Audible worked well for Erik Ainge
Danny Ainge dished out his share of assists while playing for the Celtics. His nephew is thankful the largesse has extended off the basketball court as well.
University of Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge is projected as a mid-round pick in next weekend's NFL draft, and he thanks his uncle - the Celtics' executive director of basketball of operations - for pointing him in the right direction.
It all started in the sixth grade when Erik, growing up outside of Portland, Ore., was on youth basketball and baseball teams. Football wasn't on the menu, because some in the family felt it was too rough.
At the time, Danny Ainge was coaching the Phoenix Suns and had become close with Jon Niednagel, whose work with brain typing he'd come to value and trust. When Niednagel determined that uncle and nephew had the same brain type - which also is the same type that most top quarterbacks have - a suggestion was made that perhaps football wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"[Danny] was a receiver in high school and an all-state quarterback as a senior, and to this day - being a professional baseball player, a professional basketball player, and a scratch golfer - he thinks he could have been as good a quarterback as anything," Erik Ainge said. "He didn't want that opportunity to pass for me."
The message wasn't that Erik should drop the other sports and focus solely on football. To the contrary, actually, so he still played basketball and baseball, in addition to football.
It wasn't until he returned from a summer quarterback camp with top high school prospects, around the same time he was playing AAU basketball, that he made the decision to play football in college.
Danny Ainge remembers coming to a similar point in his own career, except his choice was different. He didn't pursue football, instead focusing on basketball and baseball. And even though he played three seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, basketball was eventually his choice.
"There was a time I thought I would play football, and I was more recruited in that sport than any other," Danny recalled. "But once basketball season started my senior year, I loved it too much to give it up. That was always my first love, so there are no regrets."
While Erik Ainge might have the right brain type to play quarterback, according to Niednagel, it was also apparent he had something equally as important: the physical skills to play one of the sport's most important positions.
Ainge, whose high school team had switched from a wishbone offense to a passing attack under his leadership, enrolled at Tennessee after being named Oregon's Gatorade Player of the Year in his senior campaign in high school. He started 37 games in four seasons at Tennessee.
At 6 feet 6 inches, 220 pounds, Ainge has the prototypical size NFL teams seek in quarterbacks, which is why prognosticators think he could be selected as early as the third round. The Redskins hosted him on a predraft visit last week, but Ainge isn't reading too much into that.
Naturally, Ainge is thankful that his uncle and Niednagel suggested he play football in the sixth grade, as it has led to a potential NFL job. He still regularly speaks with both, bouncing ideas off them, such as which agent should represent him (he chose Jimmy Sexton).
On the flip side, the Celtics' Ainge is reluctant to take any credit for what his nephew has accomplished.
"It was just encouragement for him to try football, and from that point on, his natural ability was easily seen," he said. "I think Erik would have been successful at whatever sport he chose."
Ainge then traded his basketball scouting hat for the football variety, offering his own Mel Kiper Jr. analysis.
"Whoever gets him in this year's NFL draft, I think they'll have a real find," he said. "I think he's a better player than is probably recognized."
