Report - Danny Ainge has heart attack

Ainge has done an admirable job of rebounding from the disaster that occured when their strategy of tanking a season in order to draft Kevin Durant blew up in their face.

 

As a college student doing play-by-play when Danny was playing centerfield for the Syracuse Chiefs, I remember hm as a prankster. My most vivid memory was of shortstop Domingo Ramos chasing Ainge around the clubhouse showers, yelling, "I kee you Danny. I kee you."

Here's to a speedy and full recovery.

 

While I dislike the Celtics in the 80's, I admired Ainge for his grittiness and toughness (and damn I was rooting for Arkansas in that game too). I hope he gets a speedy recovery.

 

Yeah, and who drafted him? While Dickie V was yelling about Jameer Nelson?

And who went after Theo Ratliff's expiring deal, so that he could enter the KG sweepstakes when McHale passed on Chicago's offer?

And who drafted Rondo, Powe, Davis, Allen, Delonte West, and Kendrick Perkins, all without the luxury of having a lottery pick?

Who knew when to pounce on Sam Presti for Ray Allen, without giving up Ratliff's contract?

Who had the parts in place to make the KG deal when McHale finally steeled himself to the reality that he had to start over? And joke all you want about one Celtic helping out another, but that deal was a great trade for the Timberwolves. They added a 20 and 10 guy who was is in his early 20s while clearing out cap space.

Chris_L is being a brat, I'm not denying that, but Ainge has done a fabulous job in Boston. He was the first to see Antoine Walker for what he was, and he won a championship last year based solely on moves he made, save for drafting of Paul Pierce in 1998.

 

Don't forget that Ainge also jettisoned Jim O'Brien - who in my opinion is a fraud of an NBA coach but who was very popular with the press in Boston. Ainge replaced O'Brien with Doc River who had been widely criticized in many circles (Bill Simmons being the loudest anti-Doc voice) when the Celtics were struggling. Ainge knew he had a good coach in Rivers and stuck with him. Rivers' coaching was another hugely underestimated factor in the Celtics 17th Championship.

And yes I may sometimes be a dickhead but at least this thread has gotten back on the subject of Danny Ainge and away from Twitter-like responses about the semantics of the phrase "minor heart attack".

 

My first memory of Ainge was him playing against the Indians during Len Barker's perfect game

 

What part of it, specifically?

 

O'Brien did a fine job as coach considering the pieces he had - he overachieved with the 2002 Celtics. They beat Iverson's Sixers in the first round. They won four straight against Detroit in the second round after losing the first in Auburn Hills. They had the greatest comeback in playoff history against Kidd's Nets and took them to six.

And the circle-jerk between Doc and the Boston media, even before last season, was pretty sickening. O'Brien wasn't half as popular in the local press as Doc is. He's a sports journalists dream - quotable, smart, pleasant, accessible. O'Brien was stoic and reserved.

With that said, Ainge should be commended for sticking with Doc - he could have easily canned him once the "Fire Doc" chants echoed throughout the Garden. Rivers turned out to be the perfect coach for this team and it's hard to imagine anyone could have done a better job over the past two seasons. The veterans and Thibodeau certainly helped, but Doc meshed the veterans and young guys well, finally proved he could manage a rotation, got on Rondo's ass when he needed it, and proved to be the consummate player's coach.

 

Ainge sticking with Rivers WAS a good move, especially since it went against his hyperactive style of "I'll try everything until something works and I'll try it all really fast to speed up the process." His tenure can be compared to a compulsive gambler who actually DID quit once he got ahead.

 

Thank goodness the thread is going on the track Chris_L demands it be on!

 

And another quality contribution from the sports predictor. You really don't get it do you.

The thread took a turn to quality sports conversation but here you come to try and drag it back down.

Seriously - how old are you? 17?

 

You're the one who doesn't get it. You don't get to dictate where threads go. You don't get to decide what is worth posting and what isn't. You don't get to tell other people if what they say meets your quality-control standards. (Well, you DO get to tell them that, but they don't have to pay attention to your blathering.)

Go back to the Marilyn Chambers thread and get it back on track to quality porn conversation.