In a story by the New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy, Gerald Brown — who now hosts a weekly SiriusXM radio show, “The Bottom Line Sports Show,” with Rick Mahorn and a podcast named “In the Key” with BJ Armstrong — took a walk down memory lane as he relayed an interesting tale about Boston Celtics legends Red Auerbach and Larry Bird.
Brown is a Harlem native who was once a ballboy for the New York Knicks thanks to a chance meeting with a team staffer. The adolescent career continued when he went to a college in Newton, MA. (just outside of a Boston) but this time, rather than working for the Knicks, Brown would work for their division rival after earning the trust of the team by fetching a new uniform for Bird.
At first, the relationship — though unexpected — went well for Brown.
When the young man had a jacket stolen, Celtics point guard Dennis Johnson gave him $200 in cash to replace it. Bird would even pick up Brown from Mount Ida in his blue pickup truck, which almost seems unfathomable in today’s day and age.
But in the 1989-90 season, Brown would find himself caught in between more than a division rivalry, as Boston and New York would meet in the first round of the 1990 NBA Playoffs. After Bird took over in Game 1 with 24 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in a win for the Celtics, the tides turned for both he and Boston.
In a bathroom at Boston Garden, just before Game 2, Brown would be by the team’s head ballboy on the orders of Auerbach (the Celtics’ cigar-toting president at that point of his storied career) for cheering for his hometown team during Game 1. Cheers that Bird noted while watching film and (perhaps jokingly) would then tell Auerbach:
“Red Auerbach happens to be in there. Evidently, he took what Larry said as Larry being upset, like I was not a true Celtic,” Brown says. “He tells the equipment manager Wayne Lebeaux to get rid of me, not realizing that Larry was playing.”