Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach, one of the most famous head coaches in NBA history, was famous for his visiting locker rooms often not having any hot water. It was a slight discomfort that reminded teams they weren’t in friendly territory, and it worked, since Auerbach’s Celtics were also the winningest team throughout the 1960s. (More likely, the arena was just in bad shape and the hot water went out, but it’s more fun to let the legend grow.)
Brandon Jennings thinks the Celtics cut the visiting locker room hot water on purpose
Jennings and the Celtics could play next round, giving us our first HOT WATER BEEF.
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
On Wednesday, it seemed like Auerbach’s ghost visited the Celtics-Bulls Game 5.
The chances are that it almost has to be an innocent mistake, and that the TD Garden’s plumbing was messing up. It doesn’t seem like there would be a lever some rogue Celtics employee (perhaps directed by head coach Brad Stevens) could sneak over to in the bowels of the arena and pull, not with today’s modern complexity in that sort of thing.
“First of all, I’m not even sure that it did (turn off),” Celtics president Danny Ainge claimed on Thursday. “But no, I have no idea about that.”
But Wizards guard Brandon Jennings — who has played in the Eastern Conference and in Boston for years now — stoked the flames of the unheated water story.
This is really only interesting because the Wizards and the Celtics are both leading their series 3-2 and would play each other in the second round. HOT WATER BEEF, LET’S GO.
