April 7, 2022 • 45 mins
Ten months after shocking the basketball world by leaving the sidelines to take the President of Basketball Operations job for the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens joins the pod for his first lengthy and exclusive conversation about the entire process. With his good friend Sean Grande on the pod with him, you’ll hear a whole new side of the new Celtics boss. What prompted him to switch roles? What does he have to say about his new responsibilities, including hiring a new coach and navigating the trade deadline? What does he think about the potential of this year’s team? Stevens touches on all of that and much more with Marc and Grande.
1:00 – Grande explains how and why he and Brad Stevens became close friends
8:55 – Brad Stevens explains why he moved from coaching into President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics
11:25 – Stevens comments on the impact he felt from the two COVID seasons and the bubble
15:30 – Stevens gives his take on the key differences between his current role and coaching
19:30 – Listen to Stevens recall his first trade deadline experience
23:15 – Stevens goes into the hiring of Ime Udoka and how Udoka has performed this season
28:15 – What’s it like trading someone for the first time? Stevens answers that question
29:50 – Marc asks Stevens about his incredible basketball intuition
35:20 – Marc and Grande react to their conversation with Stevens
39:15 – Grande comments on Stevens taking on his new role, as a new challenge
40:00 – Marc revisits his experiences of interacting with Stevens’ intuition
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Rafters. It is
my absolute pleasure to welcome in one of the pillars
of this organization. Everybody, forget that party. Good, don't go,
they're not yet what will We talked about it in
our podcast. You haven't told him like he had just
come off the battlefield. I know what a dream is
to work with. Half our listeners probably don't even know
what that is. Always gonna be green Baby. Welcome to
(00:23):
View from the Rafters, Behind the Scenes with the Boston Celtics,
presented by Cardless. Here are your host, Mark Demiko and
Shawn Grandy. Well, Shawn Grandy. There are not many members
of the Boston Celtics media, or the national media or
any media that no. Brad Stevens better than you, my friend.
I mean he I don't know if you're comfortable with
(00:44):
me sharing this, but he was at your wedding. He
attended your wedding to the beautiful Dana Jacobson, a very
lucky man you are. I don't know about her end
of that deal, but he was down there. You guys
formed a really strong relationship over the what was eight
years and seven pregame interviews that that you conducted with him. Uh,
first and foremost, how did this come about? Like how
(01:06):
did the relationship build? And why do you think you
two connected. That's a great question. I don't know because
I had been with It's really funny because when Emay
stepped in an Opening Night this past year, I talked
about April of two thousand four and where Emay was
and what he was doing, and he had just finished
his season overseas, and I ended up by and starting
our that segment on Opening Night by saying, and this
(01:28):
is the first time since then, seventeen and a half
years since that somebody other than Brad or Doc had
been in that spot. That's a long long time on
the other end of that conversation. And so with Brad,
you're coming off nine years of duck and that relationship
was what it was, and Doc didn't make it to
the wedding. Is funny. I'll tell you a funny story
(01:49):
now allout him, because that's what the podcast is for.
So Doc rs vps. Yes, he's coming to the wedding.
He didn't realize that that year nineteen, the Clippers, his
final year there, they were opening training camp in Hawaii.
My wedding was the Saturday before training camp, so they
had to go early to Hawaii. So at the very
(02:12):
last second we get the you know, when the tables
are all set up. He did all the work arranging
who's gonna sit with who and whatever, because it would
have been that's probably why he booked them in to
go to Hawaii. Probably. I mean, that's that was a
pretty good choice. I didn't have that option, like last
chance to get out and not break back into jail,
and you could go to y for the weekend, but instead,
you know, so it's nine years of duck. So Brad
(02:33):
is a completely this is as different animal as you
could possibly get, and you know, obviously extremely pleasant right away,
and you could tell right away there was a lot
there beneath the surface. But my job on the air
was to get there, and that was not easy. Remember
the Celts lost the first four. The fourth game was
in my Memphis and that day the Richie Incognito story happened.
