Boston Celtics

Danny Ainge: Celtics ‘concerned’ with Jaylen Brown’s tendinitis, but have no ‘long-term concerns’

"We'll just keep keep tabs on it the best we can and try to get the best version of Jaylen that we can have."

Danny Ainge Celtics
Danny Ainge watches the Celtics-Wizards game in January, 2021. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

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Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge shed some more light on Jaylen Brown’s ongoing injury status during his Thursday interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich.”

“We’re concerned,” Ainge admitted. “Jaylen has tendonitis in his [left] knee.”

Brown recently missed two games with that was described as “knee soreness.”

“We’re concerned about it. We’re doing everything we can,” said Ainge. “Giving him the two days rest isn’t going to cure it, it’s just going to lighten the load.”

Noting that he played a 14-year NBA career with on-and-off bouts of tendinitis, Ainge elaborated on the pragmatism of load-management.

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“We hear a lot about load-management, and load-management prevents tendinopathy,” Ainge explained. “It’s interesting, in my career when I was playing 37, 36 minutes a game in my ’20s, that part of my career, I had the tendinitis pretty consistently. And once I started playing 22, 24 minutes a game later in my career in my ’30s, I didn’t have it anymore. So we’re keeping an eye on it.

“It’s a very common thing among NBA players, tendinitis in that patella tendon,” Ainge added. “We’ll just keep keep tabs on it the best we can and try to get the best version of Jaylen that we can have.”

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Asked about the timing of the diagnosis, Ainge said he’s known about Brown’s tendinitis for “the last two weeks.”

“I haven’t seen the images of it and haven’t really spent much time talking to our doctors about it yet,” said Ainge. “I look forward to catching up with them as they return from the road now, probably even tonight.”

“I don’t know how serious it is,” Ainge acknowledged. “But I have been given no given no reason to be concerned about anything long term. Like I said, I had it all the time and you can just play with it. You usually have to get it warmed up pretty good and you can function, but yeah I don’t think there’s any long-term concerns at all.”

The Celtics play back -to-back home games starting on Thursday against the Raptors (7:30 p.m.) and the Pistons on Friday (8 p.m.)

Hayden Bird

Sports Staff

Hayden Bird is a sports staff writer for Boston.com, where he has worked since 2016. He covers all things sports in New England.

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