't win that many games without being a damn good coach. Remember one thing: He's been very fortunate. He picks his spots.

‘"That's all I can say. Larry Brown don't pick his spots. He's a great coach."

"The lesson? Never get into a you-know-what contest with someone whose constant travel companion is a urologist," May wrote.

Brown, who’s New York Knicks were in town to open the 2005-06 season with the Celts, won two Eastern Conference titles and one NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in two years with the Motor City team. He is the oldest active coach in the NBA at 65, and met with Auerbach just before the press conference started. The two men greeted each other with big hugs.

"Larry Brown is a great coach," May quoted Auerbach. "He's probably the best coach in the NBA today. He gets the most out of his players. He'll have them hustling and fighting and scrapping the whole year."

Auerbach didn't attend the game alone. His unique entourage included his daughter, Nancy, and her husband. Also his urologist, Murray Lieberman, and cardiologist, Sean Dwyer. One of the downsides to Auerbach's post-operative care, however, May reported, is the doctor’s unappreciated order that the former coach must give up cigars.

"I don't want to get into that," he said.

And he didn't want to get into the concept of mortality. "I'm here. That's what counts," Auerbach reportedly said.

If you are a cigar lover, or if you would just like to have a picture taken with Red, take a walk through Quincy Market in Boston. On the right side ¾ as you walk from the Old State House toward the harbor ¾ there is a full-sized statue of Red, with cigar in hand, sitting on a bench. There is plenty of room for you and a grandchild or three on the bench. Just make sure there is plenty of film in the camera.

If you are short a photographer, just ask. There is no shortage of friendly people to snap the shutter.

Israeli runner leading San Diego resurgence

Lital Azulay isn’t just another runner; she’s a winner. After all, what’s the point of competing if you don’t win?

Whether it is outdoor track or cross-country, the Israeli runner is proving she is a winner for the San Diego State University Aztecs.

In just one year, the mid-year transfer from Coastal Carolina University has placed herself in the SDSU Top 10 in every race classification she competes in, in outdoor track, and was voted to the MWC Cross Country first team in her first season of American College competition.

She also took the gold medal in the 3,000 meter run in the 17th Maccabiah last summer.

Unlike other college sports, track is not seasonal. It is a year-round competitive activity with runners slipping seamlessly from cross-country, to indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring. The only noticeable difference is the change in garb, track shoes, and the type of cleats for traction.

Led by Azulay, at native of Holon, Israel, the San Diego State women's cross-country team is enjoying a resurgence that has led to one of its finest seasons ever in 2005. Fielding perhaps its deepest squad in recent years, several individual and team milestones were reached during a memorable campaign in which Aztec runners repeatedly established career-best times, propelling SDSU to its first-ever appearance in the regional polls.

Individually, she quickly established herself as one of the elite runners in school history. In her first cross-country season on San Diego’s Montezuma Mesa, the sophomore was SDSU's top finisher in all six races she ran, including an individual title at the Santa Clara Invitational. She posted three of the school's top-10 fastest times at the 6-kilometer distance and two of the school's top-10 times in the 5km. For her efforts, Azulay was named Mountain West Conference Runner of the Week on two occasions, becoming just the second Aztec, along with SDSU runner Marie Nilsson, to win the award twice in the same season.

As a further reward, MWC coaches chose Azulay to the All-Conference first team.

The Holon, Israel, native capped off the year at the NCAA regional meet by recording the school's second-fastest 6km mark (21:05.80), garnering all-region honors with her top-25 finish.

Azulay is feeling right at home at San Diego State University, something she never did at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. The area, she said was just too different from Holon, a city of 200,000 people.


It was small, rural, and not the fast pace she was used to at home. She never adjusted.

However, since transferring to SDSU the feeling of belonging is back." San Diego is more like home to me," Azulay said. "I have lived in a city for my entire life; I am very happy here".

Part of the reason she has adapted so well to the culture of the United States is cross-country assistant coach Jennifer Nanista.

