<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">wasn't hard to find Danny Ainge last season. He was in the stands for games and working individually with players after practices. In fairly stark contrast, the Celtics' director of basketball operations has yet to attend any of his team's first four exhibition games this season. He's still watching practices, but he's more an observer than a participant. This despite new coach Doc Rivers asking him to be involved. ``Doc's encouraged me to be around and encouraged me to talk to the players,'' Ainge said yesterday. ``But what's going on now is strictly a matter of where I need to be spending my time, where I can best utilize my abilities on any given day.'' With the Celtics taking yesterday off following their third straight preseason loss, Ainge detailed a recent itinerary that has seen him checking out other clubs, spending Tuesday at UConn's practice and being totally engrossed with the Red Sox-Yankee series (``Has this been unbelievable or what?''). He's checked out the Celts games on tape and regularly discussed the ups and downs with Rivers. </div> Source