(02:59):
Google it if you're a Google machine, and that was
a story. Now with Doc anything was fair game, pop
culture politics, anything had happened that day we could discuss
with Brad. I knew the parameters were going to be
a lot smaller. But that day the Richie Incognito story happens,
which is about sports, it's about locker room culture, it's
about all the above. So I'm like, all right, this
(03:21):
is gonna be a chance to at least take a
step in that direction. I get back into his office
in Memphis and casually before we started to say so
you saw the Richie Incognito stories. This was a story
that was on every channel ESPN, c N and all day.
It was a monster story that day, and he goes, no,
what happened? Okay, that's when it sank in that the world,
(03:48):
And eventually I came to realize that Brad had a
life full of the things that we all enjoyed, pop
culture and movie but it stopped the second he became
a chipp So I quickly realized, if you want to
do an Austin Powers joke one million dollars, he'll get it.
But there's a cut off to his pop culture. So
(04:10):
as time goes by, I realized, Okay, to make this work,
who's the one person I know is listening? That team
went south pretty quick after the first month and a
half of the year. Who's listening every night? His wife
Tracy is listening every night, so I started doing this
show for her, what's going to entertain her? And slowly
but surely that sort of chipped away. I may have
(04:31):
gotten some inside tips from Tracy as to anyway. Eventually,
and then the following year I tell the story a lot,
but for Brad and for me together, and on air,
graduation night came, I think the following year it was
clear he had developed a special relationship with Greg Popovich
from the start, and Pop a polling aside before games,
(04:52):
and you could see that happening. So one night, without
a net, not knowing what he was gonna do or say,
but feeling confident he was going to pull this off,
we wrap it up. I asked him a pop of
Its question, and then after he answers it, I say,
do you think Brad you could ever become one day
the kind of coach that might listen to a question
and one on one interview situation that might be a
(05:14):
little long winded, It might be a run on question,
it might take on different directions that might distract people
from what the actual question is, and then just suddenly
come back with a one word answer and he goes no,
and that was that was graduation night and not moving on.
It was you know, it took on obviously a life
(05:36):
of its own, and that was a function of our
our relationship. To um. We both The other bright story
I like tell was that we were both you know,
I became a runner, and I'll call myself a runner.
I'm just someone who runs because to try to stay
in shape. So occasionally we're both on the road a lot.
(05:57):
I do run a lot now, but it's to make up,
trust me, for of my teens in childhood when I
wasn't running at all. So anyway with you know, Brad
would run a little bit too, So on the road
we would occasionally run together, and I've never felt safer
in my life. We used to run together in Indianapolis.
Is a great place to run outside the hotel and
you run by the n C A A and there's
a I've never felt safer in my life than running
(06:18):
with Brad in Indianapolis across these big giant streets and
highways because I know if a car ever came near him,
it would swerve into a tree or a lamp post
before with dare hit, you know, Brad Stephens Indianpolis I've
never felt, hey, you gotta protect bread, especially in Indianapolis.
That's the point. But you know, it became a life
of its own. I think that's what. One of the
(06:39):
cool things about this that you guys are about to
hear is that we spent you know, do the math,
uh shows, pregame shows times six, seven, seven minutes, eight minutes,
nine minutes, used to so do the math. We have
not been on the air together since June the Onet
or whatever it was last year until what you're about here,
(07:02):
and it really was. It was a lot of fun
for me to be a part of it, uh and
to listen to the conversation that you guys had partaken
it a little bit, but you could just you could
feel the chemistry being there. And I know that all
of our fans and our listeners are going to hear
the exact same chemistry coming through their ears right now.
So let's turn it over. Here's a conversation with Brad Stevens,
(07:22):
president of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics, and his
good friend Sean Grandy. Maybe a little bit of me
all right here it is. Enjoy the conversation. Well, Brad,
I've been instructed to ask the man sitting to my
right what text he sent you the day that the
news broke. So Sean Grandy take it away, Okay, I don't.
(07:43):
I don't have any idea what text. I'm not asking
you will tell the story. I had to tell the
stories and carry the segment as I did for eight years.
