High-profile stat keepers lend hand to Coach Ainge

Victoria Sun

Friday, July 27, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

Phoenix Suns swingman Dan Majerle and former NBA center Joe Kleine sat in the stands of Desert Pines High School Thursday afternoon keeping stats for the Arizona Stars.

No, they weren't practicing to become scorekeepers.

They were helping out their friend Danny Ainge, the former coach of the Phoenix Suns who played 10 years in the NBA and won two championships.

"They're paying me the big bucks to chart so I can go back to the tables and lose all my money," Majerle joked.

Ainge is the coach of the Stars, one of 344 teams entered in the adidas Big Time Basketball Tournament, which concludes Sunday.

Burned out by being an NBA head coach, Ainge quit in December of 1999 to spend more time with his wife, Michelle, and their six children.

To feed his competitive nature, Ainge coaches some of his kids' basketball teams such as the Stars, who have guard Tanner Ainge aboard.

He agreed to coach the Stars this summer when asked by team president Art Dye because several of his sons have played on Dye's teams before.

"Oh, I just love competition," Ainge said. "I love to compete and I love teaching.

"We have a lot of good junior players that are competing. And the kids, they love to play. There is a lot of purity in the game at this age. And I love that. It fulfills my thrill of coaching."

The Stars won in the morning, but lost an agonizing 76-75 game in overtime to Randolph White (Wisc.) later in the day.

As the game unfolded, Ainge yelled out praise and instructions, and found time to exchange anecdotes with Majerle and take light-hearted jabs at the referees.

"I'm pretty loose that way," Ainge said. "I mean, I can get intense and competitive.

"But I know it's a game. I love the intensity of the game, but I hope that I never get so much that I can't enjoy it."

Palo Verde senior Mario Collins was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ainge would be coaching the team. Collins joined the squad at the end of May.

"I said, 'Cool,' " Collins said. "He knows a lot about the game. Every day he teaches us something new. We listen to him more because we know he knows what he's talking about."

Collins added that there is one more benefit to Ainge's presence.

"NBA stars come to our games," he said.

As head coach of the Suns he guided the team to a 136-90 record in a three plus seasons before giving up his clip board.

"My coaching in the NBA was fun," Ainge said. "I enjoyed that.

"I love coaching. The difference is I coach one month in the summer with this team and that one is 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year."

"Last year, we kind of stumbled in this tournament," said Green Valley assistant Luther Bohanan, the squad's head coach this week. "This year, we emphasized winning our pool and that's what the kids did. Now we'll see how we do against the open division teams."

Ron Dunlap tallied a team-high 18 points to run his three-game total to 38, and 12 Gators got into the scoring column. But above all, Bohanan said he was impressed with his club's defensive effort over the tournament's first two days.

"I've been trying to emphasize playing team defense, and the kids went out there and got in the right spots," he said. "We're big and somewhat slow at times, but we work hard and we have great team chemistry this year.

"When next (high school) season comes, they'll know they can compete with anybody, and hopefully instead of winning one game at state we can win three in a row."

The Gators will take on Cleveland BBall Club 17's today at 5 p.m. in Durango's auxiliary gym.

"Tonight was a total team effort," Rebels coach Frank Brown Sr. said. "We regrouped after our first two losses and came out to play tonight."

Durango's Martrel Johnson scored 23 points, Cheyenne's Keith Richardson added 20 and Las Vegas High's Jeremy Atwater chipped in 16 in a back-and-forth affair that saw Blue Chip fall behind by 10 points in the second half, only to rally and force overtime on Chris Bosh's dunk at the buzzer.

Playing against a Texas front line that featured the 6-11 Bosh as well as 6-9 Ike Diogu, the 6-4 Atwater came up big in the game's closing minutes, blocking several shots and coming up with three key rebounds.

"He's a monster," Brown Sr. said. "He played an all-around game for us tonight, and we need that from him."

The Rebels will face Colorado Select White U-17 today at 2:20 p.m. in Foothill's main gym.

Turner's guardian, Gym Rats coach Rick Barrett, suggested he put it back in the suitcase. "I told him if UNLV people see you wearing that, they're going to throw eggs at you," Barrett said with a laugh. "Odom may be OK back in Camden, but this is Las Vegas. That guy brought the program down."

The Rebels' current probation stems largely from its improper recruitment of Odom in 1997.

Spencer Patterson and Steve Addy contributed to this story.