Ainge’s view from the top

June 06, 2010|Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist

LOS ANGELES — He’s been around the NBA since the early 1980s when he left the Toronto Blue Jays to join Larry Bird and the Celtics. He played in a whopping 193 playoff games, including six trips to the Finals. He won two championships as a player and was a starter on the greatest team in NBA history (1985-86 Celtics). He was a head coach (Phoenix) for three years and a color analyst (TNT) for a couple more. He’s the father of six children, and a grandfather to three more.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you . . . Danny Ainge. President of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics.

We don’t hear too much from Ainge these days. He scared us with a heart event during the playoffs last spring and made headlines this year when he tossed a towel in the air while J.J. Hickson attempted a free throw in Cleveland.

Always the agitator. That’s one of the things we like about Danny (and for one last time, it was Tree Rollins who bit Danny, not the other way around).

Ainge is a terrific judge of basketball talent. He was scouting Rajon Rondo when the flossy point guard was in high school. He’s twice given Doc Rivers enough players to get to the NBA Finals.

He never gets caught up in the noise. Ainge doesn’t react when he hears and reads critiques about himself and his team. He’s secure in his skin.

I caught up with him yesterday and ran a few topics by him.

For starters, what did he think of Game 1?

“I thought we were tentative. But series change all the time, even in regular-season play, let alone the NBA Finals. You have a blowout victory one night and the next night you have a blowout the other way.’’

He said he hadn’t seen Pau Gasol’s mild yet overblown comments about Kevin Garnett.

“He’s just stating his opinion. I don’t have much reaction to it. I hope KG has reaction to it.’’

At the end of the regular season, Ainge said he thought the Celtics still believed they could beat any team in the playoffs.

“I think our guys had a lot of confidence. There’s a lot of continuity in the style of play they play. I believed, and they believed, that there wasn’t a team we could not beat. It was a tough mountain to climb and to have to do it on the road — Miami, Cleveland, Orlando, and now LA.

“I really believed we could beat any one of those teams, and beating them all would be an amazing accomplishment.’’

Many of us think this series with the Lakers represents the last roundup for the Big Three. Ray Allen will be an unrestricted free agent after the Finals, and Paul Pierce has an opt-out clause. Health is an ongoing concern for the aging trio. Is the window closed after this season?