After seven hundred times doing this, this is the first
time we've been together since then. On the motivations of
moving to this job was to make sure that you
had a better radio show for the pregame. Well, and
it's been Actually, I've actually come from scouting on a
(08:04):
couple of occasions, have been able to hear it and
like just got into the game late and it was
it's been good. I've enjoyed it. Good. Not good, No,
it's been great. It's been great. Has been great. So
on the morning it all breaks and those of us
that thought we were so close to Brad obviously got
completely blindsided like the rest of us, and I texted him,
(08:25):
I said, if you didn't want to do the pregame
show anymore, there were other options could have chosen instead
of dramatic one. I don't know. I think that that's
actually part of the coaching gig. Right, it's the pregame
show that seven people listened to, Yeah, it is. And
the daily the rising to the level of the great
(08:45):
socratic process, that is the pregame gaggle with the media
and everyone's everyone's favorite time, the third time spoken to
them that day. That's right, this is what everybody wants
to hear, because it's been ten months. Why are you
sitting in that chair? What was the process? When did
this start? When was the first time it crossed your
(09:07):
mind that this might be an option in the direction
you wanted to go? Um, I don't even know in
the first time. I mean Danny for years I had
mentioned Danny would come in and we'd sit and talk about, how,
you know, all the different things that go into making
decisions with regard to draft or deals or free agency
or whatever the case may be. And and you know,
(09:29):
and those would just be random discussions and any any
and and it always stuck with me. Would even talk about,
you know, he had coached and now he was living
this life and the differences in the two right, and
so when he decided to retire and move on and uh,
and then we got kind of down the road maybe
a couple of weeks and you know, we had had
(09:49):
discussions Aboutkay who's going to replace him and and you know,
who are the best people out there and everything else
or internally which we have great people internally. Um, you
know it's presented to me as an idea too, you know,
to do this, and um, for me, it's been great
and I think I think number one, I think it
(10:10):
was good for the team too. I think like I
think he mays, I've been awesome. Uh and the team
is doing well and it's you know, I think it's
a it's a really positive thing for for me after
twenty one straight years of one cadence and one kind
of cycle that you're in every year, it's it's been
awesome to have a job where it's just as much work,
(10:33):
but it's spread out over twelve months and so it's
like you have a little bit more of a you know,
like and you know this, I get to all Bradies
games or a lot of Bradies games, and and I
get to see Kinsley play, Like tomorrow I'll see Kinsley's
soccer game and Brady's basketball game. Like that's important to
me at this time because you don't get that time back,
and so there was a side benefit to that. UM.
(10:57):
And it was just like I just think, you know,
you know when it's time to you know, do something different,
and you know, I don't know if it was the
you know, the couple of years all jammed together, UM,
but it was just time and it's been good. I
recommend to everyone at some point in your life to
jump off a cliff professionally and to do something that
(11:17):
you didn't think you're gonna do, or something it's brand new,
because that's how you know you're alive. Number one. But
one of the things I've been dying to know is
are you sitting there? Does this all happen the way
it happens if you are not forced to spend three
months away from your wife and your kids, friendly and
your friends in the bubble? Did that begin a Did
(11:40):
that change your love and affection for the life you
had known? No? Um. In fact, I would say that.
I would say the hardest part of the of the
ten months of coaching was the next five was when
we just had the two months off. I'll never forget
the first practice in December. It was like, man, we're
just like seeking for energy. On the first day, of practice,
(12:02):
Like it's just gonna be really tough to come back
from what we just experienced just finished back into the
kind of COVID NBA, right and so um, but no,
I've told people since I was in my early thirties,
I didn't want to coach till I was sixty, and
then it became fifty, and then um, an opportunity presented
(12:22):
itself at forty four, and so that was really you know,
I think there are so many things, like you said,
there's so many other things out there to do, but
this is all I've done for twenty one years, right,
And so yes, there was a lot of angst and
making the move. Luckily, our front office was really well
set up, um, you know, with with the leadership team
(12:45):
already really established of Mike and Austin and Alison Feaster
and others. And then you know, obviously the major task
was hiring the coach and and him hiring a staff,
And the major source of ankst for me was what
happens to my old staff and so um, you know,
they've all, you know, most of them have done really
well this year at very different places. A lot of
(13:06):
them are still here. Um. But there was a transition
period that was really you know, it was it was tough,
and and I would be lying if I didn't say
the summer was like a it was just a hurricane.
