"The Celtics might have put in there to make us sick" - Pat Riley had trust issues with Red Auerbach

In the NBA, no rivalry has been as intense and personal as that between the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers , with Red Auerbach at the heart of this. As both the head coach and later the President of the Celtics, Red consistently aimed to break the hearts of the Laker Nation.

However, his competitive drive often led to tactics that some considered unsportsmanlike. This gave birth to his behavior, which was not just 'childish'; Pat Riley even developed major trust issues when he arrived in Boston.

Auerbach long enjoyed success against the Lakers

From 1959 to 1966, Boston won eight NBA championships, five of which were against the Lakers, all with Auerbach leading them from the bench as their head coach. Even after stepping down as the head coach, he won seven more titles as the franchise's President, three of which were against the Purple and Gold.

More importantly, while Red was fortunate enough to have generational talents like Bill Russell and Larry Bird as leaders and star-studded supporting casts at his disposal, he was ever shy of using unconventional means to gain an even higher edge.

A notable example of this came in the 1984 NBA Finals when Auerbach deliberately made conditions miserable for Riley's Lakers at the Boston Garden. He didn't just alter their locker room temperature. Still, he went to even greater lengths to show how they were unwelcomed at the Garden and in the city of Boston.

"All the things you heard about Red Auerbach - most of them were true," Lon Rosen said (Lakers' former director of promotions, in Jeff Pearlman's Showtime.) "The locker room smelled, it was dirty, disgusting. He'd have people call the players' hotel rooms in the middle of the night so they didn't sleep well before games. He was an incredible basketball mind, but very childish."

People might think the playoff pressure pushed Auerbach to take those steps, but that wasn't it. The Celtics left a water container for the Lakers in a regular season game. Coach Riley was so certain that it was one of Auerbach's tricks that he had the container emptied, scrubbed, and refilled just to be safe.

"Who knows, what the Celtics might have put in there to make us sick," Riley said in Pearlman's Showtime as well.

ML Carr defended Red from such wild accusations

Carr, who participated in the Celtics' 1983-84 campaign and shared a close bond with Auerbach, agreed that Auerbach did involve himself in certain mischievous activities. However, the two-time NBA Champion clarified that most conspiracies surrounding Red were untrue and were rather fabricated to spoil his reputation.

"Not everything you heard was right," Carr said. "I don't think he turned the heat on when it was really hot out. He just turned the cold water off."

Related: "He got exuberant being drafted" - Red Auerbach on the circumstances behind Len Bias' death