Brigham Young, 1992
• 1980 First Team Academic All-America®
• 1981 First Team Academic All-America®
Danny Ainge was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2000.
Danny Ainge had an outstanding college athletic career from 1977-1981 at Brigham Young University. As an All-American in basketball, football and baseball which sport to play professionally was really Ainge’s choice. The Toronto Blue Jays drafted Ainge in the Major League Baseball draft in 1979, allowing him to play three seasons of Major League Baseball while still attending BYU.
Ainge continued to be a standout on the basketball court leading his team to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Basketball Tournament in 1981. Marching through Princeton and UCLA, Ainge had a historic last-second layup that upset Notre Dame in the third round of the tournament, one of the most famous shots in tournament history. Following that same season Ainge won the 1981 John Wooden and Eastman Awards as the nation's best college basketball player, after he averaged 24.4 points per game.
Following his senior year, Ainge gave up professional baseball when he was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Playing with Boston for seven-plus years, Ainge averaged 11.3 points and 4.4 assists per game, while hitting 38.6 percent from three-point range. During his time with the Celtics, Ainge was part of two NBA Championship teams.
Ainge was traded during the 1988-1989 season to the Sacramento Kings where he played through the 1990 season and then was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. He finished his successful professional career with the Phoenix Suns, teaming up with superstar Charles Barkley. Ainge ranks third in NBA playoff history for games played (193) and ranks sixth in most three-pointers made (172). He is also eighth in three-pointers attempted (433). Upon his retirement, Ainge was one of three players in NBA history to make 1,000 or more career three-pointers (1,002), along with Dale Ellis and Reggie Miller.
Ainge didn’t leave the profession, rather joining TNT as a color analyst before being hired as an Assistant Coach for the Phoenix Suns. His promotion to head coach came after eight games into the season, his club worked its way to a 40-34 record after the team started the season 0-8. In his three-plus seasons as the Suns coach, he guided Phoenix to three playoff berths.
In 2003, Ainge returned to Boston and was named Celtics Executive Director of Basketball Operations.
Celtics President Red Auerbach said, "I know that it will be a great relationship because he is a worker. He has a great personality, he's smart and bleeds green!"
Danny and his wife Michelle have six children: Ashlee, Austin, Tanner, Taylor, Cooper and Crew.