Boston Celtics

Brad Stevens had two great responses for young fans asking about Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving

By Nicole Yang

2 minutes to read

https://youtu.be/7ZITwlM1F4A?t=20s

When Celtics coach Brad Stevens booked an appearance at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for Aug. 25, he thought it was going to be a “quiet week.” Little did he know that on Aug. 22, the Celtics would end up completing a blockbuster deal for Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Kyrie Irving.

In exchange for Irving, the team traded away a number of assets, including beloved point guard Isaiah Thomas. A young boy at the Hall of Fame decided to ask Stevens point blank: “Why did you trade Isaiah Thomas?”

Stevens offered this response:

That’s an excellent question … What he did in Boston for the last two and a half years was incredible. I said earlier what he’s meant to me, what I think of him, how great he’s been in the locker room, what kind of teammate he’s been. Those are all really, really, really hard decisions.

That’s the hard part about being a professional basketball coach. I’ve stared at the wall many times and thought, ‘Man, having guys in college for four years and knowing exactly when they’re coming and going is a pretty good way of doing things.’ So that’s a tough one.

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Stevens was also asked by another visitor whether he thought the addition of Irving would give the Celtics a “better chance to beat the Cavaliers and win the East.” Stevens once again fielded the question with a very measured response:

You know what, I’m a lot more concerned about us just building the team and growing. I’m always that way. Our ultimate goal in Boston is to win the whole thing because that’s the precedent that’s been set before us. You know, we have 17 banners in our practice facility, and we actually have a blank one that’s sitting up there, too.

But all of that takes a back seat to making sure that right now, we just focus on the day and the progress that it takes to get there. As I said last year, we were very fortunate to be in the position we were in, and we got tremendous play from our players.

Time will tell on how good of a team we can become. But it’s going to be a lot of people having to embrace roles quickly because we’re going to have to get to know each other quickly.