By Danny Ainge was responsible for bringing the nucleus of the Celtics’ latest title-winning team to Boston, but he doesn’t want any credit for his former team winning its 18th title. The former Celtics president of basketball operations pointed to his successor, Brad Stevens, along with the front office (which includes his son, assistant general manager Austin Ainge) and the ownership as those responsible for Banner 18 . “It was fun watching,” Ainge told Shaughnessy.
“We followed the Celtics’ success all during the playoffs, and it was exciting to see and it’s fun to see everybody shine. There’s so many people there that we’re rooting for. “There’s a lot of guys there that deserve all of that credit.
Brad, [vice president of basketball ops] Mike Zarren, Austin. Those guys deserve a ton of credit, ’cause they were there through all of it. And Wyc [Grousbeck] and Pags (Steve Pagliuca) spent a lot of money.
” Ainge, who played for the Celtics from 1981-89, rejoined the franchise as president of basketball operations in 2003. After architecting the team that won the franchise’s 17th title in 2008, Ainge hit the restart button in 2013, trading Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets to get back three first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps. Those picks from the Nets helped the Celtics land Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but they drafted both in unpopular fashion.
Ainge’s decision to select Brown with the third pick in the 2016 draft was inf.
