Boston Celtics and Miami Heat will meet in the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs, in a meeting between two teams with an amazing story behind. As if that already marked a trend that will be of great caliber, we must add their confrontations in the past, as well as the fight between the general managers.
Danny Ainge and Pat Riley are two COOs who would like to have any NBA franchise. However, both they hate each other for a long time, when in 1980 Ainge was a guard for the Celtics in the NBA Finals, against Riley’s Los Angeles Lakers.
In the 90s, the story between the two continued. Danny was already in his last years as a professional player, when He got involved in a fight with Pat himself, who at the time was the New York Knicks head honcho. In fact, that day the situation ended with a total of 21 players fined or suspended, being an absolute record in the NBA.
Riley took over as an executive with the Heat in 1995, while Ainge did the same in 2003 with the Celtics. In that time, many things have been said, but nothing compares when the Boston GM criticized LeBron James and the Miami GM destroyed him: “Danny Ainge needs to shut up and run his own team. He was the one who complained the most when he played and I know that because I trained against him.”
What did Ainge reply? “I don’t care about Pat Riley. He can say whatever he wants. I don’t want to spoil his Armani suits and all that fluff. It would be too expensive for me.”. There are no longer doubts, in the Eastern End There will be much more to play than a simple classification. Also at stake is the pride of two of the best general managers in NBA history.
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