"We don't see the game exactly the same way"

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

Back in Boston, Ainge balances family, Celts 

Oct. 8, 2003
By Mike Kahn
SportsLine.com Executive Editor

  

  

  Danny Ainge never expected to live in Boston again. 
It was a different time in his life. Getting drafted by the Celtics in 1981, 
he had the surrealistic experience of being a second-round draft choice and 
playing on the Hall of Fame-laden squad of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert 
Parish and later Bill Walton to win two NBA titles. And that came on the heels of 
one of the most historic plays in NCAA history -- driving the length of the 
floor with eight seconds left to lead Brigham Young past Notre Dame into the 
quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. 
 
 
But that was a generation ago. With pit stops at Sacramento, Portland and 
ultimately Phoenix, he became a television analyst and raised his family in the 
Valley of the Sun. Blessed with the gift of gab and keen sense of the game in 
which he excelled, Ainge even coached the Suns for three-plus seasons before 
realizing it just wasn't a good fit for a father of six. 
So he walked away with $6 million on the table and returned to broadcasting 
20 games into the 1999-2000 season. 
"Not one person in my family suggested it," said Ainge, who compiled a 136-90 
record (.602) as coach of the Suns. "My only regret is that I didn't do it 
before the start of that season. But with six kids and what they were all going 
through, I couldn't coach. That coaching job required a 24-hour-a-day focus, 
and it just wasn't working for me. It wasn't fair to anybody. 
"This, is different." 
After turning down the Celtics once before to run the team's operations, his 
family talked him into accepting the job as executive director of basketball 
operations. So Ainge, 44, packed up his wife and the three children who still 
live at home and moved back to the Boston area in the spring. And nothing could 
have prepared him better for the job he has than what he has done in 
basketball the past half dozen years or so. 
"When I was coaching the Suns, Jerry and Bryan Colangelo had me involved in 
all of the personnel moves," Ainge said. "I knew all about salary cap issues 
and base-year compensation -- I learned why deals could or could not be made. 
"And I think the broadcast booth is the best place you can be for being 
focused on the entire league. Most general managers are pretty much focused on 
their team and maybe the teams in their division. I had to spend every day 
learning about every team, talking to coaches, players, general managers. I had a 
real good feel for the mood of most teams because of that." 
Not that being executive director of basketball operations of the Celtics is 
a piece of cake. Oh, he'll still get phone calls from legendary president Red 
Auerbach from Washington. But with new ownership, the onus is on him to get 
the team back to competing for a championship. They stunned everyone during the 
2001-02 season when they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals 
after missing the playoffs for a franchise-record six seasons in a row. And 
they even played over their heads to upset a confused Indiana team in the first 
round last season. 
Ainge has a great duo to build around in All-Stars Paul Pierce and Antoine 
Walker, and made a pre-emptive strike to upgrade the team's backcourt and 
frontcourt when he made a big swap on draft day with Memphis Grizzlies president 
Jerry West. In dire need of a point guard and big man, Ainge dealt the rights to 
Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones for super-quick Marcus Banks and big high school 
center Kendrick Perkins. He wasn't finished then, either, trading the rights to 
Darius Songalia (playing in Europe) to Sacramento for the rights to 
undersized tough guy Brandon Hunter, who has impressed everybody in Boston. "We're 
headed on the right track," Ainge said. "But the idea is to win a championship and 
we're not there yet." 
That's the fun part of being the executive director of basketball operations. 
He has come in on the back side of the Vin Baker fiasco -- the forward 
acquired last season from the Sonics, who went into alcohol rehab in the early 
spring and left the team. He's back now, in great shape and with a new look, but 
expectations are realistically limited to high hopes. 
And you can never underestimate the difficulty of coming in above a coach who 
was hired long before you got there. Granted, there isn't any animosity 
between Ainge and Jim O'Brien. Then again, O'Brien has been on the Celtics coaching 
staff since 1997 and has been head coach since January 2001. 
"That is where the difficulty lies," Ainge said. "Every general manager who 
called to congratulate me said the most difficult thing I'll have to do is deal 
with my coach. We don't see the game exactly the same way. We talk and 
communicate about strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, I just let him win the 
battles. Generally we see things pretty close." 
Ah, sounds like any sound marriage. 
Most of all, he's excited about being back in Boston in a job that is taxing, 
but doesn't require him to be focused 24 hours a day like it did when he was 
coach of the Suns. 
"I've done just about everything in basketball at this point of my life," 
Ainge said. "This job is different. It's more flexible. I don't have to go to 
every practice and to every game on every road trip. I can go to my sons' games 
if I want to, and still get home and see the tape of a Celtics game on the road 
that night. What I really have learned is every job on every team is 
different and most of the stress is self-imposed. Somewhere in between all of it, you 
figure out how to win. It's a long road to get there." 
A perfect fit for a guy best known for going baseline to baseline with eight 
seconds left to win what was at the time, the biggest game of his life. 
http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/6704799



TAM