Ainge: This title is for Boston players, coaches, fans

Celtic exec plans no major changes, although he looks at Darius Miles

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jul 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ELSA / GETTY IMAGES

Danny Ainge (right) celebrates with Boston coach Doc Rivers after the Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA championship.

There will soon be some time to recharge the batteries, to relax and drink in just exactly what his Boston Celtics accomplished during the past season.

During the last week in July and the first two weeks in August, Danny Ainge will take some time off to visit with family in San Diego.

The entire Ainge clan — wife Michelle, their six children and their six grandchildren — will convene in Michelle’s hometown and just enjoy being together.

Not until then will the architect of the Celtics’ recent NBA championship really be able to take a deep breath.

“It’s been busier than ever, with preparations for the draft and summer league,” says Ainge, the Eugene native and one-time Trail Blazer guard who reached the Holy Grail in his fifth season as Boston’s executive director of basketball operations/general manager. “We just never stopped, and it’s still going.”

Ainge, 49, engineered the greatest record turnaround in NBA history, from 24-58 in 2006-07 — second-worst in the league — to a league-best 66-16 last season. Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and company took it to the house, overcoming the competition in the Eastern Conference playoffs, then eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games to write the ticket for the 17th championship banner in Celtic history.

As a starting guard with the Celtics, Ainge helped win a pair of championships (1984 and ‘86). This one meant more.

“My emotions were greater than I remember them being as a player,” Ainge says. “Winning as a player is a special time. You work so hard to get there. But it seems like it’s more for yourself and your teammates — your own little pocket in your world.

“This year, I feel almost like a father figure to some of these (players). It feels like they’re my own kids in some ways. Knowing the story of each of their lives, the work they’ve put in and the adversity they’ve had to go through ... it’s just a great feeling to know the legacies of Paul and Ray and KG will be different know.”

Ainge pauses, then adds: “And it’s not just those guys. Our 21-year-old point guard (Rajon Rondo) who played with three Hall of Famers, with the pressure of the world in his shoulders all year. Guys like Leon Powe and P.J. Brown, and others with different kind of stories ... I’m really happy for each of them.”

Ainge says he is also happy for the fans who suffered through bad times in recent years.

“Boston is a great place to win,” he says. “There’s so much rich tradition with the Celtics, and you have the great success of the Patriots and Red Sox the last few years. For our players and our fans to have been loyal to us, it’s fun to have them see us succeed.

“Boston is a place where sports are kind of like religion. When you’re born in Boston, you never forget the championship years. From my perspective, it’s so much more enjoyable for all those reasons. It’s for everybody else, not so much for yourself. As a player, it’s more about yourself and your own ring.”

Ainge, of course, resurrected his own career that may have been close to life support. In his first four years on the job, Boston had only one winning season and no playoff series victories. When the Celtics dipped to 24 wins in 2006-07, even the team’s most ardent fans became critics.

Owner Wyc Grousbeck continued to show support, but Ainge needed to pull a rabbit out of his hat. The cover of the Celtics’ press guide is entitled “Think Big, “ and Ainge did, fleecing old pal Kevin McHale in Minnesota of Garnett and landing Allen in a trade with Seattle.

Ainge also did a nice job putting pieces around Big Three II, adding draft pick Glenn “Big Baby” Davis and free agents James Posey and Eddie House to previous draft choices Rondo and Kendrick Perkins.

The GM deflects credit — some of it to Grousbeck, who stuck with Ainge and Rivers — but most of it to the players, Rivers and his coaching staff.

“The players and the coaches win,” Ainge says. “I work hard and do what I do, but I work hard every year. I work hard when things sometimes don’t get done. There are times when you have to make tough choices to not do deals. Sometimes you don’t get things accomplished like you want.

“I didn’t work any harder last summer. You can put teams together on paper, but the coaches and players have to execute the game plan and make the shots. That’s where the credit should go. Ownership plays a major role, too, but it’s really about players getting it done.”

With the three stars all on the shadow side of 30, the Celtics survived seven-game series with Atlanta and Cleveland, got past Detroit and then had enough to leave Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant with the consolation prize in the finals.

The championship run “took a little bit of brains and a lot of hard work and a lot of luck,” Ainge says. “We got KG and Ray, we stayed pretty healthy and we had a lot of good fortune. Posey hit some huge shots for us. Then P.J. chose to come to Boston and had a great impact on the end of the season. We grew as a team, but we still got some good bounces.”

Mention Rivers, and Ainge responds with emotion.

“You kidding me?” he asks. “That was another situation ... after we won the final game, I couldn’t help but look over at him.

“Winning a championship changes how you’re viewed the rest of your career. There are great coaches in our history like Jerry Sloan and Don Nelson, and players like Charles Barkley and Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller, who have never won a title. That’s why I’m so pleased that Ray and Paul and KG and Doc, in particular, will be forever be viewed in a different way.”

Ainge isn’t ready to place the current Celtics alongside the Celtics of the ‘80s and the original Big Three — Larry Bird, McHale and Robert Parish.

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