The Boston Celtics are one of the best franchises in NBA history. They are tied with their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, for the most NBA titles in league history with 17.
- Danny Ainge: Tri-Star Athlete
- Ainge Becomes A College Basketball Star While Becoming a Professional Baseball Player
- Danny Ainge Becomes An NBA Champion
- Ainge Finishes His Career And Becomes A Head Coach
- Danny Ainge: Executive Of The Year
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In the 1980s, the Celtics, along with the Lakers, saved the NBA with their dynamite rivalry. The 1986 Boston Celtics, in particular, is a team many call the greatest basketball team the game has ever seen.
One of the players on the Celtics, who was very important to their success, doesn’t get talked about that much. Larry Bird gets the most talk when mentioning those Celtics, and rightfully so, but one piece that helped Boston find the success it did was their sixth man, Danny Ainge.
Danny Ainge: Tri-Star Athlete
Danny Ainge was born on March 17, 1959, in Eugene, Oregon. Ainge attended North Eugene High School, where he quickly became a legend.
Ainge became a tri-star athlete in high school as he played basketball, baseball, and football. In basketball, Ainge led his school to back-to-back state basketball championships in 1976 and 1977, which earned him all-state honors in both years. He was also named to the 1977 Parade High School All-America team.
In football, Ainge was considered one of the top recruits at Oregon for the wide receiver position. Ainge would go on to be named to the high school’s first team for basketball, football, and baseball.
Ainge Becomes A College Basketball Star While Becoming a Professional Baseball Player
Ainge attended Brigham Young University, where he played for four years and became an All-American, a two-time First Team Academic All-American, the WAC Player of the Year, and a four-time All-WAC selection. In 1981, Ainge hit the game-winning layup against Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen.
Ainge was busy on the basketball court, but that wasn’t all. Major League Baseball had an amateur draft in 1977, and Ainge was selected 389 overall in the 15th round by the Toronto Blue Jays.
By 1979, while still in college, Ainge had started playing in the Major League with the Blue Jays. Ainge played three seasons with the Blue Jays. He hit .220 while collecting 146 hits and connecting on 2 home runs.
After three seasons with the Blue Jays, Ainge decided to pursue a career in the NBA. He would be selected 31st overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1981 NBA draft.
Danny Ainge Becomes An NBA Champion
The Boston Celtics had to buy out Ainge’s contract from the Blue Jays to have him play for them. It was reported that Ainge wanted to continue to play baseball, but the Celtics management was able to convince him to move on to basketball.
This move would turn out to be the best decision of Ainge’s life. He was a mediocre baseball player at best, but he’d quickly become an important piece to a championship roster.
Ainge didn’t have a great start to his NBA career. He didn’t get along with the Celtics’ head coach, Bill Fitch. Celtic great Larry Bird wrote about Ainge’s struggles in his autobiography, titled Drive: The Story of My Life. He wrote that Ainge was “shooting 0 for 2547.”
Ainge played only 10.6 minutes per game as a rookie, averaging only 4.1 points per game. Ainge would see more playing time in the next two seasons, even starting a few games.
By the 1983-84 season, Ainge played a vital part off the bench as the Celtics made the NBA Finals. There, the Celtics would play their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ainge’s numbers were not out of this world, as he averaged 6.0 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. But his play was important to the Celtics, winning the series in seven games. He also had a skirmish with the Lakers’ James Worthy in Game 6 that showed he wouldn’t back down from anyone.
For the next four seasons, Ainge played primarily as the starting guard for the Celtics, switching from point guard to shooting guard with Dennis Johnson. Ainge would see his points average rise to 15.7 during that four-year stretch, in 1987-88.
After losing in the 1985 NBA Finals, 4-2 to the Lakers, the Celtics bounced back with a vengeance, finishing with a 67-15 record. This Celtics team is arguably the greatest NBA team of all time.
The Celtics made the 1986 NBA Finals, this time playing the Houston Rockets. Boston won the series 4-2, and Ainge averaged 14.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game.
