Report: Danny Ainge 'seriously considering his future' with Celtics, could step down as President of Basketball Operations

The news comes after the Celtics were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs with a 123-109 Game 5 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night. 

Ainge has been with Boston in a post-playing role since 2003. The Celtics have won one NBA title since he took over as President of Basketball Operations and have not made it to the NBA Finals since 2008, the year they won it all. 

According to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, Ainge is not expected to retire if he steps down from his position with the Celtics. The sense is he would look for other opportunities, Mannix adds. 

The 62-year-old has been controversial in his role as a Celtics executive and earned himself the nickname "Trader Danny" when he traded three-time All-Star Antoine Walker in 2003. 

Some of Ainge's best moves as an executive came during the 2007-08 season when he traded for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, who joined Paul Pierce to form a new "Big Three" and lead the Celtics to the NBA title. The moves earned Ainge the NBA Executive of the Year Award. 

Since that point, though, the Celtics have struggled to form a title-winning group. Ainge traded for Kyrie Irving in 2017, but, as we all know, that didn't work out too well. 

Ainge is responsible for acquiring Kemba Walker and drafting the likes of current Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but he hasn't done much to get those three any help.

With the pressure on Ainge to build a team that can contend with the likes of the powerhouse Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference, it should come as no surprise that he's considering moving on from his current role.