Danny Ainge Quotes

I've always thought that having an attractive free agent is better than a guy who was picked in the seventh round.

All of us that have teams want to pick the right people. I've thought a lot about that. In the NFL, we've got 13 scouts traveling the country. We're trying to pick 22 year-olds coming out of college who will be successful in the NFL. It's very hard to do. What I've learned is it's always character first.

I don't think the Lakers really knew me when they first drafted me. They just saw my name and my size and my stats. They just picked somebody because they had to.

One has to be able to count if only so that at fifty one doesn't marry a girl of twenty.

One of the things I noticed more in this draft than in any recent drafts was the importance of the character issue. Players who had baggage, like Justice, fell much farther than his talent dictated. But a lot of coaches didn't want to take the chance.

A winning model would mean trying to get the best possible players that you can, at whatever age they are; it doesn't matter.

When you're a general manager, you don't get to see every single player, so you have to rely on your scouts.

I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can't invent him if he doesn't exist.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

You can't draft for need. You draft for need, you get fired. Draft the best player, and if you've got two of them now you've got three of them. Just take the best players available for you.

It's never easy to find players in the market who are exactly what you need at that time.

I don't get involved in recruitment like people think I do. There's a myth that I look at YouTube and choose players. I don't. Having an eye for players is an art. I have no interest in doing that.

I think a lot of personnel decisions come down to who's the best player today, like if we had to throw 'em in a game today versus what could their upside be 18 months from now. A lot of times, those are two different answers. That's the difficulty of player personnel.

An agent won't help you get drafted higher, won't make you win more games, and won't make you faster or stronger. They all say they can, but the people who do the drafting don't talk to agents. They talk to coaches, they watch film, they talk to the people who've worked with players. They don't talk to agents.

Obviously when the players are performing well in training, they will have a chance to play.

I always say that Madrid must have the best players, as this is the best club in the world. But it is not for me to say which players should be signed.

I always hung out with older people. I would be the youngest out of the crew.

I was drafted way later than I should have been, and all that shows me is people don't see my true value.

I'm not a fan of Paul Pogba. Maybe he is a talent, but I don't see him as any more than that.

I've turned down players based on their Twitter handles. I've turned down players based on Twitter pictures.

All my friends have always been older than me.

I think the teams know more than I do in the sense of where I'd best fit. I might be a bit of a unique personality, so hopefully they can pick me apart, and if a team really feels that I'm their guy, hopefully they'll go and get me.

At 47, I can't write from the perspective of a 25-year-old anymore. My life has just changed too much and my environment around me.

If you are 20 you don't have the same life experiences as at 25.

My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting, sign the best players in the state, and turn these guys into the best team we can.