Now, why is everything a mess to you??? As Louis Armstrong sang, it’s a wonderful world…
Our best team 1980-1981 was filled with national recruits: Ainge, Kite, Craig, Roberts. Durrant on his mission.
Mike Smith was also a national recruit.
Ainge was an all-star one year and was a key cog for several teams in the NBA Finals.
He was a role player even when he got to start some until replaced. Ya, he’s a great Cougar. Ran into him a few times on campus.
NBA: Danny Ainge retires a Celtics legend and should-be Hall of Famer (yahoo.com)
Disparage a Hall of Famer, then tell us that you knew him. Pathetic
Stop exaggerating. He had one great year as a player. The article was mostly about his time as general manager and president of the Celtics. He actually was a great coach with the Suns but left coaching to have more time with his children. But a legend? Bill Russel was a legend. Byrd was a legend, Chamberlain was a legend.
As far as the hall of fame? Perhaps as a general manager? Do they do that?
Role Player? You talking about Ainge? “Start some”?
He was a primary starter in the NBA for 7 seasons, averaged double figures for his career, playing time was almost 30 minutes a game. He was quite a bit more than a role player.
Except for a couple of years he came off the bench. When you think of the Celtics who do you think of in that time period. To even closely relate him to Larry Bird, McCale, Johnson and others is a bit silly.
Danny Ainge - Wikipedia
won 2 world championships, took Portland to the finals, took Phoenix to the finals.
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, an average of four per game, over 1,042 NBA games.
Ainge retired after the 1994–95 season. At the time of his retirement, he had the highest personal winning percentage in NBA history among players with at least 1,000 career games, edging out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 69.0% to 68.8%. Ainge was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
The are many H of Famers with less of a pedigree. What’s even more pathetic is explaining this stuff to a Narcist.
Then a lot of basketball analysts who know a lot more about basketball than grasshopper are a bit silly…not!
Unfortuanately, Hopper, you are once again showing your ignorance. I recommend that you do some research. Find out what years he played, What years he started, his minutes played per game, his points per game, how well his teams played with him on the team during his years of greatest contribution,
Here’s just one article that screams, “Hopper, you’re wrong…again”
So, what you are saying with the statistics is average stat players is a hall of famer. I’m not saying he didn’t do his part in the success of those teams. I just have a higher standard for someone who makes the Hall of Fame. And, being in the Oregon high school Hall of Fame doesn’t translate to the NBA Hall of Fame. He had a good career. He’s no Magic Johnson…
As an Oregonian I’ve always been an Ainge fan—one of the two or 3 best HS athletes in Oregon history—and we all loved him on the Blazers. That said, he had an ELITE NBA career, period. Done.
Thanks Chris—really fun read. Memory lane.
Oh, Elite? Successful for sure! Then, after his playing days, he was a very good coach. If he had stayed with it possibly an elite coach. Certainly an elite administrator. But, nothing stands out as a Hall of Fame playing career. But, I guess what makes one a Hall of Fame player has been watered down?
Nowhere did I call Ainge a hall of famer. I said he was more than a role player.
The article wasn’t about you. It was about how Ainge should be in the Hall of Fame. Others agreed. I’m asking for what? His play? His coaching? His Celtic Admin leadership?
- A two-sport star while at BYU, Ainge was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays (MLB) and the Boston Celtics (NBA)
- Played four seasons with Toronto while playing basketball at BYU
- Played on two NBA championship teams at Boston, 1984 and 86
- Played in six NBA finals for three different teams
- Played on four teams in 14-year career (Boston, Sacramento, Portland and Phoenix)
- Finished career with 1,002 three-pointers, at the time was one of only three players to hit 1,000 three-pointers
*** Played in 193 career playoff games, second all-time to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar**
Ainge is a personal friend of mine, was in my BYU married ward at WyMount Terrace for 2 years. I was invited to play scrimmages anytime they didn’t have enough players so I kind of take it personal
What ward at Wymount Terrace? We were in BYU 1st Ward 1977-1980.
Danny Ainge is an elite person. Certainly a key player for the Celtics as mostly a sixth man coming in for Johnson. But, that doesn’t make him eligible for the NBA Hall of Fame. I’m not attacking him personally. I have a vote too.
Ainge probably wasn’t a hall of fame player. He was very good for a long time, but probably not a hall of farmer. He was a role player in the same sense as a lot of outstanding former Celtic players were. Going way back to the 50s and 60s and into the 70s and 80s Boston had lots of really good players on their championship teams. Guys like KC Jones, Satch Sanders, Larry Siegfried, Paul Silas, Don Chaney, Don Nelson, Cornbread Maxwell were all
really good players who started on Celtic
championship teams, none are hall of famers, but all were very good role players. Ainge was probably a little better than most of them but his contribution to Boston was about the same. He was an important player on a lot of really good to great teams but he was never more than the 5th best player, maybe fourth best a year or two. He was never one of the stars. Nothing wrong with that. He was really good. Being a role player to me means you are not as good as the stars but can still be very important.
If he had played on an average team and been the star maybe he would have had the numbers to get in the hall of fame.
And this echoes my sentiments exactly. Larry Bird once said that when Ainge was on the floor, that helped him have more open shots as well because of Ainge’s 3 point shooting abilities. We have to remember that in his playing days the 3 point shot had just begun in the NBA. So, it stands to reason he had the most or close to the most 3 point makes at that time. That isn’t taking anything away from him or others.