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Danny Ainge Reminisces About A Time When The NBA Allowed Players To Be Physical

BOSTON (CBS) -- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge understands the limits of physical play in today's game. But as a former player, Ainge revealed some sentimentality on Thursday morning for the days when players were allowed to mix it up on the court a whole lot more than they are now.

Toucher & Rich asked Ainge about Charles Barkley's comments about "taking out" a Cavaliers player. Ainge said that type of strategy no longer can exist, and that if you don't want to allow a historic number of 3-pointers, the only way to do it is to defend the perimeter. But it opened up a larger discussion about the way the game used to be.

"I understand where Charles is coming from, you just can't do that in this era," Ainge said, noting that such discussions were commonplace back in his playing days. "We [used to have] those discussions, and we had those discussions often. Matter of fact, I remember when we were at shootaround the morning of the Kevin McHale-Kurt Rambis clothesline incident. And they had just beaten us by 30 and they were just fast-breaking on us, and it was the Hollywood Showtime Lakers all the way. And we were humiliated. And we came to practice the next day and we had some guys chirping about that, saying, 'We've got to take some hard fouls. We cannot let these guys just fast-break over us and dunk on us in transition and we've got to take some hard fouls.' And I said to the whole team, I like screamed at 'em, I said, 'Hey, listen, I'm booed in every arena in this league because I'm the only guy that takes hard fouls. I need some of you guys to take some hard fouls.'

"And, sure enough, Kevin clotheslined Kurt Rambis, and that was sweet."

Sending that Ainge was quite fond of that memory, Rich asked for more.

"It was a feel-good moment," Ainge said. "I don't think that it was predetermined. It was talked about, like 'We need to be more physical,' and so it was good to see Kevin, who, listen, Kevin is a more valuable player than I am, so it's easier for me to take fouls than our second-best player. But at the same time, we need to be more physical, we have to stop lay-ins, we can't give them that. And I think that mind-set, I don't think Kevin meant to actually do it as it looked, but I think he definitely meant to foul Kurt hard so he wouldn't get a lay-in."

Ainge knew a thing or two about physicality in the NBA:

Danny Ainge/Tree Rollins Fight (April 24, 1983) by Retro Basketball Highlights on YouTube

 

Tree Bites Man/Debut of Busty Heart by amcneill1992 on YouTube

With the memories flowing, Ainge kept going.

"I remember another story. We were playing in Chicago and Quintin Dailey was going off on us, and so K.C. [Jones] told Greg Kite to go in and, he didn't have to say much to Greg. It was like, 'Greg, you know what to do.' And Greg, in like the first or second possession, just laid him out. And it was sort of an embarrassing thing for the team, because it was like, 'Oh no, Greg. Don't make it that obvious.'"

Ainge then lifted the veil on Red Auerbach's mentality for the Celtics.

"We always had the rule back in those days where if you get in a fight, you just have to take someone on the other team better than you. Like, don't go out there and get in a fight with a thug from the other team. You've got to take someone out with you that's better on the other team. I guess that's more hockey-like. But I think that Red, every now and then Red would point out the unusual things. He never came in and said like, 'Hey, great game, Larry. You scored 40 points.' No, he was always pointing out the great screens or the great defensive efforts or the great rebounding of a player that might go under the radar to the rest of the world.

"Red was never more excited with me than when I was back in the locker room after I had been ejected after a fight. He was like ready to give me a raise."

Ainge also talked offseason hopes and plans for the Celtics. Listen to the full interview below:

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