On this day in 2003, current Boston Celtics team president and former shooting guard Danny Ainge was hired by the franchise in his present capacity.
Ainge replaced outgoing GM Chris Wallace, who had been with the team in that role since replacing Rick Pitino in 2001.
Ainge has had a successful tenure as president of basketball operations, winning a title in the 2007-08 NBA season, and making an NBA Finals appearance two seasons later in 2010.
His ability to seemingly always get the best of a deal has earned him the moniker “Trader Danny”, ranging from acquiring the contracts of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to forge the team that won Banner 17, to moving Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 that netted one of the most uneven returns in league history.
Now in his 17th season as team president, the Celtics appear poised for another title run — soon, if not this season.
It is also former Celtic big man Marcus Webb’s birthday, who was born in 1970 on this date in Montgomery, Alabama.
Webb came to the Celtics as an undrafted player out of Alabama, and played nine games for the team in the 1992-93 NBA season after signing as a free agent in the summer of 1992.
He averaged 4.3 points and 1.1 rebounds while with the team.
It is also the anniversary of two postseason wins for Boston since the season of their last championship in 2007-08. The first was a 97-87 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Boston was led by an absurd triple-double from point guard Rajon Rondo, who had 28 points, 18 boards and 13 assists, with Ray Allen and Garnett adding 18 points each, the latter with 6 rebounds as well.
Reserve guard Tony Allen added 15 points and 5 rebounds off of the bench.
“I think it starts with Rondo. He’s kind of the engine that really gets them going,” LeBron James said via the Associated Press. “He does everything for them. His performance was unbelievable.”
The second was a 114-112 squeaker, gritted out as the team eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 5 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Veteran guard Marcus Smart put the Sixers away late nearly single-handedly, sinking a critical free throw and then blocking a late 3-pointer immediately afterwards to seal the win.
“That’s a Marcus Smart sequence. That just describes him so well,” said shooting guard Jaylen Brown via the A.P. “If it came down to one guy coming up with it, everybody’s got their money on Smart.”
Brown, for his part, scored 24 points and swingman Jayson Tatum 25 more, with point guard Terry Rozier adding 17 points and 6 boards as Boston would advance to face the Cavs in the East Conference Finals for the second season in a row.
