Danny Ainge

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

A three-sport star in high school, Ainge was named to All-America teams in football, basketball, and baseball. At Brigham Young University, he was named national basketball college player of the year and won the John R. Wooden Award. While in college, he also played parts of three seasons in Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was drafted into the NBA by the Celtics in 1981. Ainge played in the NBA for 14 seasons, for the Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, and Phoenix Suns. He went on to coach the Suns for three seasons before joining management of the Celtics, with whom he has three NBA championships (two as a player, one as a team executive). He appeared in the 1988 All-Star Game and was NBA Executive of the Year in 2008.

In Their Own Story

The reputation of "brash" followed Ainge throughout his career. During a 1983 playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks, he called Tree Rollins a "sissy," prompting Rollins to elbow him in the face. Ainge tackled Rollins, leading to a wrestling match where Rollins bit Ainge's middle finger so hard it required two stitches to repair the tendon; the incident earned the headline "Tree Bites Man" in the Boston Herald. On May 5, 1992, while playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, Ainge scored 25 points and hit key shots in a 153–151 double-overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns, the highest-scoring postseason game in NBA history. Later that year, he tied an all-time Finals record by scoring nine points in overtime against the Chicago Bulls. His intensity continued into his coaching tenure with the Suns, where he led the team to the playoffs after a 0–13 start and later traded Robert Horry following an on-court altercation.

Reader's Guide

Ainge played college basketball at Brigham Young University. He hit one of the best-known shots in the 1981 NCAA tournament, against Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen, when his coast-to-coast drive and lay-up with two seconds remaining gave the Cougars a one-point win. He concluded his senior year winning the Eastman Award and the John R. Wooden Award. During his four-year career at BYU, he was an All-American, a two-time First Team Academic All-American, the WAC Player of the Year, and a four-time All-WAC selection. He scored in double figures in 112 consecutive games, an NCAA record at that time.

Did You Know?

• Ainge is one of 13 athletes who have played in both the NBA and Major League Baseball.
• He hit a home run for the Toronto Blue Jays at age 20 years and 77 days, the second-youngest in team history.
• Ainge made 148 three-pointers in 1987–88, shattering the previous NBA single-season record of 90.
• At the time of his retirement, he had the second-highest personal winning percentage in NBA history among players with at least 1,000 career games, trailing only Magic Johnson.