Danny Ainge responds to Cavs player’s ‘f—ing thief’ remark

Danny Ainge is taking the supposed claims of banditry against him in stride.

In an appearance Thursday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich,” the Boston Celtics general manager responded to a report earlier this week that a Cleveland Cavaliers player allegedly called him a “f—ing thief” in reference to his trade for All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. The Celtics dealt for Irving last August in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick.

“First of all, time will tell,” said Ainge, per Hayden Bird of Boston.com. “But that pick that we gave them had the chance to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. It turned out to be No. 8, but who knows? They may get a really good player with the No. 8 pick in this year’s draft. There are some very good players at the top.

“They turned Isaiah and Jae Crowder into other pieces, Clarkson and Hood and so forth,” he added. “Time will tell on all these trades, but at the time, we were criticized for giving up too much. And we gave up a lot. We liked Jae Crowder and we liked Isaiah Thomas. And we liked that Brooklyn pick.”

The remark from the Cavs player supposedly came during a particularly rough stretch of losses for Cleveland this past winter. That was around the time that the Celtics had the best record in the Eastern Conference as well.

“I thought it was a fair trade at the time,” Ainge concluded. “Both key players in Isaiah and Kyrie aren’t playing in this [Eastern Conference Finals] series, which is interesting, but we liked the trade for us then and we like it now. Hopefully it works out for both teams.”

Indeed, though the Cavs either did not or have not yet hit on any of the assets that they got in exchange for Irving, the former No. 1 overall pick himself got injured and is out for the entire postseason. Thus, a few years from now may provide a better indication of if Ainge actually wears a ski mask to bed or not.