This summer we learned why Brad Stevens chose to remain at Butler and turn down all those big school college basketball jobs. He was holding out for something better; and here’s his meteoric rise to the NBA. Challenges abound. Both the program he leaves and the program he takes over are in transition.
The Butler Bulldogs took a tremendous hit, they’ll take a while to recover from the Butler Bulldogs departure, and will not likely be the same again. And you saw on NBA Draft night, the Boston Celtics traded away their whole team. The body language of Bill Simmons said it all. Hard to be an unbiased journalist when that happens. So it’s a big transition for both Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics.
“Brad Stevens is a tremendous young basketball coach. He took Butler to back-to-back Final Fours.Very tough defensively. They played with an edge. He’s smart. But it’s a huge adjustment to come to the NBA. The games are longer,” said ESPN Analyst and former Chicago Bulls Coach Doug Collins.
“I think an NBA coach makes 10 to 15 times more decisions in an NBA game than what a college coach does.
And I think Brad Stevens is going to have to adjust to that. They’ve given him six years on his deal. But I will tell you, and George will tell you this, losing in the NBA is dog years. As much as you might want to prepare yourself and say, hey, we’re going to take it on the chin this year and maybe next year and maybe in year four we’re going to be ready to go, very rarely does the guy last that long with all those losses. Although, Danny Ainge has been great with his coaches and great with Doc through a couple of tough years there knowing he didn’t have the personnel. It will be a big adjustment for them. The number of games, the back-to-backs, the player preparation, and learning personnel and what guys like to do.”
Collins then talked about the expectation of Brad Stevens in year one. This is the NBA. These are the Boston Celtics, the class of the NBA. High expectations. At least we won’t have to watch Butler in the national title games anymore. Those were ugly! BU is predicted to finish last in the newly revamped Big East.
“his big thing is to continue to learn the league, coach every night, get the respect of his players. The thing that Chuck Daly said long time, God bless him, he said there’s three things you can’t fool: kids, dogs and NBA players. They know if you know what you’re doing or not. That’s the big thing you have to do as a coach. You have to walk in that locker room and have the respect of your team,” Collins said.
ESPN Analyst George Karl:
“I like the choice of Brad Stevens as a coach of the Celtics. I thought out of the box, giving him a six-year contract, he will give Brad the opportunity to learn the NBA game. About 10 years ago I interviewed for the Ohio State job. And somewhere along the way in the interview process I ran into Bobby Knight. And he said ‘what the hell are you interviewing for a college gig? It’s a totally different game than the game you coach.’
Bobby Knight – a lot of things he says are crazy – but he said something at that point 10 years ago that I thought was really true. The NBA game and college game, even though it’s basketball, it’s tremendously different.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the world; with regular weekly segments on NBC, CBS and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) , and RSS