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DANNY AINGE (PART 2)

NBA career
Not everything went well for Ainge in basketball at first. According to Larry Bird in his autobiography Drive: The Story of My Life, Ainge had a terrible first day of practice, "shooting 1-19". The coach gave Ainge a rough time, saying his batting average was better than his shooting percentage on the basketball court. But Ainge became one of the important pieces of the team that won the NBA title in 1984 and 1986, and a major contributor of the mid to late 1980s Celtics teams.
He was known as a hard-nosed player, who usually infuriated opponents with his combative style and brash personality. In a 1983 playoff game against Atlanta, he exchanged blows with the 7 foot 1 inch Tree Rollins and was ejected from the contest. Larry Bird gives an account about Ainge's fight with Rollins in his autobiography Drive. Bird said that Danny had called Rollins a sissy earlier which ended up in the two fighting. Bird said that after the fight was broken up, Ainge rose up off the floor laughing, stating, "That big sissy just bit me." Also, while playing for the Phoenix Suns, Ainge got into a tussle with Michael Jordan at mid court and both were given a technical foul. In a 1994 postseason game, Ainge rifled an inbounding pass at the head of Houston Rockets guard Mario Elie.
In 1989, Ainge was traded to the Sacramento Kings for young center Joe Kleine, whom the Celtics saw as a possible substitute to the aging Robert Parish, and Ed Pinckney.
In 1990, Ainge was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. Being a native of Oregon, he was considered a hometown favorite by Blazers fans. He helped the Blazers reach the 1992 NBA Finals, only to succumb to the Chicago Bulls in six games. He tied a record in this series: On June 5, he scored nine points in the extra period to tie an all-time NBA record for most points in an overtime during a finals game.
After the 1991-92 NBA season, Ainge became a free agent. He had stated in media interviews that he ideally wanted to stay in Portland, and would contact Blazers management before seriously entertaining offers from other teams. On July 1, 1992, however, Ainge signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns on his first day of free agency.
The Phoenix Suns were a team looking for a new identity. They inaugurated a new home (America West Arena), hired a new head coach (Paul Westphal) and a new superstar (Charles Barkley). The team also redesigned their logo and uniform when they signed free agent Ainge prior to the 1992-93 NBA season, figuring that his experience would help the team during the playoffs. Ainge responded by scoring 11.8 points per game as the Suns went 62–20 that year and reached the NBA finals, where they lost to Michael Jordan's Bulls in six games.
On January 18, 1994, he became the second man ever to hit 900 three-point shots in NBA history (he made 1,002 three pointers for his career), and he scored 11,964 points for an average of 11.5 points per game, 2,768 rebounds for an average of 2.7, and 4,199 assists, a total of four per game.
Ainge retired after the 1994-1995 season. He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Post-basketball playing career

While a player with the Blue Jays, Ainge opened a national chain of hat stores which he has since sold. He has volunteered his time at a number of charitable organizations and has held a number of jobs since retiring. He became Head Coach of the Phoenix Suns in 1996. His resignation from the Suns coaching job was a sudden one; he cited a need to spend more time with his family. He was replaced by Assistant Coach Scott Skiles. In 2003 he was hired as the Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Celtics.
Ainge has often been controversial in his role as a Celtics executive, trading popular players such as three-time All-Star Antoine Walker and having personality conflicts with head coach Jim O'Brien that led to the departure of O'Brien to the Philadelphia 76ers (a job he would also depart from a year later). However, Ainge kept the support of former head coach Red Auerbach, who was employed by the team as a "senior assistant" until his death in October 2006, and the current ownership group.
The 2006-07 Celtics finished with a 24-58 record, second-worst in the team's history. Following the season, Paul Pierce, team captain and face of the franchise, expressed frustration with the team's failures. He requested a trade to a contender if management were unable to acquire veteran talent of Pierce's caliber.
Ainge responded with two bold moves that changed the franchise's fortunes almost overnight: the 2007 trades for the Minnesota Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett and the Seattle SuperSonics' Ray Allen immediately returned the Celtics to the ranks of the NBA's elite franchises for the first time since the early 1990s. Together with Paul Pierce, the new "Big Three" led the Celtics to the NBA's best record (66-16) during the 2007-08 NBA season. It was the most dramatic single-season improvement in league history (42 more wins than the previous year), and it earned Ainge the NBA Executive of the Year award.
The Boston Celtics played the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals, renewing the long rivalry between the two teams. Boston won in six games. Danny Ainge held the trophy for the first time since winning the elusive and iconic piece of Boston's cherished history in 1986. In October 2008, after the Celtics' championship season, he was promoted to President of Basketball Operations.