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Jazz CEO Danny Ainge joined Hans & Scotty G. to discuss his philosophies on the Thursday, February 5, NBA trade deadline in an exclusive KSL Sports Zone. “Players do hold a lot of power,” Ainge said. “The stars are the big draw in the NBA and they do have some power and leverage.”
“Character is big. How much they love basketball, how committed they are to basketball, and how committed to their teammates,” Ainge commented. “I’ve been fortunate in my career to have max contracts that have earned it and deserved it.”
Paul Pierce: Ray Allen was the first to go. That's when he went to Miami. Me and KG was a little older and we wasn't able to carry a team night in and night out anymore. We could have done some things a little differently to extend our run if we had have made the right trades or draft with some younger guys. But we saw the writing on the wall toward the end cuz I think we got we got handled by the Knicks. That was our last series together in the first round, we put up a little fight, but the writing was on the wall all year and we was dealing with injuries. Guys was getting older and Danny Ainge was very honest about the whole process with it. He was like, "If I got to make some moves, I will, but I won't just send you anywhere. It'll be something we'll talk about if there's this opportunity. So, we was just like, all right what's the deal after the season? We talked middle of the season. It's like, I got a deal, I can send y'all to Brooklyn. You got a young core over there with D-Will and Joe Johnson. I was like, man, that's man, K, we could probably win with that.
Robert Horry: I get a steal, hit a three, get a block shot. Three minutes in, I go to the bench and I'm like, "Danny Manning coming to get me?" What? Oh, f*ck no. Uh-uh. And so I said, "Why you subbing me?" And Danny Ainge said, "Shut the f*ck up and go sit down." I said, "Did he just say what I think he said?" So I went down. I said, "Who you f*cking talking to like that?" He said, "You." I said, "Man, f*ck you." And that's when I threw the towel in his face. So at the end of the game, we in the locker room. So you got Chucky Brown, Mark Bryant, me sitting next to each other. Joe Kleine comes in there and says ‘Man, we don't f*ck do that around here’. I’m like, ‘Man, you shut the f*ck up, you bigheaded f*ck’. I mean, y'all got to excuse my language. I'm hot. ‘I’mma whoop your big head ass right now’. And Mark Bryant and Chuck are like ‘Yeah!’ So, basically, it's the three Houston guys against the whole Suns. Wayman Tisdale said like, "Guys, calm down." I'm looking around like, "This is all you punk f*cks right here ain't going to do nothing." And the only person that calmed me down cuz I was about to tear some locker room up, and I love this guy, was Paul Silas. He was like, ‘Rob, calm down. Calm down. Let's go in the back’. So, he took me into the room. I said, "No, man, f*ck this." And I'm hot. So, and I'm usually a mild man of God, right? I'm hot because it's just… I hated Danny Ainge. I hated the situation I was in. I was missing my kids. It was just a lot of stuff going through me at the time. After all everything died down, I wasn't even going to get on the bus. I was just going to make find my own way back to wherever I was going to go. Paul Silas says ‘come on, get on the bus’. We get on the plane, we go back, I get suspended for two games. And then Ainge called me after submission. He said ‘Hey, I just want to let you know I probably just won you another championship.’ I'm like, ‘Why?’ He says, “because I just traded you to the Lakers”. Click! I hung up the phone in my car, and I was driving to LA. I ain't even know who I got traded for who I was with. I ain't give a f*ck! I was out. I was out.
Why did you retire from golf? Deron Williams: Um... I don’t know. I just stopped liking it. I think I hit my ceiling. I got to scratch, and I couldn’t get to that plus one, plus two. Plus, man—it takes a lot of time. There’s a lot of grind that goes with playing golf. I could spend 30 to 40 hours a week playing and there’s no chance of me getting better. I could actually get worse. There’s no other sport like that. So I just got frustrated with that process. Will Hardy: Well, I just want to let you know that the rumor going around here is Danny Ainge tells everybody that, because he beat you in a match in the Crew Cup, that forced you into retirement. I'm just telling you what's being said. Deron Williams: Oh, I know what—Danny's full of it. Actually, I think I got some receipts somewhere. Yeah, at Pebble Beach—I beat Danny. I closed him out on, I think, the 16th hole. So yeah. We know you're watching on Jazz Plus. The truth finally comes out.
