What If Red Auerbach Left the Celtics for the Knicks?

John Y. Brown was a successful owner in the ABA. His Kentucky Colonels did win a championship, after all. But he just can’t put his ego aside long enough as owner of the Boston Celtics to let Red Auerbach do what he does best: build championship basketball teams. So Auerbach presents the minority owners with a choice: get rid of Brown, or he goes to New York. They have no recourse. Auerbach becomes president of the New York Knicks in 1979. And the first move he makes? Stealing back a draft pick he made earlier. Auerbach knows just how weak Brown is to star power, so he dangles aging All-Star Earl Monroe along with the No. 3 overall pick Boston originally traded New York (in a Bob McAdoo trade Auerbach never approved when he was with the Celtics) for the rights to a player the Celtics were struggling to sign anyway: 1978 first-round pick Larry Bird. In fairness, the Celtics make good use of that pick, nabbing Arkansas’ Sidney Moncrief. But the Knicks make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals behind