BOSTON — Danny Ainge wasn’t at TD Garden on Monday night, but his fingerprints were all over the Celtics’ 18th championship. Three years after his summer 2021 departures, the impact of Ainge’s architecture on the franchise’s first title in 16 years is staggering. Al Horford even brought up the impact of Ainge’s words in signing with Boston back in 2015 as a free agent.
“Man, I never forget what Danny Ainge told me in that meeting,” Horford recalled. “He said, ‘You can win championships in many places, but there’s nothing like winning in Boston. Nothing like winning as a Celtic.’ And that stuck with me from that meeting. I was like, man, I’m trying to be great, and that’s what I want.”
Ainge had a vision for these Celtics ever since the Big Three era came to an end in 2013. He brought Brad Stevens into the organization back in 2013 as a head coach. That initial hire helped to jumpstart a rebuild as Stevens maximized his talent in his early years on the bench, making Boston an appealing destination.
When Ainge stepped down in 2021, he wisely pushed for Stevens to succeed him as president of basketball operations. Moving Stevens upstairs was viewed skeptically by many pundits around the league but ended up being the perfect fit. Stevens knew Boston’s personnel better than anyone, allowing him to find the right fits to put around Boston’s stars while pushing Boston’s trade chips toward the middle of the poker table.
Ainge also brought in Joe Mazzulla as an assistant coach in 2019 one year after the Division III coach turned down his dream job with Boston due to the commitment to his Fairmont State players. That promise always stood out to Ainge as reflective of Mazzulla’s loyalty and dedication as a coach.
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“I first fell in love with Joe as a potential coach when I saw him play,” Ainge told MassLive. “His intensity, his approach, but mostly just his fierce competitive drive was special. That got my attention back when he was a player. Then when I went to talk to him about getting into coaching, from the beginning, he had a passion for the Celtics that was pretty special. He wanted more than anything to come into the organization and, and take this opportunity that I was talking to him about. But he had made a commitment to his small college team and players. He was passing up his dream job just because of the commitment he had already made knowing that this opportunity may not come around again.
“The next year, after he lived up to his commitments, I reached out again and this time he was able to come and work in Boston. Then just able to observe who he was. It was everything that I thought he would be and hoped he would be as a player. Watching him work, watching him prepare, talking to him about the game. I couldn’t be more excited for Joe. Who he is and all that he’s about. He’s fun. He’s unique. There’s not very many like Joe. He’s his own guy and I really love him for that. It’s fun following the team, it’s fun following him. I get a real kick and joy out of watching him have success.”
Ainge’s impact on the roster is still considerable. For years, Ainge’s greatest trade heist during his Celtics tenure was considered to be the acquisition of Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007. That honor can now officially be shifted to June 2013 and the deal when Boston acquired first-round picks and a pick swap that produced three top-8 picks from Brooklyn over five years in exchange for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
Ainge didn’t just land a massive haul to jumpstart a rebuild, he navigated those drafts masterfully to maximize his good fortune as the Nets cratered ahead of schedule. Jaylen Brown was a raw prospect in 2016 at No. 3, avoiding a number of potholes (Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, Buddy Hield) in the process. He selected a franchise cornerstone Jayson Tatum a year later and extracted maximum value out of a division rival by trading from the No. 1 overall pick.
For all of Stevens’ savvy moves supplementing Tatum and Brown over the past three years, the hardest part of team building was done by Ainge early in identifying future stars. He also deserves credit (along with Stevens) for avoiding the temptation to sell Boston’s young stars for an earlier win-now push. Tatum was never going anywhere after his rookie year, but Brown’s name was rumored to be included in potential deals for Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Anthony Davis and Kawhi Leonard in the latter days of Ainge’s tenure. His unwillingness to budge on Brown’s value in those talks (or the draft pick that became Brown) in those trade talks has helped position the Celtics to become a perennial contender.
Despite all this, Ainge wanted no part of the credit when MassLive spoke to the CEO of Utah Jazz Basketball about Boston’s title. Instead, he made a point of crediting the group as a whole, singling out every player he had worked with.
“I feel fortunate to be a part, a very small part of all of their lives,” Ainge said. “I have a feeling that Jaylen and Jayson and Wyc (Grousbeck) and Pags and Joe and Brad and Payton Pritchard, Al Horford, the whole group, every one of those guys would have found success without me being involved. I just feel like to be a small part of their success is fun to watch them grow and have success. They would have found it no matter what, no matter where, that’s the kind of people they are.”
Ainge isn’t expected to be at the Celtics victory parade later this week as he helps the Jazz prepare for a critical draft. Yet, he remains closely bonded with this group as the stage has been set for a lengthy title run for this core. Injuries and age limited the Big Three Celtics to one title under Ainge’s watch. This group could be set up for more as Ainge watches happily from afar, perhaps cementing a case for putting his number in the rafters at TD Garden.
“It’s obviously been fun watching their success and rooting hard for their success. It’s been fun to watch them all grow and develop,” Ainge said. “Those people are all going to be successful no matter what. They’re gonna find a way to be successful in my opinion. Obviously Brad had success before he got with us in the college game and was a successful coach and, Wyc and Pags have had as much success as a very, very small percentage of people have in the entire world.
“I’m not surprised that the team is having success. It’s a great group, an extremely talented group and I’m very happy for them.”