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Kendrick Perkins: Ace Bailey reportedly isn’t happy about being drafted by the Utah Jazz. The Jazz—under a new owner, Danny Ainge—young, full of energy. He’s not happy about it? Why not? Isn’t that your dream, bro? You wanted to fall to a team where you could showcase that you're a franchise player—wasn't that the case? Utah has one of the best fan bases in the entire league. So what’s the problem? I’ll tell you what the problem is: we have these vultures out here. Vultures preying on these kids. They find them in eighth or ninth grade, take them under their wing, give them money, pay their parents’ bills, buy them their first cars, put jewelry on them, clothes on their backs—and the families don’t realize there’s a hidden agenda. These folks had motives all along. I don’t know the man who’s managing Ace—not the agent, because he’s not qualified. I don’t know him, so I won’t speak on his name. But I will speak on the situation: he’s handled this all wrong. Completely wrong.
Carlos Boozer strode confidently through Zions Bank Basketball Center, the Utah Jazz training facility. Once upon a time, he walked this space as a player. Those were his All-Star days. His Olympian days. The days of Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko and the late, great Jerry Sloan. The days of Utah’s powder blue uniform. Today, Boozer is back with the organization, and, along with Avery Bradley, is a key cog in a front office tasked with selecting the fifth pick in Wednesday night’s NBA Draft. Utah’s war room will be different for Boozer, not only because he’s no longer a player, but also because the building has undergone renovations since his playing days. And we’re talking about a front office that has transitioned in general managers from Kevin O’Connor to Dennis Lindsey, to Justin Zanik, to Danny Ainge, and now to Austin Ainge.
If you guys get the number one pick, would you even listen to offers from others?” Ryan Smith: “Well, I have Danny Ainge running the franchise. He had the number one pick and moved back to get Jayson Tatum—which no one saw coming. So if anyone's open to it, it’s him.”
Stevens had no experience in an NBA front office when the Celtics named him Danny Ainge’s replacement in June 2021. Those with Stevens at Butler still believed he was more than qualified for the job. “Just being around him for so long, you’re like, he’s going to crush this,” said Shrewsberry. “He’s going to absolutely kill it.” The former Butler assistants have nodded their heads several times while watching the way Stevens has assembled the Celtics roster. They see his impact in the way his team has consistently avoided drama, secured buy-in and acquired players committed fully to their development. He has looked for all the same qualities he would have wanted at the school.
“The Jrue Holiday and Derrick White (trades), I’m like, those are Brad guys right there,” said Shrewsberry. “Good dudes. Great reputations. (They) have come from winning, really good places. Selfless. (They) can score and do stuff, but really dig in and guard and compete. I’m like, yeah, those two dudes fit. They fit him.” The whole team does. “The biggest thing he did (at Butler) was he never held anybody back,” said Hahn. “He always let people be who they were because he knew he recruited the right kind of guys in the system. It’s the same thing he’s done with Boston.
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Getting a chance to understand and know the vision of the team, I think it’s having success because we’re in a reload of losing Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and coach Quin (Snyder). We brought in a new coach in Will Hardy, Danny Ainge, and Ryan as a new governor. Everything is new, and you have to have patience. You have to be patient in your rebuild. I think that’s what the Jazz have been doing while trying to build a culture and put together an organization that practices a championship mindset from the top and eventually trickles down to the players. It’s a slow burn. It’s a slow build. But you’ve got to be in this for the long haul. You don’t just walk into this and win championships and be successful. I think we’re all seeing that together. We’ve got a great leader in Ryan, a great leader in Danny, and a great leader in Will.
Sasha Vujačić: “So anyhow, Rudy (Tomjanovich) says, ‘He played for me before. You’re young. You’re coming from Europe. I think we’ll have a better chance with him.’ And I hadn’t even gotten to the locker room—I already called my agent. My agent at the time was also Kobe’s agent, Rob Pelinka. I was going crazy. They’re telling me, ‘Calm down. You might not be in his plan, but you're in the plan of the franchise.’ Then Kobe called me. Kobe calmed me down. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ Funny fact—one of the teams I was supposed to go to was Boston. Danny Ainge and I had a great workout, and I was like, ‘Damn, do I just kill my dream?’”
Cameron Tabatabaie: Danny Ainge finds Isaiah Thomas for a hug after IT dropped 36 points for the Salt Lake City Stars pic.x.com/AEuKLCI6Nq
Andy Larsen: Jazz pull a victory from the jaws of defeat, beat Warriors 131-128. Jordan Clarkson superb, 31 points on 10-19 FG. Keyonte George hit the game winner, he had 26 points on 8-13 FG. Jazz get a win before the deadline. Danny Ainge didn't come to his seat 2H. PHX/LA/LA trip next.