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Austin Ainge

PORTLAND — They met under a basket, father and son. One with the basketball, the other wanting it.

One was a former star for the Boston Celtics, the other was still learning the game. Time after time, Danny Ainge would take his son, Austin, to school. Sessions of one-on-one basketball that started friendly and quickly became competitive.

"It turned when I was around 17," said Austin Ainge. His father was 40. "That's when I started to win more."

Beating his father for the first time ranks somewhere on his personal highlight list.

Tuesday he added another. The Maine Red Claws, as an affiliate of the Celtics and Charlotte Bobcats in their inaugural NBA Development League season, made Ainge a head coach for the first time at age 27. His prior coaching experience consists of one season as an assistant at Southern Utah University.

Talk about keeping it in the family. Dad is the Celtics' president of basketball operations, the man who added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to the team that won the 2008 NBA championship. Dad didn't ask that Austin's name be added to a lengthy list of would-be coaches. It wound be there anyway.

"You could change his last name to Smith and he'd still be sitting here," said Jon Jennings, the Red Claws' president and general manager.

But the name isn't Smith or Jones. It's Ainge. Jennings insists Austin earned the opportunity while you suspect he got the job because of who he knows.

"There is a comfort zone with Austin because of who he is," said Jennings, the assistant coach during the Larry Bird and Danny Ainge years. "Loyalty is everything to me."

Jennings has told the story of his time away from the Celtics family when he ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress, representing his Indiana district. He lost and got the phone call from Red Auerbach. "OK, you've got that out of your system. Now come back to us."

Meaning, Austin Ainge doesn't need to be taught the Red Auerbach Principles of Basketball. He doesn't have to read the book on the Celtics' culture. He lived through several chapters with his father.

Austin probably wasn't always trying to score free bubblegum when he was in the Celtics' locker room. His father's teammates and the life afterward did leave impressions. He learned more from four years playing point guard at Brigham Young.

Will any or all of this make him a good basketball coach? No one knows. He's been asked to coach an NBA Development League team, not assist Doc Rivers. Ainge will make mistakes and he'll learn.

Maine sports fans will remember that Kevin Dineen arrived to coach the Portland Pirates with little coaching experience. The X's and O's of hockey and basketball are different, but not the dynamics of motivating and communicating.

Ainge understands his last name carries weight. That some will measure him by his father.

"You always have the expectation of winning," said Ainge. Over his shoulder, the autographed Celtics shirts of John Havlicek, Dennis Johnson and Reggie Lewis were mounted in frames hung on a wall in the Red Claws' Portland office.

"I'm prepared to coach this team, but I know I'll get help when I need it. I'll get support."

Go back to his list of personal Celtics highlights. Ask for more. He mentions June 17, 2008, the night he and his father and every other member of the Celtics family was sprayed with champagne after the NBA championship was won.

He remembers the victory parade, his place on a float and the cheers that never ended. That was more fun than he imagined. It felt great to be a member of the Celtics family that day.

It felt just as good Tuesday.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at: ssolloway@pressherald.com