I mean, it was just NonStop. That's what I want
to ask about, is that transition period. And you're you're
a learner, right, You're inquisitive. You're always going to be
(13:27):
learning about this role. But at what point in the process,
and maybe you haven't even reached there yet, but over
these ten months, did you feel like, Okay, I've got
a little bit of a solid foundation underneath me here
about what this role is all about. Mike and I
met today as a matter of fact, and he even
like said, because because you know there, Mike Zarin has
(13:50):
has been with us forever. He's vice president of basketball Operations.
He's really good. He's a podcast and he yeah, he
he'd be terrific. You guys have to have him on.
But he he said, you know, the next two and
are also going to show you things because right because
I've never lived, you know, the setup of the draft workouts.
I've always been at the draft workouts. I've never lived
a set up. And then the you know, going to
(14:10):
the hoops summit next week or you know, before you know,
all of the different things that you do with this
job and this role, a calendar year kind of covers it. Now,
the calendar year is a little messed up because last
year the draft was thrown off, the summer league was
thrown off. But I've got a better feel for how
the first ten months of the year ago. And I
mean I felt really comfortable as we entered training camp
(14:33):
UM about kind of the decisions we had to make
and how it was all going to fit together and
piece together. I was hoping it would start out better
than it did, UM. But I was pretty encouraged most
of the time, even when we were going through our
dul drums early, because there were a lot of things
pointing to we were a lot better than UM than
we our records suggested. But as far as the job goes,
(14:56):
I'm telling you, it was made so much easier by
the people you work with, you know, And I think
that that's I can't say enough about the people that
I work with, and that's they've really they've carried me.
Is it easier in your new spot to get through
the doldrums? I asked emy, this is things started to turn.
It was late January. So and asking the following question,
(15:16):
which I'm not going to ask you, how hard is
it to remain true to what you believe in your
core principles when the results and the day to day
aren't what you hope they would be. And because he
may as you know, is the stand up as against
He's like, yeah, it was hard, it was hard. There
are nights that it's hard to do that. I think
you quickly, you quickly transition and almost in a way
to your thinking in terms of weeks, months and years here,
(15:40):
you know, and instead of that last play, they'll play
forget the day. It's like that play. I mean, I've
lost sleep over plays. Or I'd wake up at three
in the morning and think about the play that we
needed to run in this moment against this team, against
this that's someone else's gig. So and and now when
(16:01):
you wake up and you lose sleep, it's about, you know,
does everybody feel good about where we are? How can
we all function as one together? Do we have a
group that's all pulling in one direction? Do we are
we able to bounce back from a tough day? You know?
And I think that that's that's the challenges, more of
the big picture, ten thousand foot view, and then you
(16:22):
just have it starts with players and coaches, but everybody
in the building put in position where they're they're playing
to their strengths. And you know, we have a really
good setup. And and I'm and I've really enjoyed the
last few months, not just because of the way we've played,
but the way we look, the way we're interacting, the
way we um support each other, the energy of the
(16:45):
team in wins and losses, UM, the ability yesterday to
come off of a tough loss and just go through
some stuff, and the energy you felt in the building. UM,
the appreciation for like getting back into the playoffs, which
is not easy, right, and being able to kind of
do it, celebrate it appropriately, but also recognize it like
(17:07):
the guys that have been here all year, this was
a tough run to get that playoff spot clenched early, Like,
this was not an easy deal. And so you know,
it's really been fun to kind of look at it
more from that lens. I mean, I sit up in
a suite during games. I'm not involved in every play.
I don't yell at the officials all game or whatever,
and isaid, Kater, do you have like the whole fancy
(17:28):
have its? Usually all we have is bottle of water
and peanut m and M's would think, Yeah, I was
gonna say, who's your agent? And then uh. You famously,
when you were Butler, you would talk to different guys
who were in the league thinking about what might be next.
