“He Spat in My Face, Then Scored 50 on My Team” — Red Auerbach Once Opened Up on Why He Never Liked Wilt Chamberlain, Calling Him the Most Disrespectful and Dangerous Man He Ever Coached Against
Red Auerbach built his legacy on discipline, strategy, and winning. The legendary Boston Celtics coach orchestrated one of the most dominant dynasties in NBA history, guiding the team to nine championships during his coaching tenure. But behind the victories and the trademark cigar smoke, Auerbach carried a grudge that never quite faded — against one man: Wilt Chamberlain.
In candid moments later in life, Red didn’t mince words when asked about Chamberlain.
“I never liked Wilt,” Auerbach once said. “He disrespected me every chance he got. He spat in my face — not literally, but with his mouth, with the way he talked. But then he’d back it up.”
One moment in particular stuck with the Hall of Fame coach — the now-legendary game on January 28, 1962. Wilt Chamberlain, playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, swaggered into the Boston Garden with a storm in his eyes. He didn’t come to play basketball. He came to dominate.
“He walked up to me before the game, stared me dead in the face, and said, ‘Red, I’m going to drop 40 on your boys tonight.’ I laughed. I had Bill Russell. I had the best team in the league,” Auerbach recalled.
But the laugh didn’t last long.
That night, Chamberlain didn’t score 40 — he scored 50. He put up 50 points on the Celtics and walked off the court with the look of a man who just kept his word. Red never forgot the humiliation.
“He was a big talker, yeah. But he was also a big doer. That’s what made him dangerous,” Auerbach later admitted. “You couldn’t stop him when he decided the game was his. And the worst part was, he’d tell you he was going to take it from you — then do it.”
Their rivalry became one of the NBA’s most complex matchups — not just between Celtics and Warriors or Russell and Chamberlain, but between two giants of pride and power: Red Auerbach and Wilt Chamberlain.
Red, known for his fiery temper and unshakable confidence, rarely showed deference to anyone. But in Wilt, he saw a storm he couldn’t always contain.
“He never played by your rules. He played by his. And when Wilt set his mind to something, God help the team standing in his way.”
For all the animosity, there was an underlying respect. Auerbach may not have liked Wilt Chamberlain, but he feared him — and in the world of Red Auerbach, that was perhaps the highest form of acknowledgment.
