Austin Ainge

Austin Ainge (born September 29, 1981) is a basketball coach, scout, and former collegiate player. On July 21, 2009 he was named the first head coach of the Maine Red Claws, an expansion team in the NBA Development League.

In May, 2011 Ainge was named director of player personnel for the Boston Celtics. Previously Ainge performed scouting duties for the Celtics organization. As a part of this position, he worked with Celtics rookies J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker while they were on assignment with the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League.

Prior to joining the Celtics front office staff, Ainge served a stint as an assistant coach for Southern Utah University where he was responsible for perimeter players, recruiting, player development, video breakdown, and developing game plans. There, he worked under former Phoenix Suns assistant and BYU coach Roger Reid.

Prior to coaching, Ainge had a successful basketball career at Brigham Young University where he was a two-time team captain leading BYU to two Mountain West Conference championships, three NCAA tournaments and one NIT appearance. Ainge was named All-Conference Honorable Mention twice. During the 2006-07 season he led the MWC in 3-point field goal percentage at 52.5% and was one of the best three-point shooters in the nation.

Maine Red Claws

The Maine Red Claws are a basketball team of the NBA Development League based in Portland, Maine. It is affiliated to the Boston Celtics. On February 25, 2009, the NBADL awarded the city of Portland, Maine with an expansion franchise. The team began playing in the 2009–2010 season. The team's home court is the Portland Expo Building. The team is owned by Maine Basketball, LLC, which is chaired by William Ryan, Jr. The Red Claws made their first playoff appearance on April 6, 2013 as the 8 seeded team. The team was swept by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the opening round.

On July 21, 2009 the Red Claws announced Austin Ainge as the first Head Coach of the team. Radio station 96.3 WJJB-FM broadcast the games. This streak continued for the second season and was cut short during the 2011-2012 season, ending the streak at 48 consecutive games.

On June 21, 2012, the Red Claws announced that they had entered a "hybrid" affiliation with the Boston Celtics, making the Celtics the Red Claws' sole affiliate.

Austin, Texas

Austin (ⁱ/ˈɒstɪn, ˈɔː-/) is the capital of the US state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas, Austin is the 11th-most populous city in the United States and the fourth-most populous city in Texas. It is the fastest growing of the largest 50 US cities. Austin is also the second largest state capital in the United States, after Phoenix, Arizona. As of July 1, 2014, Austin had a population of 912,791 (U.S. Census Bureau estimate). The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 1,943,299 as of July 1, 2014.

In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. After Republic of Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital, then located in Houston, be relocated to the area situated on the north bank of the Colorado River near the present-day Congress Avenue Bridge. In 1839, the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital (the republic's seventh and final location) and was incorporated under the name Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state.