Tag: 1966 nba championship

WATCH: Celtics coaching legend Red Auerbach’s last game, Boston’s ninth title

This would be Boston’s eighth consecutive title and Auerbach’s final game as head coach.

With an unmatched record in US professional sports, Arnold “Red” Auerbach threw in the towel on being an NBA head coach when he played his last game in that role for the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Celtics’ 1966 NBA Finals series with their longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Boston would of course win the game, the series, and the title — their eighth consecutive and ninth overall. In the years that followed, Celtics star big man Bill Russell would take the team’s helm as a player-coach, becoming the first Black head coach not only in NBA history but in the histories of any of the four major North American sports. Red had earned his retirement to a front-office job, having amassed a 938 – 479 record as a head coach, most of it with the Celtics.

To watch clips from that historic game, check out the video embedded below, courtesy of our friends over at CLNS Media’s “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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On this day: Red Auerbach retires as coach, 1966 championship won

On this day, renowned Boston Celtics head coach and GM red Auerbach retired as coach of the team after winning the franchise’s 9th championship.

On this day in 1966, Boston Celtics head coach Red Auerbach retired after taking the Celtics their ninth championship with a 95-93 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Auerbach coached Boston for all nine of its championships up to that point — eight of them consecutive between 1959-66 — before passing the baton to player-coach Bill Russell.

His 16 seasons as head coach produced a 795-397 regular season record (a .667 winning percentage) and a 90-58 postseason record (.608), the winningest in league history to that point, a record that would hold for many years.

It is also the anniversary of Boston setting an NBA single-game playoff scoring record after beating the New York Knicks 157-128 in Game 2 of the first round of the 1990 Eastern Conference Playoffs.

The Celtics shot .670 (63-of-94 from the field overall), also a playoff record at that time. Kevin McHale led Boston with 31 points and 10 rebounds.

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