Astute basketball fans may have caught that former Boston Celtics guard and current team president Danny Ainge went golfing with Michael Jordan in the middle of an NBA Playoff series in the new ESPN documentary series “The Last Dance”.
The second episode of the series, which covers the early years of Jordan’s career, casually notes how Ainge and the North Carolina product played golf together in between Games 1 and 2 of the first round of the 1986 Eastern Conference Playoffs.
The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach decided to look into this game — highly unusual even in those days — played between two opponents in a postseason tourney who hardly even knew each other.
New: I spoke to Danny Ainge about his day golfing with Michael Jordan during the '86 playoffs.
He talked about that, and their other times on the links, including MJ's money-winning ringers, and 36 holes on the morning of a Dream Team game. https://t.co/RURPS28Iyh— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) April 20, 2020
The meeting was arranged through a sportswriter to help MJ find a fourth for his game, and the BYU product accepted.
“It was very, very rare, offered Ainge via Himmelsbach. “I don’t think I ever even met, or had dinner, or even a phone conversation with any other opponent in my whole career before a playoff game.”
“Michael was like me in that he didn’t want to really do other stuff that a lot of players did in those days,” he continued.
Golf was an outlet to avoid those drug-fueled fests in hotels Jordan himself mentions in the documentary as common in those early years with the Bulls.
Looking back at Michael Jordan's 63-point game vs. the 1986 Celtics https://t.co/SkiVWiDaoS
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) April 20, 2020
But he evidently needed more practice, because Ainge won more than he lost, and they were betting for each hole.
“I did beat him, and I did talk a little trash,” Ainge recalled. “I just remember it was a good time. He did say when I got dropped off, ‘Tell your boy DJ I’ve got something for him tomorrow.’ Michael was so competitive. He really, really wanted to win.”
Jordan delivered on that promise, dropping the legendary 63-point performance in Game 2 that saw poor Dennis Johnson — and of course Rick Carlisle — completely unable to stop the nascent Bulls superstar.
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