Not Fade Away - why Danny Ainge quit as coach of the Phoenix Suns in 2000 - Interview

Basketball Digest, Feb, 2001 by Irwin Soonacahn

Last season, Danny Ainge abruptly walked away from coaching. We recently caught up with the fiery guard to get the final word from one of the most engaging figures of the NBA's last 20 years

BO AND DEION STEP ASIDE. When it comes to versatility, Danny Ainge has one of the better resumes of any athlete of his generation.

Ainge was a Parade High School All-American in football. While in college, he played major league baseball as an infielder with the Toronto Blue Jays. And most notably, as an All-America guard at Brigham Young, he won the 1981 John Wooden Award as college basketball player of the year.

He then went on to a 14-year NBA career, making six trips to the NBA Finals with three different teams and winning a pair of championships.

Ainge, though, will always be defined by his eight-season run with the Boston Celtics during the 1980s. He was an integral part of Boston's four Finals appearances and two titles during his stint in Beantown, and his role in the Celtics-Lakers rivalry will long be remembered.

The basketball world was shocked last season when Ainge abruptly resigned his position as coach of the Phoenix Suns to spend more time with his family. Upon closer inspection, the move doesn't seem so surprising. Ainge, a devout Mormon, heads a large brood that ranges from a married daughter to an energetic kindergarten-aged son.

Ainge now works for Turner Sports as an analyst for NBA games. But even in semi-retirement, his competitive nature hasn't been squashed. When BASKETBALL DIGEST first called Ainge, he was getting ready for a round of golf against reigning U.S. Amateur champion Jeff Quinney, who like Ainge is a native of Eugene, Ore. Getting ready to tee off, Ainge seemed as cocksure as his Celtics did while waiting for the Los Angeles Clippers to show up at the Garden.

The next day, while watching one of his son's high school basketball practices, he spoke with admiration for Quinney's skills but took responsibility for having lost on the links.

"I didn't shoot as well as I could have," Ainge says of his very respectable 75. Quinney, for his part, flirted with the course record before finishing with a 67. Ainge, who turns 42 in March, may be too old now to compete with younger lions on the field, but he still has the mindset of a winner.

BASKETBALL DIGEST recently caught up with Ainge to talk about how he keeps the competitive fires burning, his role on some of the best teams of the last two decades, and whether hell ever coach again.

BASKETBALL DIGEST: You were so precocious in every sport as a child; did your father push you at all into athletics?

DANNY AINGE: I guess I never perceived it as being pushed. My father was an athlete and loved athletics, but he never, ever had to push me. I was a kid who just found a gym or a ballfield or made a football game with the neighborhood kids. We were doing stuff like that constantly. My dad was very well tempered. I never felt stressed in playing sports and I never felt like it was more important to him than it was to me.

BD: Is that the same approach you take with your kids?

DA: When they come to me for help, I give them help. I never say, "Come on, let me go teach you how to do this." And I'm not one of those dads who yells and screams at my kids and embarrasses them at games.

BD: You and Larry Bird were both known as pretty fiery competitors. Did some of his attitude rub off on you or were you pretty much fully formed when you got to the Celtics?

DA: I think my intensity was pretty well documented when I was in high school and college. People who played against me would probably tell you some stories about that. My fire is just innate.

What Larry helped me with was confidence. All of a sudden you get to the NBA and you're playing with Bird, [Kevin] McHale, [Robert] Parish, and Dennis Johnson ... all of these Hall of Fame basketball players. Larry took confidence to another level than I had. It was incredible and fascinating. His confidence wore off on me and gave me confidence. It gave me confidence just being in his presence and having him on my side. But as I traveled after having played with Larry for eight years, I found my confidence had grown. How you had to be as a player, and if you were going to be good what mindset you needed to have--that was the greatest thing that Larry taught me.

BD: Which of the three teams you made it to the Finals with, the Celtics, the Portland Trail Blazers, or the Suns, had the most intense practices?

DA: To be honest with you, none of them did. When I got to the NBA, I was amazed how much easier practices were in the NBA than they had been in high school or college. I had a very, very intense high school coach and a fairly intense college coach. I couldn't believe that NBA practices were easy. I don't think I ever got tired in an NBA practice.

BD: I know you're a pretty religious person. Have you ever had trouble reconciling your faith with your conduct on the court as either a player or a coach?

DA: Yeah, I did. I believe that I am a very religious person, but at the same time there are things that I've done on the court that aren't very religious. I've repented of them. If there is a person that I did something bad to, I say, "Hey, I'm sorry." There are things that I do all the time in my life that I'm not proud of and that I try to get better at. I felt like in my playing career I got much better in my behavior as I got older, but there are definitely some things that I regret doing, without question. I certainly don't profess to be perfect, and I continue to make mistakes in my life that I need to be forgiven of.