Danny Ainge Heart Attack Scare

The Boston Celtics had a bit of a scare earlier today when Danny Ainge, the president of basketball operations, had a minor heart attack this morning. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he'll remain for a few days. The former Celtics guard is expected to make a full recovery, but most likely won't be attending Game 1 of the Bulls-Celtics playoff series. Celtics managing partner Stephen Pagliuca provided the Boston Globe with the following info:

"I saw him at about 3:30 p.m. today," Pagliuca said. "I spoke to him and he was already joking about recovering and Eddie House breaking his record [for 3-point percentage in a season] putting him over the top. He was in good spirits. He was with his wife, Michelle, at the hospital. He was in good spirits."

Pagliuca said Ainge, the NBA Executive of the Year last season, probably won't be at Game 1 of the Celtics' first-round playoff series tomorrow night against the Bulls. Ainge did not attend the Celtics' regular-season finale Wednesday night against the Wizards because he was feeling ill.

"We're very grateful that Danny is progressing," said Pagliuca, noting that it was a tough day. "He will bounce back quickly. Danny is a warrior.

Read full story on Danny Ainge here.

Ainge not only manages the operations of the team, including the big moves that brought in stars Kevin Garnett from Minnesota and Ray Allen from Seattle, but he also spent over 7 years playing there. His playing days included 2 championships to which he added another as an executive last year. Wishing Danny Ainge a speedy recovery from Love and Basketball NBA Blog. We fully expect Mr. Ainge will continue to be the heart of the Boston Celtics!

Celtic Pride Restored

Ok believe the hype. The Boston Celtics are not even messing around. After just 3 games, they've racked up 3 wins and 2 of them were by 20 points or more. The latest was a murder of the Denver Nuggets, who were supposedly playing some good ball themselves. You'd think a team with Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby would stand their ground. However, things didn't work that way in Beantown last night. Celtics were up by almost 40 at one point and finished with a huge win.

Let's face it, Danny Ainge was getting criticized heavily for years as the Celtics looked dismal, but now he's smiling ear-to-ear as he's restored Celtic pride. They even ran special commercials during the game last night. You may have seen the ads that NBA has been running with the piano background music and various phrases such as "Where Regret Happens" or "Where short shorts happened". Well this one was all about the Celtics and most importantly the restoration of "Celtic Pride". Green is mean once again.

If this team doesn't finish at the Eastern Conference top 2 by season's end it will be a shock, or due to unfortunate circumstances. They stay healthy, they keep winning. A true test will be to see them play a team such as the San Antonio Spurs. That will be the true gauge of just how good the Celtics are, albeit they only play 2 games vs the Spurs this season. Seeing KG in action against Duncan, and Pierce, Allen and the rest contending with Bowen, Manu and Parker will be a good measuring stick. As for the Celtics "secondary players" though, guys like Eddie House, Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo are looking just fine, so the question of depth might not even be a question now. When you have 3 NBA stars like Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and KG leading the way, the rest will follow...