Nothing like a little family bonding on the basketball court.
Austin Ainge hands the ball to his father and calls him old. Danny Ainge, who used to play against a guy named Michael Jordan, backs up his son, scores and calls Austin weak."We go back at it, but it's pretty fun," Austin said. "He plays his game. He doesn't hold back at all."
Danny, coach of the Suns, has always hated to lose. He has handed down his competitive spirit to his oldest son, a point guard for Gilbert Highland High School, who refuses to give anybody an inch on the floor.
He'll take charges. He'll dive for loose balls. He'll plead his case to referees. And, oh, yeah, like dad, he loves to shoot from way out.
"Austin plays hard," Highland coach Dave Yates said. "He's aggressive. And he wants the ball. I know that about Austin. I'm sure that's the way his dad was."
Recently, the 6-foot-1 junior, who is averaging 15.6 points and 4.8 assists, had a career-high 35 points against Mesa Dobson, pouring in shots from everywhere.
This week, in a gritty 37-33 victory over third-ranked Gilbert, Austin was held to seven points but had a couple of steals and late in the game pulled down a key offensive rebound.
Dad usually is there for support and constructive criticism.
"I think he still has a lot of room to improve," Danny said. "He still turns the ball over too much and misses too many shots, as we all do as juniors in high school."
Late bloomers run in the family, Danny said. Austin, who didn't start on his eighth grade team, is ahead of the game, his father said.
"He does things that I only dreamed of doing when I was his age," Danny said. "He's by far a better ballhandler. He's much smarter than I was at his age. I was a little more athletic and taller. We're probably the same shooters."
Other than that, and the facial expressions and the dark blond hair, there is no resemblance.
Austin and his brother Tanner, who plays on Highland's freshman team, benefited from the NBA lockout, having their father home to not only watch them play but to critique, coach and play against them.
Danny helped mostly with Highland's freshman team.
"It was depressing with things going on with the NBA lockout," Danny said. "But one of the bright spots was watching my two boys."
Austin said that his dad has lost his quickness and endurance but still "can shoot the lights out," which marked his dad's career at Brigham Young and in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers and Suns.
"He helped me a lot over the summer," Austin said. "I shot a lot, a lot of shots. I shot the ball as much as I could."
Austin has toyed with baseball, but in the past two years basketball has been his passion. He said not playing much in the eighth grade drove him to work that much harder on his game.
Every once in a while, Austin will watch game film of his dad in college and in the NBA.
He said he appreciates seeing how competitive his dad was and said there have been many positives to being the son of an NBA player and coach.
There are also minuses, Austin said.
One of them was not seeing his father much during basketball season.
The other, he said, is going to school and "some people giving you flak."
"They treat you differently, but they get over it after a while," Austin said.
Austin said he has not felt any jealousy from teammates at Highland, where he started as a sophomore and was elected one of the captains this year for a team that is ranked sixth in Class 5A and is 15-3.
"We don't really think of him that much as the son of Danny Ainge," guard Scott Fleming said. "He's a teammate, a good basketball player, a leader."