Just finished reading "Red and Me" by Bill Russell with Alan Steinberg. It taught me a lot about values and personal integrity in an different time, a different frame of references. Here's one story about Russell's early years in the Boston area:
"For example, raccoons are the smartest of all the wild animals. How do I know? Well, in 1957, I bought a house on Main Street in Reading, a Boston suburb. Of course, people knew that I was a Celtic, which meant they also knew when I was on the road. When I returned home after our first road trip that season, my wife told me there had been some vandalism while I was gone. The trash cans had been overturned and garbage was everywhere, so I had to clean it up. Next road trip, the same thing happened.
Being a good citizen, I visited the police station and reported the incident. I asked if I could call in to let them know when I'd be on my next road trip, so they could patrol our vicinity more frequently. The captain said, "Oh, that won't be necessary, It's probably just the raccoons." I said, "Okay. And by the way, is there a place I can get a gun permit? Because I want one." That was when I found out how smart raccoons were. I didn't even get a gun, and yet those raccoons heard that I'd gotten a permit and they never messed with my trash cans again! I enjoyed the hell out of that."
On a different note, Russell recalls his first memories of Red when he found about his friend's death.
"I could see Red's mischievous smile. And that brought to mind an even funnier incident, when Red was caught off-guard, which almost never happened. It was the time he gave Tommy Heinsohn - one of the Celtics' notorious characters - an exploding cigar. Tommy was having a lousy day. He was in the process of a messy divorce (...) so he was late driving to practice. He knew that Red would be all over his ass, so he started speeding, and a cop pulled him over and gave him a ticket. Tommy told himself, "Screw it. I'll be late anyway. I'll just sit here and smoke a cigar and relax. Then I'll go to practice and I'll be able to handle anything Red comes up with." He lit a cigar - but it was one that Red had given him, and it exploded. Finally, he arrived at practice, soot all over his face, and Red laughed like hell.
Tommy spent most of the next two years presenting Red with real cigars. But Red always had Tommy puff them first, in front of the team, as a test. He was too smart - he knew that Heinsohn was plotting revenge. Finally, after dozens of good cigars, Red dropped his guard and quit the testing. So, one day at practice, Red was addressing the team about something important when Tommy slipped him the loaded cigar. Red lit it up... and Bang! It caught him so much by suprise, he was beside himself. He never saw it comming. Especially from Heinsohn, who was not known for his infinite patience."
Precious.
Topic: Raccoons are the smartest of wild animals: a Bill Russell story (Read 6951 times)