In an interview on the 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich” show, Ainge had this to say about his 1986 championship-winning Boston Celtics team:
“I do think so, yeah,” Ainge said. “I think it’s the greatest of all time. Larry and Kevin [McHale] were two of the best players in the league at that time. Larry was MVP that year. Those two guys, because they were in the middle of their prime in that season, more than just the names of the players on the team, that was probably the biggest reason why we were the greatest team of all time.”
Ainge was a part of this Celtics team while playing against other great teams like the Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers, and the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. So, Ainge has personally seen many great teams, but there’s no doubt in his mind about the chances his Celtics have against any of these other teams.
Ainge Finishes His Career And Becomes A Head Coach
Danny Ainge would play in Boston until the middle of the 1988-89 season, when he was traded to the Sacramento Kings. Ainge was named an All-Star in the 1987-88 season, his only All-Star Game. Despite this, the Celtics thought Joe Kleine of the Kings was the perfect replacement for the aging Robert Parrish.
This is why Boston made the trade with the Kings. After two seasons in Sacramento, Ainge was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he’d reach another Finals in 1992, losing to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
After two seasons in Portland, Ainge signed as a free agent with the Phoenix Suns, where he’d reach another Finals in 1993. Once again, Ainge’s team would lose to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
Ainge would retire after the 1994-95 NBA season. He played 14 years in the league, finishing with a career average of 11.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game.
After retiring from the Phoenix Suns, Ainge took over as the Suns’ head coach in the 1996-97 season. Ainge would coach Phoenix for three and a half seasons before resigning to spend more time with his family in the 1999-00 season. He collected a 136-90 record.
Phoenix made the playoffs in all three of Ainge’s full seasons, losing in the first round each time. Ainge would take some time away to spend with his family while also working as a commentator for NBA games for TNT.
Danny Ainge: Executive Of The Year
Danny Ainge wouldn’t stay away from basketball for too long, as he was hired as the Boston Celtics’ executive director of Basketball Operations in 2003. Ainge, who found success in his playing career, would find success in his new role, as well.
Like his playing career, Ainge wouldn’t find success in the beginning. He had a rocky start in his first few years as a player in Boston. Ainge traded Boston’s All-Star player, Antoine Walker, 10 days before the start of the 2003-04 season.
This move earned Ainge the nickname “Trader Danny” from Celtics fans. But like his playing career, Ainge would soon turn his luck around.
The offseason before the 2007-08 season, Ainge pulled off two surprising trades. First, Ainge made a trade that brought the Seattle SuperSonics sharpshooter Ray Allen to Boston. Then, he pulled off a bigger surprise when he traded for the 2003-04 MVP, Kevin Garnett.
These moves by Ainge led to Boston winning their first NBA title since Ainge’s playing days in 1986, as the Celtics beat their rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the 2008 NBA Finals.
Ainge’s trades brought more than just a title, as well. They also led to Ainge winning the NBA Executive of the Year Award. Ainge would not make any more moves that would lead to a championship, but he has made other big moves as an executive.
In 2013, Ainge traded the aging Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in one of the most lopsided trades (in Boston’s favor) to the Brooklyn Nets. On June 2, 2021, Ainge retired from his role as an executive in Boston.
Ainge wouldn’t stay retired for long, as that December, he was hired as the CEO of basketball operations and alternate governor of the Utah Jazz. This past offseason saw Ainge orchestrate two huge trades of the Jazz’s stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell for a record amount of draft picks.
Ainge has the Jazz set up for a promising future, and you can expect Ainge to pull off a few more big moves in the next few years. When it comes to getting the most value out of a trade, Ainge is the master of this.
Danny Ainge is a unique person. From a tri-star high school athlete to a professional baseball player while being a college basketball star, Ainge could seemingly do it all.
Ainge continued to prove this in his professional basketball career and his front-office basketball career. There’s no stopping Danny Ainge for the foreseeable future.
