Mahaney, Norris enjoyed time with Red

What a wonderful article Andy Neff wrote on Red Auerbach (BDN, Oct. 30) and how much we enjoyed it. However, the article stated “the Celtics also trained in Ellsworth in the late 1950s.” It should have said in the early 1950s.

In the fall of 1952, we were invited by Red Auerbach to play with the Celtics the first two weeks of October through the efforts of Dr. Rome Rankin (varsity coach at the University of Maine) and Bud Leavitt (of the BDN).

The Celtics only had nine players in camp at this time (Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Ed McCauley, and others). Red treated us with respect, made us feel welcome and a part of the team. We participated in all of their drills and scrimmages.

During these practices, Red’s language could be salty at times but was used to motivate players and never to embarrass anyone. He was a master psychologist and a great coach. Arguably the best.

In the fall of 1953, Red invited Keith back and he played two more weeks at the Celtics training camp in Ellsworth, which was his junior year at the University of Maine.

In closing, playing and practicing with the Celtics was a magical experience for us and we represented UMaine basketball extremely well.

Keith Mahaney

Bangor

John Norris

Brewer

Points, not officials, determine victories

In a letter (BDN, Nov. 7), Donald Barrett of Palermo says he struggled to come up with words of wisdom for his teenage boy after losing a playoff football game. Maybe I can suggest a few things for him.

First, make sure your facts are straight before sending in a publicly written letter. Of course officials are accountable for their actions! Ask your coach about this process. Also, Belfast has not “already won,” because the touchdown never existed, due to the penalty. It doesn’t matter if the call was popular or not.

Second, if you expect officiating to be perfect, then you expect everything in a game to be perfect. That means there can be no dropped or incomplete passes, no fumbles, no bad reads, and no missed field goals. I understand that Belfast missed a field goal. Where is your complaint in that?

Third, since officiating isn’t perfect (and never will be), the only way to ensure victory is to score more points. If you keep a game close, you subject yourself to having a “bad call” stand in your way of victory. If you put the game out of reach, the bad call suddenly is not an issue. That’s called taking responsibility.

Finally, an unfortunate, yet important, fact of life is that sometimes we get bad breaks. It’s how we handle those bad breaks that defines our character as adults, and we need to make sure that kids learn this. It’s a shame that Mr. Barrett forgot this.

Greg Meyer

Levant