Who have you talked to? Whose brain did you pick
(17:49):
making this extraordinary professional transition Danny's you know, one of
the reasons what one of the things about it is
that transition last year or even moving from Butler to
a new job, you're only talking to people you know
aren't gonna say anything, and so you know, it was
(18:10):
pretty much a Tracy and Danny discussion, and so um,
you know, and obviously obviously obviously or PAGs or you know,
Rich Gotham, others that have been involved or if you know,
if you have a friend that you that you have
confided in the past, but it is so important to
be confidential. Um because of Danny, because he was going
(18:33):
to announce that he was done, and I think that
that was for me. I owed him that and you know,
when I left Butler, we wanted that so we could
tell the players. And that's one of the things about
this place is there's some It does a pretty good
job of, you know, being confidential, to the point that
the joke for many years was you're hiring here. The
(18:55):
joke was that's going to be the last news ever
broken by press release, and it was until a day
everything happens. Maybe maybe if I can be known for
something in my life down the road, is that more
of the news around his, you know, more of the
time around his type of things was broken by press
release and not by whispers. And if they're listen, if
(19:16):
there's nothing else people need to remember, I pointed this
out a lot. Has it happened. Go back and google
every trade room worth the deadline and find me Derek
White in any of them, right, and that kind of
what Nobody would point that out. But I'm like, again,
put your hands up to what everyone wants to jump
into all that stuff, and okay, well this is what happened. Well,
and there's you know, obviously there's there's a lot of
(19:37):
talk going on at that time. There's a lot of
teams involved, there's agents of all, there's players involved, and
and there's all kinds of things and all kinds of
things swirling, and some of it is has some something
behind it, and some of it's just who knows where
that came from? Right, and you're reading it almost comically.
But then you do get into a discussion for a
few days like that, and you're like, you know, and
(19:58):
and I of a lot of credit Santonio like that.
That was a very very quiet discussion between two teams.
What has been almost said, harder and easier than you expected?
What has been different? And I don't think you had
firm expectations. You generally don't like, Okay, whatever happens happens.
Has anything really surprised you or thought, well, I didn't
(20:19):
really know how this worked, this is interesting to me,
or in this year where it hasn't been what you
thought it was going to be. I think the biggest
thing is just getting getting an understanding of the rhythm
of the job. And what I mean by that is,
you know, I went to a few different practices college
practices in October, which I absolutely loved going to so
old friends and saw them in their element and saw
(20:42):
teams practicing, and I got its chance to see some
of the prospects that people are talking about now kind
of for the first time. And you know, there were
times when I was in those travels, I was like,
this is the perfect time to do it. And there
were times in those travels where I realized, Man, I
probably should have wait until two days from now because
of this, this and this that's coming down the pike.
(21:02):
And so I think that you just kind of learn
the cadence of when you should travel, when you don't
need to travel, when you need to be around the team,
and some of that stuff sometimes is you know, based
on how it's going. Um. But I think my number
one job is to be a support and to be
(21:22):
a person that helps manage the noise of everything, um
for everybody in the building. But that's especially important for
the players and the coaches. I mean, it's just it's email.
I have a greater appreciation for Emay's job than anybody does,
but just because I was in it. And I will
tell you without a doubt that I feel better physically
(21:43):
and than I have in twenty years. Though I don't
look better, I feel better. So I know how Emay feels.
Though I know what he's you know, I know what
these first seventies six games have been like. And so
the more that I can be there to take you know,
to at least be as supportive, I think is important.
You have to appreciate, you know. You know, my son
is the same age as he may son, yep, and
(22:05):
you know some of the things that I went through
to have time around him, and he may has taken
this extraordinary step in his life and facing all the
challenges that you're talking about, everything that you've had to
go through that you are just aching with him and
he has to deal with and he's doing it largely
without his family here. So he could keep us son
in school. And that I know, given some of the
reasons you made the choice you made, you have to
(22:25):
have a great sympathy is the wrong world, but great
empathy for what he's dealing with. Well, I think that
then that's important, right, is that that for any of
our staff, like you need to if you need to go,
go like if we you need thirty six hours, go
take it, right. I think that one of the things
about this is and people talk about load management for
(22:46):
players are getting through it, and I think there are
important to having them, you know, take a day off emotionally,
just take a day off and take a step back
and kind of take a deep breath. And and the
coaches needed um, the training staff needs it, the sports
scientists need the people that are are working NonStop through
that eight month or nine month period, depending on if
(23:06):
you're good, right, it's as long as it can be.
