My Conversation With Danny Ainge

I got to hang out with Danny Ainge one time. Yes, I mean THAT Danny Ainge, the president of the Boston Celtics. Yes, I mean THAT Danny Ainge that was a key member of the Boston Celtics championship teams of the 80's. We hung out one time. We watched a basketball game together.

Okay, maybe he just sat beside me, but it's still a good story.

The story starts out at Duke University in the fall of 2002. I went to watch the Duke men's basketball team practice with my two assistant coaches, Pat Niemczyk and Matt Asher. Pat and I were Coach K fans and liked Duke. Matt was a hard core North Carolina Tarheel fan, so this was going to be a fun trip. We'd get to see Coach K in action and give Matt a hard time.

We drove out to Durham, North Carolina, where Duke is located. We attended Coach K's clinic and watched Duke practice for 3 days. We got to see JJ Reddick, Daniel Ewing, Shavlik Randolph, Sheldon Williams, Chris Duhon, and Dontay Jones in action (all went to the NBA).

During the middle of that time, since Durham and Chapel Hill are so close to each other (8 miles), we decided to drive over so Matt could see their arena. We got lucky because when we got there North Carolina was also running their clinic at the same time.

We walked up to the registration counter and pretended like we were on the list. The girl couldn't find our names. She kept looking. The clinic was almost over, so I said something like, "Listen, what will you charge us to get in and watch the end of practice?" She went to ask somebody that looked official, and then came back and said "Half price."

We all gladly paid and went to watch the end of North Carolina's practice, where we saw Rashaad McCants, Raymond Felton, Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel, David Noel, and Sean May going through the motions (all played in the NBA). Matt Doherty was coaching UNC at the time, and that was probably the worst three year stretch in UNC history. Watching practice that day we saw coaches tell a guy "go run 3 laps" for missing a layup, and the player would only run 2 laps. It was a total joke of a practice. The veteran, local coaches sitting in the bleachers were all shaking their heads and making Dean Smith comparisons under their breath.

When practice got over they let the coaches come down on the floor and take pictures. We walked out there and took Matt's picture. He was so happy, like a little kid. Right about that time, Doherty walked up to me and said, "Hey coach, thanks for coming. Did you guys enjoy it?" I said something about how much fun we had (which was true), but that we hadn't received our shirts! At these clinics the coaches always get some cool "team gear." Doherty sent somebody to get us some stuff, and a manager came back with UNC polos, clipboards, Nike bags, etc.

So to recap that trip so far: (1) Matt Doherty is one heckuva nice guy; (2) He didn't do a great job coaching at UNC; and (3) We saw 12 NBA guys practice that day. What does any of this have to do with Danny Ainge?

Keep reading...

Back at Duke, we'd also received a lot of "team gear," including these awesome black Nike coaching shirts. It had "Duke Men's Basketball" on the shirt, and it looked "official." It was high quality stuff. I know, you're probably reading like "Enough about the stupid shirt! Get to the Danny Ainge stuff." Trust me, the shirt is an important part of this story.

So fast forward to that summer, which would have been the summer of 2003. The best player on our varsity team, Dom Johnson, was a D1 point guard prospect. He got picked up to play with this AAU team called the "Missouri Rebels." The team was basically a bunch of rich kids from CBC, DeSmet, and other St. Louis private schools. We were WELL FUNDED. They needed a point guard, a ringer really, and Dom was their man.

We went out to play in the Adidas Big Time Invitational, which is in Las Vegas. We played against Martell Webster (NBA 1st round pick). We saw Jordan Farmar play. We saw Dwight Howard and Josh Smith's famed "Atlanta Celtics" AAU team, - arguably the best AAU team of all time. There were 2 NBA All Star's and 2 other NBA players (Javaris Crittendon and Randolph Morris) on that team. We saw them square off against Seattle Rotary, with Marvin Williams, who was the best player I saw play that weekend.

