People simply forget or don’t realize how good he was–elite shooter, passer, defender, and his stats are mitigated by the fact that (other than a short time in Sac) Ainge played every single season with high volume scorers who were also first ballot Hall of Famers. As great as Ainge was, he played with Bird, McHale, Barkley, and Clyde the Glide. He also played with KJ in Phoenix, who 1000% SHOULD be in the HOF. KJ is blackballed by voters for some reason (many have speculated it’s because of his conservative politics), but KJ had a 9 year run of sustained GREATNESS in Phoenix and should be in the Hall. Back to Ainge: so instead of averaging 20-25 in his prime, he averaged 12-17. You think Dominique–a high scoring contemporary on a crappy team–was gonna average 25 on the Celtics or the Blazers or the Suns? HAHAHAHA fat chance. Ainge’s greatness was amplified by being such an incredibly good teammate. I’ll bet Ainge is pretty happy with his career and wouldn’t trade his championship titles and NBA finals for scoring 25ppg on garbage teams for 15 years–which he EASILY could have done, and almost certainly have been in the HOF.
Good post Tom. A great college player and a really good pro who was also a very good defensive player. He reminds me of a typical Celtic-more concerned with winning than personal stats reminiscent of so many Boson players highlighted by the great Bill Russell
You are making the same point I made that he didn’t have the stats to get in the hall of fame. He was fortunate to be on a great team with 4 great players who overshadowed him. He was a great complementary part on a great team, but you won’t get in the hall averaging 11.5 points a game as a combo guard. The Celtics didn’t really have a point guard when Ainge was there. He and DJ were both combo guards and Bird was like a point forward. Being a combo guard he needed to average around 18 to 20’a game to make to the hall. If he had been a point guard averaging 10 assists a game on those Celtic teams he would have made the hall
even with an 11.5 career scoring average. Having said all this I think he was as good as a lot of hall of fame players but is perceived as a role player compared to 4 of his teammates. It may not be fair because he was a great player. I think there is a separate hall of fame for college players and if he is not in there he should be. So I agree with nearly everything you say but he won’t make the NBA hall of fame as a player.
All excellent comments and spot on.
All of those things. Having done all of those things earns someone a place in the basketball hall of fame. It isn’t just for one thing, which he did well individually. It is for ALL of those things you listed. Don’t understand why you don’t see it, after all you are the one that wrote it. You have a hard enough time understanding everyone else, now you don’t even understand yourself? 
Stats say, Lohner should have stayed. Averaging 17 mpg, 4,4 rebounds, 6 pts.
BYU offensive lineman Clark Barrington enters transfer portal (msn.com)
Atiki trending in the wrong direction. now he is averaging 2 fouls per min.