And you know, I think that is that maybe what's next, right,
is figuring out ways to even take advantage of those
off hours better for each team. And I think that,
you know, we should be I should be able to
help at least in those regards. You've talked about email
a little bit here. That was the first obviously major
(23:28):
move that you made in this position. Yeah, how have
you seen him grow over these ten months at the
same time that you've been growing in a new role
as well? Well, I thought, I thought, you know, to
no fault of his own, it was just a really
hard start because we hired him and he went to
Tokyo um with Jason, which they had to do, and
they were successful and won a gold medal. He comes back,
(23:50):
he gets COVID right before the season, the ten days
before the season starts, which is like the days that
you're thinking about preparing, talking to your staff, getting everything
the an outlined. Then we go into training camp and
two of our guys are out for two weeks that
are going to be two of our main guys. And
so it was one of those deals early where it
(24:12):
was kind of like we're going to start slow. It
was pretty clear and it had nothing to do with
anybody's ability. It just looked like it needed probably to
come together and needed time to come together. And so
that was good and at least know that, Um, but
it wasn't easy to live it for anybody, especially for
a new head coach and a coaching staff that's new
(24:33):
and players that have been here and have dealt with
and expect there to be big expectations and expect to
play winning basketball and expect to be in the playoffs
and win and and so. But everybody stayed the course.
And that's what's most impressive is there's no panic. It
(24:55):
was very even, It was very measured. Um. It wasn't
fluff though, you know, Um, he does a really good job.
He's not a guy that raises his voice a lot.
He's not a guy that goes after people all the time. UM.
I think he's a guy that really just says what
he's thinking. Like in the moment in practice, and he's
(25:16):
very direct, but he has a great way about him.
And then his staff is really good. Like I just
think that he did a good job with that too,
which is a critical part of being a head coach.
He told me that he hit on every single one
of his targets first staff. He said that never happens
in the NBA, to get all your first options. Yeah,
and it was interesting for me to see how because
he also retained some um and that has meshed nicely
(25:39):
and that always isn't the case UM, And that's you know,
that's one of the reasons why I like when we
were going through it, my encouragement to him was, you know,
I think as a head coach, you have to really feel,
you know, challenge appropriately but also super comfortable with the
people in the room. And they have to be humble
and they have to be hard working, and they have
(25:59):
to bring you good ideas that you know, you can
implement when you want to. And so he's done a
really good job with that, and they do a really
good job of you know, you know, being um just
adding value in any which way. What is your role
for them? There are I think most of us have
been around long enough feel there are future head coaches
(26:22):
on EMAY staff now in this league. What is your
role for them? I think that's been the most enjoyable
part of one of the most enjoyable parts of my
job has been being removed enough that I'm not in
the weeds on every play. And but I watched the
(26:43):
games close enough where I can go back and talk
about most of the players that just happened, or we
can pull them up and it's quick like and and
but that is really just mostly in walking by the
video room or walking by, you know, an assistance office
and they pull me in and say, you know, you
guys play these guys three years ago. You know, what
(27:05):
do you think here? And and I and I appreciate
that because I certainly don't want to like barge in
and do that. And I'm not doing that with EMAY
for sure. Right I think the biggest thing is what
what are the big picture things that I can help
with if needed? And you know, for me, the big
picture of things over the last couple of weeks are
(27:26):
how do we make sure we're managing minutes appropriately? And
some of that's ramping up so guys are ready to
roll um and play big minutes in the playoffs, and
but how do we also get nine to twelve ready?