I should also point out right here that this was 2003, when guys could go straight from high school to the NBA Draft. As a matter of fact, Dwight Howard would be the #1 pick that year, Shaun Livingston went 4th, Sebastian Telfair went 13th, Josh Smith went 17th, and a bunch of other high school guys got drafted that year. Marvin Williams was the #2 pick the year after that. We saw a whole lot of talent that weekend in Vegas.

Speaking of Livingston vs. Telfair, that was the most hyped game of the weekend. They were the best two point guards in the country. Telfair had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was somehow related to Stephon Marbury (another NYC point guard legend). Livingston was a 6'7 passing wizard that drew Magic Johnson comparisons.

This game is where I got to hang out with Danny Ainge.

The line to get in the gym went around the block. Dom and I were standing in that dry Vegas heat, when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the college coaches all walking in a different door. You see, at these AAU tournaments, the college coaches can't have any contact at all with the fans, the crowd, the players, etc. They sit on one side of the gym where it's roped off. They have their own entrance. They are totally cut off from being able to have contact with anyone but each other.

I was standing in that line, sweating profusely, when I noticed that I was wearing my black (not smart in that heat) Nike Duke coaches' shirt. The idea to try to walk through that "coaches only" door crept into my mind, but it quickly occurred to me that it would never work. The hotter it got, and the more Dom kept telling me it would work, another thought was creeping into my mind... I can pull this off.

I made my way for the door, but I knew my plan was dead in the water when I walked in with Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo. I thought they'd take one look at me and say "You're not Coach K, or Wojo, or Jonny Dawkins, or Chris Collinsworth... YOU DON'T WORK FOR DUKE!" But they didn't. They just walked in with me.

** Side note: I'm 5'10, and could easily post up either Izzo or Pitino. In other words, they're really short. Back to the story...

I got inside the gym and hopped over the rope. One of the staff members saw this and immediately stopped me, saying "Coach, you can't be on this side of the rope." I smiled and said "Oh no, I got this Duke shirt at Coach K's clinic. I think I came in the wrong door." The guy was really cool and let me stay. I had my pick of front row seats, so I plopped down right at halfcourt and saved Dom a seat beside me.

About 15 minutes later, a really sweaty Dom Johnson walked in the gym. Right when he sat down I said, "Dom, I've been saving our seats, but I'm hungry. Go grab us something from the concession stand," and I handed him a $20. He took off for snacks, and then this guy walked up to his empty seat and said, "Is anybody sitting here?"

It was Danny Ainge.

I quickly sold Dom out and told Danny Ainge he could sit by me. The teams were warming up, and he said, "Is that Livingston?" I said yes and then tried to leave him alone. The man was there to work.

Dom came back, saw some stranger sitting in his seat, and had this look on his face like "Are you freakin kidding me?!?!" Before he could even say a word, I said, "Sorry Dom, but Danny Ainge wanted your seat." Danny Ainge laughed at my joke and said, "No it's cool, I can scoot over." So now I was sitting right between Dom and Danny Ainge.

Near the end of the game, I asked Danny (we were on a first name basis by this point), "So what do you think?" He said something like (paraphrasing), "He's really good, and he's going to get drafted, but he's not ready." He talked about how Livingston needed to get stronger and how young he was, etc. Danny was right. Livingston got drafted 4th, suffered a horrific knee injury, and has since made a terrific comeback as a key member of the Golden State Warriors championship teams.

This coaching life has taken me all over the country, but that is one of the cooler, more random things that ever happened to me. My favorite memory of that entire weekend was getting to hang out with Dom, who is still one of my best friends to this day.

And I'm still not sorry I let Danny Ainge sit in his seat.

Thanks for reading. #JWT

#DannyAinge #BostonCeltics #NBA #DwightHoward #ShaunLivingston #SebastianTelfair #Duke #NorthCarolina #TomIzzo #CoachK #RickPitino