"It has taken some time for her to feel comfortable here," Nanista said. "But she is coming along well, and now I think she feels that she is never on her own, always part of a team.

"She would do her own thing when she was in South Carolina. But she can't do that here; I won't let her."

Azulay competed for one year (2003-04) for the Chanticleer’s, helping them win the triple crown - cross-country, indoor and outdoor championship in the Big South Conference. She earned all-Big South accolades once in cross-country, and in two events apiece in indoor and outdoor track. On the track she placed second in the 5,000 (17:46.09) and third in the 10,000 (37:55.77) at the 2004 Big South outdoor championship meet. She also ran the 1,200-meter leg of the winning distance medley relay team (12:18.91) and took third in the 5K (18:16.03) at the 2004 Big South indoor championships. And she copped 12th place at the 2003 Big South cross-country championship meet, completing the 5km course in 19:28.44.

Azulay also holds the Israeli National Junior records in the 5K (17:57.11) and the half marathon (1:25:22), and the Israeli National indoor record in the 5K (18:15.45). She ranks among the Israeli all-time top 10 in many events, including fourth in the 5K (17:05.12) and 10K (35:39.3), ninth in the marathon (2:52:51) and 10th in the 3K (9:56.97).

As a teenager, she was the Israeli U-17 and U-19 national champion in the 800-meter run, 3km and cross country events as well as the 2003 national champion in the 5km. And internationally, she participated in the International European Cup for Nations, the Maccabiah Games, 1999 Germany World Schools championship and the Junior National Team Invitational in Cyprus, Greece.

Nanista is looking expectantly towards the 2006 Outdoor season, which begins Feb. 7. After a breakout cross country season for junior Christal Cuadra, coupled with the return of senior Marie Nilsson and the addition of Azulay, the distance events could be the team’s most improved area in 2005.

"It will be interesting to see what the three will do training hard together," Nanista said. "The three should be able to cover everything from the steeplechase to the 10,000, and hopefully, we can get some points at the conference meet from the distance athletes."

Coming out of the 2005 SDSU Track and Field Outdoor Season, Azulay posted the tenth best time in the 800-meter run at the San Diego City Championships (3/12/05) 2:21.39.

Her best 500-meter run was a 4:45.69 in the Aztec Classic (3/19/05), followed by a second best 10:12.85 in the same contest.

And as the distances became longer, she became better. Her 5,000 meters at the West Regional: was a team personal best of 17:16.08, and other team best in the 10,000 meters of 38.47.18 which was an automatic qualifier for the NCAA championships.

Many of last year’s marks were close to school records, a feat she may just complete in her coming two years of eligibility.

NOTE: To convert meters into yards multiply by 1.0936. Ex: 800 meters = 874 yards, 2 feet, 7 inches (nominally, ½ mile). 5km = 3.1 miles.

A note on last month’s column

A certain reader from New York University contacted me directly after reading last month’s column, claiming that I had made a mistake in calling Paul Tagliabue, the Commissioner of the National Football League, Jewish.

Actually, I wrote that all four commissioners, or league presidents, were Jewish. Tagliabue, plus Gary Bettman, National Hockey League; David Stern, National Basketball Association; and Bud Selig, Major League Baseball.

Tongue-in-cheek, the NYU doctor quipped, "Three out of four isn’t bad."

Actually, four out of four is perfect.

Quite correctly, the doctor pointed out that Tagliabue is an Italian-American. Point well taken and correct. But since when is being Italian, or Italian-American, mutually exclusive with being Catholic. Until the United States opened the doors at Castle Gardens and later Ellis Island to the great Jewish migration of the 19th and 20th centuries, and later, after World War II with the re-establishment of the State of Israel, Italy enjoyed the largest Jewish population in the world.

There have been many great Italian Jews, not the least of which is the great post-holocaust writer Primo Levi.

I don’t often beat my chest and say I was right. But correcting this misassumption is something I just felt I had to do. That said, to that writer and to all of my readers, if you see a mistake in my column, do not hesitate to bring it to my attention. I’m only human.