From The Boston Hearld:
Danny Ainge enjoys life about as much as a person can. That’s why Ainge, promoted by the Celtics [team stats] yesterday to president of basketball operations and given a three-year contract extension, has never been anyone’s idea of a basketball lifer.
But after engineering the trades that brought the Celtics their league-record 17th NBA title last season, he clearly enjoys the job enough to guarantee he’ll be around for another four years, the last year on his current deal included.
“I have a good relationship with the owners, and I still enjoy the experience,” he said yesterday. “This doesn’t change what we’re trying to accomplish, but I’ve enjoyed the support that they’ve shown me all along. But there’s a lot of people who have had a hand in it.”
Ainge then cited his basketball operations staff.
“Leo (Papile), Ryan (McDonough), Dave Wohl and Mike Zarins have all played a part,” he said.
Ainge, however, pulled the trigger on the surge that culminated in last night’s ring ceremony and banner raising before an opening 90-85 win over the Cavaliers.
So does this extension, which matches the three-year extension signed in August by coach Doc Rivers, build the argument that Ainge might be a basketball lifer after all?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “I enjoy what I do, and as long as it’s still challenging, and as long as I enjoy the work, not that I’m going to enjoy it every day, then I can see myself doing it. I wasn’t sure when I took the job of how long I would do it, but I don’t go through life with that kind of a game plan, anyway.”