There may be no Boston Celtics games to speak of at the moment, but team president Danny Ainge is keeping busy just the same, reports the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett.
As the team and the NBA wait out the coronavirus shutdown until it is again safe to hold even limited games with no audiences, the Celtics head honcho has been the sole Boston employee heading into the office, where he gets a little exercise in as well as work.
“I try to get outside … The weather’s been pretty good. But I’ve been going into the office, offered Ainge in an interview by phone.
“I’ve been the only one that’s at the facility, and mostly just watching film and walking inclines on the treadmill and walking the back stairway and doing some exercise. And then I come home and I have my two boys and their wives here with [my wife] Michelle and I, which makes it fun.”
The Celtics president has yet to be tested for the virus causing so much chaos, though the team’s players and a handful of support staff have.
Danny Ainge on the COVID-19 crisis: “I know that it feels really scary, and I know that it is scary for some, but I don’t feel really scared."
He explains what concerns him and why… A very interesting read.https://t.co/UW7IsybUQ4
— Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) March 27, 2020
“I feel fine,” offered Ainge. “There’s been no symptoms at all, so that’s good. And I haven’t had contact with anybody from our team since, like, March 1st or 2nd.”
The Oregon native was out west scouting players in various college tournaments at the time of the league shutdown on March 11, which has hopefully minimized his exposure to the coronavirus.
At 61 with a history of mild heart attacks, Ainge is likely at somewhat greater risk than most of the younger players he works with on a day-to-day basis, but he’s surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal.
“I know that it feels really scary, and I know that it is scary for some, but I don’t feel really scared,” he offered.
“I feel more concerned, I guess, with all of the people whose livelihoods are being taken away from them, and I think that that is scary. I’ve seen that happen to people in my life in times before … I can just imagine all the millions of people that have lost their jobs.”
“That worries me as much as all of our people that are getting sick, because it seems like most people are recovering,” Ainge added.
Brad Stevens says Marcus Smart is in, “great spirits, joking as always.
Said the team had a Zoom conference yesterday. Smart playfully kicked Brad and the coaches off so the players could chat.
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) March 27, 2020
As for the pandemic itself, the Boston executive was hopeful some sort of solution wouldn’t be too long in the making, noting the intense strain it has been putting on the nation’s healthcare infrastructure.
“Hopefully we can figure out a cure for this disease quick, and … our hospitals don’t get too overrun too fast, so we can catch up with the amount of people that are sick and we can make sure that people are being cared for properly and that our healthcare workers have a chance for success.”
Ainge has been using the time off from NBA action to work with players and coaching staff remotely. He’s helped to coordinate training with them for when the season re-starts (if it restarts), and he tries to help maintain morale.
“I’m in communication with people in the organization, including players, every day,” he explained.
“I think they’re doing really well … They’ve requested stationary bikes and weight and weight vests and bands so they can do all sorts of their workouts that our trainers are giving them.”
No hoop? No problem – how Boston, other teams train in quarantine https://t.co/BRirFLvFnS
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) March 26, 2020
He hasn’t had any issues to date of players resisting quarantine, either, thankfully; “I think everybody’s following all of the rules, staying quarantined, and just keeping to themselves.”
NBC Sports Boston relates how the team had a conference via Zoom, the increasingly popular conferencing application, yesterday. Evidently Marcus Smart kicked the executives and coaching staff out of the meeting playfully so players could talk alone.
Ainge believes his usual role of tackling whatever comes up for the organization has put him in a better position than the coaching staff, for example, for dealing with the unpredictability of the shutdown.
“You just have to adapt to what is needed at that moment, whereas as coaches are going crazy, because they’re used to having and following a schedule,” he offered.
In the meantime, everyone — from Ainge to the coaching staff, players and even fans — wait for the return of the NBA schedule, hopefully in mid- to late June if not July.
There’s still plenty for the Celtics president and the franchise to be working on together.
So long as they do it apart.
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