A pivotal moment in Celtics history in 1978, legendary team president Red Auerbach decided to turn down an offer to decamp to the New York Knicks after the Celtics’ new owner John Y. Brown had made a mess of his roster by making trades without consulting Auerbach.
“It started on the streets of Boston,” Auerbach said via the New York Times’ Sam Goldaper, “where the average fans, not the season‐ticket holders or the rich ones, but the average guy just stopped me and said, ‘Red, don’t leave.'”
“From there it just spread to my players, former players. I got calls from John Havlicek, Frank Ramsay, Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White. Everyone just let me know in no uncertain terms that they wanted me to stay, and I found that very flattering. Havlicek told me he wouldn’t be there on opening night to have his number retired if I left Boston. When I left to go to New York to meet with Werblin and Burke, the pilot on the Eastern shuttle said, ‘Hey Red, don’t leave.'”
Mercifully, he did not.