People keep asking. Danny Ainge keeps answering.
And answering, and answering.
Countless times over the past year, the Boston Celtics’ president of basketball operations has been asked if he is planning to trade point guard Rajon Rondo. Invariably, Ainge has said no, although he adds the standard caveat about always keeping his options open for a deal that knocks him to the floor.
Once again, WEEI’s Michael Holley and Jackie MacMullan posed the question to Ainge on Thursday, asking if Rondo will be on the team next season.
“Yeah,” Ainge said in the radio interview.
Slightly exasperated, Ainge reminded the listeners that his public stance has been consistent.
“I’ve said that like a thousand times,” Ainge said. “Like, every interview, every day, you heard me say it last night, you heard me say it last week, you heard me say it last month, you heard me say it six years ago.”
Public statements and back-office wheeling and dealing are separate animals, of course. If Rondo is traded — with or without his input — Ainge always could insist that the deal had to be done for the good of the organization. He’s also less than a year removed from insisting over and over again that Doc Rivers would coach the Celtics in 2013-14.
In case you just woke up from an 10-month slumber, Rivers left last June to become head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. The Celtics then hired Brad Stevens, who went 25-57 in his first season on an NBA bench.
