When Danny Ainge thinks of Kobe Bryant, the images are emblazoned in his consciousness as though they happened yesterday.
First and foremost, he can remember sitting in a gym as the head coach of the Phoenix Suns in 1996, slack-jawed as Bryant put on the best pre-draft workout he'd ever seen -- then, or since.
"Here was an 18-year-old who was so skilled, competitive, driven, so athletic, so bright," Ainge told CBS Sports on Wednesday, ahead of Bryant's final game in Boston against the Celtics. "I can still picture the workout today, and that’s always just stayed with me -- how driven he was. You could see it. You could see his talent and potential, and I’ve always admired his work ethic, and his greatness. It’s been fun to watch."
The Celtics' president will get to watch in person one more time on Wednesday night, as Bryant's farewell tour hits one of its most meaningful venues. At TD Garden, Bryant will confront once more the visceral, sickening emotions that washed over him when the Celtics embarrassed the Lakers in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals.
It was that 131-92 beatdown that gave the Celtics their 17th championship. Bryant has always credited that loss to the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce for propelling the Lakers to their two subsequent titles -- the fourth and fifth (and, it turns out, the final) of Bryant's brilliant, 20-year career.
"Just how aggressive they were that series, that was a big turning point for us," Bryant said. "It launched us. It propelled us to win back-to-back championships because we understood the aggressiveness that we needed to play with."
Having learned from their age-old rivals what it would take, the Lakers beat Orlando in the Finals the following year and then got the better of Boston in 2010. Ainge, of course, wishes they hadn't -- but can now appreciate how special those throwbacks to the Celtics-Lakers battles of the 1980s truly were.
"I think the great teams do that to one another," Ainge said. "I think the Lakers in the '80s and the Celtics in the '80s did that to one another. The Bulls did that to everybody; everybody was trying to be who they were. LeBron [James] and his Miami teams and now his Cleveland teams, and Steph [Curry] and Golden State, too. The great players and the great teams drive other great players to try to get what they have."
From 1980-89, the Lakers were in eight Finals; the Celtics, five. They played each other three times -- the Lakers of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy getting the better of the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish Celtics twice. Ainge played in all three, and also in the '86 Finals, in which the Celtics beat the Rockets.
Boston's modern-day version began to crumble when Ray Allen left for Miami in 2012, and the transition was complete when Ainge traded Garnett and Pierce to Brooklyn the following summer.
The Lakers are on their fourth coach since Phil Jackson stepped down in 2011, and at 5-27, they're staring at their third straight season out of the playoffs as the Bryant era comes to a close.
In today's NBA, where the glamour franchises no longer have the advantages they once did, can Boston and LA ever rekindle one of basketball's greatest rivalries?
"I don’t think the book is closed," Ainge said. "I believe there will be another era of Celtics-Lakers rivalries, but you never know. There’s so much parity in the league. But they're two very prideful organizations, and with the history of the Lakers and Celtics, I think it will come about again."
The Lakers are trying to give Bryant room to enjoy his farewell while developing young players DeAngelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson at the same time. The result has been epic badness, but at least it will likely be bad enough for LA to keep its top-three-protected pick in 2016.
The Celtics, unequivocally, are in a better place. Ainge is flush with draft picks and payroll flexibility, with a gritty, talented roster that not only competes hard but also entertains. Under promising young coach Brad Stevens, Boston made the playoffs last season and, at 18-13, is in position to do so again.
When the opportunity presents itself, as it did with the trades to acquire Allen and Garnett in 2008, Ainge will be ready.
"I think it’s more difficult [to win], and it’s more difficult to predict," Ainge said. "I just know the Lakers and their fan base and their confident management and ownership, and the same with Boston. I just believe that we’ll find a way to get there again."
One thing is certain: No matter how many workouts he sits through as an executive, Ainge doesn't expect to see another one like Bryant's. To this day, he remembers an 18-year-old Bryant insisting on knowing what the other prospects' scores and times were in the various drills. Any time he didn't beat it, he wanted to go again.
And again. And again.
Twenty years later, he's still going. In Boston on Wednesday night, it'll be one last time for the memories.
