A post for GW's most famous hoops Export:"Arnold Jacob Auerbach was one of the four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant from Minsk, Russia, and Marie Auerbach, née Thompson, was American-born. Auerbach Sr. had left Russia when he was 13, and the couple owned a delicatessen store and later went into the dry-cleaning business. Auerbach spent his whole childhood in [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg,_Brooklyn]Williamsburg, Brooklyn[/url], playing basketball. With his flaming red hair and fiery temper, Auerbach was soon nicknamed "Red."Amid the Great Depression, Red played basketball at PS 122 and in the Eastern District High School, where he was named "Second Team All-Brooklyn" by the World-Telegram in his senior year. Auerbach received an athletic scholarship to the basketball program of Bill Reinhart at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.[ Auerbach was a standout basketball player and graduated with a M.A. in 1941. In those years, Auerbach began to understand the importance of the fast break, appreciating how potent three charging attackers against two back-pedalling defenders could be

 he was well known for smoking a cigar when he thought a victory was assured, a habit that became, for many, "the ultimate symbol of victory" during his Boston tenure.[2][/url]In 1967, the NBA Coach of the Year award, which he had won in 1965, was named the "Red Auerbach Trophy", and Auerbach was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Auerbach#cite_note-pride-1][1][/url] In 1980, he was named the greatest coach in the history of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America,[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Auerbach#cite_note-NYTimes-5][5] and was NBA Executive of the Year in 1980. In addition, Auerbach was voted one of the NBA 10 Greatest Coaches in history, was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and is honored with a retired number 2 jersey in the TD Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics."