When the Boston Celtics won the NBA Final in 2008, Paul Pierce could be spotted on top of a green Duck Boat smoking a cigar. But, it wasn’t just any cigar. It was a cigar from Red Auerbach.
During Part I of NBC Sports Boston’s “Passing the Torch,” Celtics legend Paul Pierce sat down with point guard Kemba Walker to talk about leadership over the franchise’s history. In addition to Walker joking about how Brad Stevens is a “basketball junkie” in Part III, Pierce shared a unique story about how Auerbach looked out for him and how his cigars became infamous.
“I remember the first time meeting him, he came into the locker room and he had a cigar, it wasn’t lit at the time when I met him. He was like ‘Pierce, come here’ and I was like ‘Me?’ I didn’t even know he knew who I was, so I’m like ‘Man, what’s going on now? Did I do something?’” he laughed. “And he came and told me, ‘Yeah, I watched you at Kansas and you know, you need to work on this and work on that,’ so he always told me what I needed to do better, and I respected that out of him…”
But it wasn’t just a one-time interaction. This was the first of many moments between Pierce and Auerbach, and there always was a common aspect: cigars.
“Then I’m a full-blown Celtic, second or third year, and he came in there and now I walk into the arena, I smell the cigar. You smell the cigar now, every time he comes, it’s going to be lit. I go into the locker room, I start tying my shoes, I’m like, ‘Oh Red must be here,’ it’s in the air, nobody else is going to smoke in the arena,” Pierce recalled. “And so he’d come and after every game he gave me a cigar and I’d put it in my locker. So now I’m like, I’ve got all these cigars in my locker and I say, ‘You know, I’m not going to light this until I win a championship.'”
So he waited, and waited. He never touched those cigars. All the while, Auerbach continued to be a mentor to Pierce, urging him to work hard and be a leader.
“It was just, I’ve got one of the greatest coaches out here, he’s taking the time out to really come sit next to me and give me some words of advice and that was a really special moment so I’m glad I had an opportunity to share some moments with him,” Pierce said.
Then after 10 years of patience and hard work, Pierce and the Celtics won the 2008 NBA Final. Auerbach had died in October 2006, but that didn’t change how the Celtics captain celebrated his team’s title.
He knew exactly what to do.
“He wasn’t there when we won the championship, but I had a chance to light that cigar, and it was for Red … and that was really special.”
In part III of the “Pass the Torch” series, Jayson Tatum tells Celtics legend Tommy Heinsohn he couldn’t be happier to play in Boston.
