Danny Ainge (1959-) - 14-Year NBA Player for the Boston Celtics et al, Mid-Infielder for the Toronto Blue Jays

[DonRocks]

I cannot stop laughing at this video. Mario Elie jaws at Danny Ainge, and Ainge (a major-league infielder) pegs Elie with an out-of-bounds pass. 

[DaveO]

Danny Ainge was a "spicy" agitating sort of fierce competitor as a basketball player.  He started on the great Celtics teams of the mid 80's with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, et al.   Then he got traded around the league a bit.  He was a starter most of his career.   He competed hard, probably grabbed and fouled hard and had a few tiffs in his day.   I used to have a partial ticket package to the then Bullets in the 80's and 90's and saw a number of Celtic games.  Ainge definitely got in people's faces.  Dainty he was not.

He had this storied history coming into basketball.  He had been a 3 sport super star in high school, played pro baseball, hit one of the memorable shots in the NCAA tournament, and when he got to the NBA, he was certainly competitive but his starness faded.  He was more of a role player.  Definitely an aggressive one.

He got into basketball coaching then management for the Celtics.  He had a rough start with lousy Celtic teams and then pulled off a series of transactions that landed the team 3 superstars, a Big 3, and an NBA title.  A little later he pulled off one of the great coups of a trade that has landed him beaucoup high draft choices and a current top notch team.

Is this guy a scruffy lucky guy or a genius?   I don't know, but I do know there are video's that have to be floating around featuring Danny "the fighting Celtic" Ainge.   Its too bad they didn't have mixed martial arts back in his fighting days.  He would have been perfect for it.

[DonRocks]

11 minutes ago, DaveO said:

Is this guy a scruffy lucky guy or a genius?   I don't know, but I do know there are video's that have to be floating around featuring Danny "the fighting Celtic" Ainge.   Its too bad they didn't have mixed martial arts back in his fighting days.  He would have been perfect for it.

There's a video of him tackling 7'1" Tree Rollins, who, at the bottom of the pile, *bit Ainge's finger down to the tendon*.

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“Then Danny came at me (later) and all hell broke loose. In the pile, somebody stuck their finger in my eye and I didn’t know it was Danny but I bit his finger.’’

[DaveO]

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

There's a video of him tackling 7'1" Tree Rollins, who, at the bottom of the pile, *bit Ainge's finger down to the tendon*.

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“Then Danny came at me (later) and all hell broke loose. In the pile, somebody stuck their finger in my eye and I didn’t know it was Danny but I bit his finger.’’

That play generated the Sports News Headlines:   "Tree Bites Human"

Edit:  It was probably "Tree bites Man"
 

Catchy and memorable