Brad Stevens says he is not leaving Celtics for Indiana University coaching job
"It means a lot. ... I won't act like that doesn't."
On Tuesday, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens was asked by Marc Bertrand on 98.5’s Zolak and Bertrand if he was leaving the Celtics for the recently vacated Indiana University Bloomington coaching job.
“I am not,” Stevens said.
In his pre-game comments prior to Boston’s game against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Stevens expanded on his thoughts, and what the buzz around Indiana means to him.
“It means a lot,” Stevens said. “It means a lot. I know that — listen, I’ve got a lot of friends back there. I’ve got a lot of people that are really important to me there. My dad’s still there. That does mean a lot. I won’t act like that doesn’t. Like I said earlier today, it’s flattering.
“But I also realize that I’m the coach of the Celtics and it’s been an amazing opportunity, an amazing challenge every day for the last eight years and I’m extremely grateful for that.”
Stevens said he knows Archie Miller, who was recently fired by the Hoosiers. Miller’s firing prompted a column by the Indy Star’s Greg Doyel imploring Indiana to hire Stevens.
Stevens told Zolak and Bertrand the comments were nice.
“That’s home, I get it,” Stevens said. “I appreciate all the nice sentiments. It certainly doesn’t go unnoticed, and it’s certainly very kind.”
Stevens was asked about the difficulties of coaching at Indiana. He said he wasn’t certain what the job entailed, and he added that the state drove his passion for basketball.
He much preferred to talk about former Celtics assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry’s new job coaching Penn State, however.
“We’re thrilled,” Stevens said. “I think the whole Celtics organization. My family — I said this on [Sean] Grande’s interview just now — for us, the Shrewsberrys are not friends, they’re family. For him to get the opportunity to go to Penn State, be named the head coach at Penn State, I had a huge bag of gear arrive at my house because we ordered it right when we found out. I could not be more thrilled for him. Couldn’t name a more deserving person and a guy that I think will be incredible now that he has his own opportunity.”
Before Penn State, Shrewsberry left the Celtics to take an associate head coaching job at Purdue in 2019. Stevens said he used to play pick up games around Indiana with Shrewsberry before they worked together at Butler. The two then became close.
“We both had young families together,” Stevens said. “They’re always there for us. And spending six years with him here. He’s as good as it gets, he’s got great perspective. He’s a great basketball coach.
“Obviously, I think going back to Purdue was a great move for him because it got him back into the mindset of recruiting. [Purdue coach] Matt [Painter] let him call the plays and run the offense at Purdue, which tells you a lot about Matt Painter and the way that he approaches things. I’m happy for him. I’m really happy for him.”
Get Boston.com's browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com