Tag: Danny Ainge

“So I get back to my hotel [in …

“So I get back to my hotel [in Phoenix], I’m about to fly back home for like two days before I go to New York [for the draft] and my agent called me and he’s like, ‘Danny Ainge called and said they’re going to trade their [No. 1] pick, they’re going to go to 3 and they want you to come to Boston the next day to work out,’” recalled Tatum. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to go to Boston. I like it out here in Phoenix. It’s cool. The weather is nice. I get a big house, I get a pool, my mom is going to be out here.’ [Tatum’s agent was] like, ‘Brad Stevens is a great young coach and they have a great history.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not trying to hear that. I want to go to Phoenix.’”

WATCH: How the Boston Celtics hired Danny Ainge as team president

Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge was hired 17 years ago on May 9, 2003, helping carry the team to a title, an NBA Finals, and five Eastern Conference Finals.

There are plenty of teams around the league with team presidents and general managers who are, for all intents and purposes, invisible to the casual fan; not so to Boston Celtics head honcho Danny Ainge.

A former player who won two titles with the Celtics in the 1980s, Ainge has been the primary force behind ending the longest stretch of non-contention in the league’s winningest franchise’s history.

In the years between Ainge being dealt away from the Celtics as a player in 1989 and his arrival as president of basketball operations in 2003, Boston rarely made the postseason — and when it did, rarely advanced very far.

Since then, the Celtics have only missed the postseason three times — two of those seasons coming near the start of Ainge’s tenure in Boston. He’s won a championship in 2008, made the NBA Finals in 2010, and the Eastern Conference Finals five other occasions.

Now entering his 17th year at the helm of the Celtics, Ainge has cemented himself in the Mount Rushmore of Celtics executives with his performance in the role of team president — not that legend Red Auerbach left a lot of room for competition.

Congratulations, Danny!

[lawrence-related id=33918,33215,33083,33043]

On this day: Danny Ainge hired as GM; Rondo scores 28/18/13 vs. Cavs

On this date, the Boston Celtics hired former player Danny Ainge as general manager, and Rajon Rondo went off for 28 points, 18 boards and 13 assists vs. the Cavs.

On this day in 2003, current Boston Celtics team president and former shooting guard Danny Ainge was hired by the franchise in his present capacity.

Ainge replaced outgoing GM Chris Wallace, who had been with the team in that role since replacing Rick Pitino in 2001.

Ainge has had a successful tenure as president of basketball operations, winning a title in the 2007-08 NBA season, and making an NBA Finals appearance two seasons later in 2010.

His ability to seemingly always get the best of a deal has earned him the moniker “Trader Danny”, ranging from acquiring the contracts of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to forge the team that won Banner 17, to moving Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 that netted one of the most uneven returns in league history.

Now in his 17th season as team president, the Celtics appear poised for another title run — soon, if not this season.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Mark Bartelstein, now one of the most …

Mark Bartelstein, now one of the most powerful agents in the NBA, was just beginning his career when he walked into the Hyatt in Lincolnwood, just outside Chicago, for his engagement party on April 20, 1986 — a Sunday afternoon. Bartelstein had a problem. His beloved Chicago Bulls were about to tip off Game 2 of their first-round series against the juggernaut Boston Celtics. Jordan, Chicago’s second-year star, had scored 49 points in Game 1 — a Boston win — after barely playing that season due to a broken foot. Bartelstein approached the bartender and asked if he might turn on the game. The bartender replied that he couldn’t, because a large party had booked the room. “I couldn’t leave the bar,” Bartelstein said. “It was the greatest performance I’ve ever seen. It still is.” “It’s my party,” Bartelstein said. On the game went. Jordan started on fire, torching Dennis Johnson, and then Danny Ainge, and then two and three Boston defenders at once.

At some point, Bartelstein’s future …

At some point, Bartelstein’s future mother-in-law approached and stressed to Bartelstein the importance of attending his own engagement party. “I said, ‘OK, hold on, this is crazy, Jordan is going off,’” Bartelstein recalled, laughing. He never made it to the party. His mother-in-law did not talk to him again until the wedding months later, Bartelstein said. Other members of his new extended family held out even longer.

Ainge said he is trying to get ready …

Ainge said he is trying to get ready for the NBA draft while still holding out hope that the season will be able to resume. If that has to happen without fans, he said: “It’s not as much fun. It’s not ideal. But it’s better than not playing,” he said, adding that he’s seen exciting games in college or high school gyms with just a few dozen fans. “I’ve been involved in practices where there are zero fans in the room, and it’s intense. It’s a battle. I think it’s not ideal, but I think it could work.”

Ainge also said that he and his family …

Ainge also said that he and his family have been watching the ESPN documentary on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls. Ainge made an appearance in the first episodes because he played golf with Jordan before a playoff game in which the Bulls star scored 63 points. But the former Celtics guard said it was all new to his family. “It was fun because they didn’t have too much recollection of it. When I tried to chime in and make a comment on what was happening, they gave me the hush,” Ainge said. “That was fun, to see how excited they were, and how little they knew of the era, and how little they knew about Michael. They were just intrigued by who he was.”

The peculiar tale of Boston’s Danny Ainge getting bit by a Tree

Ex-Boston Celtics shooting guard and current team president Danny Ainge was bitten by Tree Rollins today in 1983.

It’s a well-known fact Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge has an affinity for instigators — and used to be one himself as a player.

So much so, it would sometimes come back to bite him, one time quite literally.

In a game against the Atlanta Hawks on April 24th, 1983, Ainge was up to his usual shenanigans, giving and taking insults and hard contact with Atlanta big man Tree Rollins.

After the latter threw an elbow that connected to the now-team president’s head, Ainge decided to tackle the imposing 7-foot-1 center from below, and took him to the parquet where pandemonium broke out.

Then, Rollins bit a hand he claims was trying to jab him in the eye.

That hand belonged to Ainge, who doesn’t buy Tree’s story — but is still happy to talk about his takedown. “The best part of it was my tackle,” said Ainge via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett.

“It was good. I’m seriously surprised that, after watching me tackle Tree, [New England Patriots head coach Bill] Belichick hasn’t called me to come in and teach his defensive backs how to make tackles.”

The former Celtic shooting guard then related his version of the encounter: “I just recall that it was a real heated game, a real physical game.”

“We felt like Tree was being a little over-physical with his screen-setting,” Ainge added. “He had knocked Quinn Buckner out. I was on the bench, and Quinn went in and got knocked unconscious for a second.”

“When I came back in, he got me again, and the referees, they don’t want to hear anything about it. So as we crossed each other in the open court, he was going to bump me and I was going to bump him, and we sort of elbowed each other. Then he looked at me like he wanted to fight, and I had two choices: I could run, or I could go for the legs.”

“Then everybody was on the floor, and I was on the bottom of the pile with my finger in his mouth,” added Ainge.

It would cost him $1000, and Rollins five times that; Ainge still has a scar from the altercation today. He and Tree hold no ill will towards one another, though, and have crossed paths on amicable terms several times since.

“I mean, I hold zero grudges. I don’t care about all that,” said Ainge. “He was a good person, good guy, good teammate. I don’t have any issues with him. It’s just something that happened in the heat of the moment.”

[lawrence-related id=33083,33043,33008,32564]