Celtics GM Ainge attends team shootaround

[April 21, 2009]  BOSTON (AP) -- Celtics general manager Danny Ainge attended Boston's shootaround Monday after being released from a hospital following a heart attack but was not at the second game of the playoffs against the Chicago Bulls.

Ainge was released from Massachusetts General Hospital on Sunday, three days after he was admitted and had surgery. The 50-year-old Ainge did not speak with reporters Monday.

"It meant a lot" to see Ainge at the morning shootaround, Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "He came in today, then we told him to go home. It was great to see him."

Asked if he thought the intense Ainge would watch Monday night's game at home, Rivers said, "I don't know if anybody in his house will be able to turn the TV off."

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro, a Celtics fan who was born in Springfield, said he also talked with Ainge after the heart attack.

The Celtics lost to the Chicago Bulls 105-103 in overtime Saturday in the opener of the first-round series.

Ainge is in his sixth season in Boston's front office. He was a guard on two Celtics championship teams in the 1980s and was an NBA All-Star in 1988.

[Associated Press]

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