Boston Celtics
UNC, the school that hired Bill Belichick, reportedly wanted to get Stevens, too.
One of the premier jobs in college basketball is open, and according to CBS Sports, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has removed himself from consideration for it.
North Carolina, the same school which employs Bill Belichick as head football coach, fired Hubert Davis this week following the Tar Heels’ first-round loss to VCU in the NCAA Tournament.
The report said that UNC had Stevens at the top of its list of potential candidates, which acknowledged that the prospect of him leaving the Celtics was highly unlikely.
CBS Sports released a list of several other potential candidates, including Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, Michigan’s Dusty May, Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger, and Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who won a pair of national titles at Florida before making the jump to the NBA.
Stevens’s success at Butler early in his career often makes him a trendy name for high-profile college basketball coaching rumors. At 49, he is in the same age range of many of the candidates that have been mentioned. All of his college basketball coaching experience happened at Butler, and the challenge of leading a major program like UNC would be certainly be a change of pace.
But, Stevens has been in Boston for 13 years now. He stepped away from coaching the Celtics to succeed Danny Ainge as the team’s president of basketball operations and quickly became one of the NBA’s best roster builders. He won NBA executive of the year in 2024, and the Celtics team he assembled won the NBA Finals that year.
The Celtics are, once again, in the mix for another playoff run. They have a slim lead over the Knicks for second-place in the Eastern Conference, a position they are in because of their resilience while dealing with Jayson Tatum’s lengthy absence.
With Tatum back, Jaylen Brown playing his way into the MVP discussion, and a solid core bolstered by the development of young players, the Celtics have a chance to compete this year and beyond.
Brown is 29, Tatum is 28, and both are under long-term contracts. Derrick White is the only player in the Celtics starting-five who is older than 30.
Asking Stevens to leave such a situation for a college basketball coaching job — even if it is among the best in the sport — would have been a “prayer” for North Carolina, according to the report.
Stevens hasn’t coached since 2021, and his absence from college basketball has been even longer — he left Butler for the Celtics in 2013. Also, Stevens is an Indiana native, and the Hoosiers’ head coaching job has been open several times since Stevens left Butler. He has stayed with the Celtics each time.
There’s always some madness in March, and surprising things always have the potential to happen as the landscape of college sports continues to evolve.
But, for now, Stevens is reportedly staying with the Celtics.
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