Like and that's Ronald game was great because you saw
some of those guys that we might need. You might
need to throw them in for chunks. You might need
to throw them in for ten minutes a half in
(27:47):
game five of a series because somebody twists our ankle. Like,
those guys gotta be ready. How do we maintain our
defensive identity? And then how do we get a little
bit more just tightened up because you've gotta be really
tightened up as you get into the playoffs. And um,
so I'm more thinking about it in those terms and
big picture terms than those guys have to figure out
the plays and all that stuff. I've lived that life,
(28:10):
I know for many many years. If the most enjoyable
part is spending that time with these as coaches, is
the least enjoyable part. I was wondering what was going
through mind the first time you had to trade somebody
that's been tough And the first one was tough, right
because it was kimba Um. But you know, I think
the reality is your role when you're when you're in
(28:31):
that role. You have to just constantly remind yourself you
have to do what's best for the Boston Celtics. And
you know, I think and and we have high expectations.
We want to be really good. You know, you do
your best to be prepared for moments where you think
you can make a deal that makes sense for your team.
But it doesn't mean that when you do that, there
(28:51):
isn't a emotions attached to it. But you know, there's
a lot of difficult conversations you have to have in
this job. There's a lot of fires you have to
put out. But the hardest part is the trade, for sure,
especially again like trade and Kimba was hard. It's pretty
clear you're happy to be home. Has anyone asked your
family if they were happy to have you there? I
don't know you can ask. You've got their numbers. You
(29:13):
got one of the number, Yeah, you've got Tracy's number. Yeah.
I said I need something. My I've got a I've
got a friend here for the for the games this weekend.
And you know, he was asking me yesterday kind of
what it's like, and I said, it's you know, I
feel like I'm so much more present when I am
home than you know, worrying about the film or whatever.
And I turned to Tracy and I said, you agree
(29:34):
with that? And she she kind of looked at me
like she said, you're okay, You're all right. Well, that
sounds like exactly what everyone would expect from a healthy relationship, right. Yeah. Now, really,
there is one thing that I wanted to follow up
with you on that you're coming it on just a
few minutes ago, that you kind of had a feeling
at the start of this season that there might be
(29:55):
some tough times coming into those opening weeks and months.
That's right, from knowing you for nine years and having
some conversations here and there, you know, off the record,
you've always had a really incredible intuition with regard to
that type of stuff. It's like, you know what's coming
before it even happens, even after just like a day
or two training camp. It's always blown me away. How
does that happen? Where does that intuition come from? Yeah? Unfortunately,
(30:17):
when you've been in it this long, good or bad,
you know what's coming, right, you at least have an idea. Now,
it doesn't mean you're gonna win, but you know, you know,
I knew when I saw us get healthy in January
and we started that run even before the trade deadline,
it didn't look the same. It looked even though we
were playing teams that were beat up and didn't have
all their guys, we looked different. We looked more dynamic,
(30:38):
we looked more um, we were playing every possession, we
were executed. We just looked different, and you could see
something that click there, and and in large part it
was health, right, And then the the other thing was
our best players became really really good, and our role
players became unbelievable in their role. And so then you know,
(31:00):
you can see that coming at start of the year,
when you're trying to piece together a team with a
new staff and new players, and you're missing your starting
lineup for the most of the training camp and you
play maybe one preseason game with your entire lineup, you
know you know what's coming the other way. It's gonna
be you're gonna have to learn through the games, which
is not ideal, right, And so you just you keep
(31:23):
in mind there's eighty two of them, and you're kind
of like kicking, like, aren't I wish we could wish
we were in position to start better. And but you know,
like that first game, that double overtime loss at New York,
You're just like, if you can get one in that moment,
you need to get one because you may drop one
or two others just because of where you are versus
everybody else in regard to preparation and so and again
(31:45):
that was nothing to no fault of anybody's deal. Is
just we we were missing somebodies and we had a
new staff. And did he say it wasn't living game
by game And he's still going over the opening game
like seventy something games ago and he's still that was
a memorable one. That was a memorable one. Yeah, those two,
both of those games in Madison Square Guardens. Yeah, yeah,
none of us will forget that one. Yeah, it's it's
(32:08):
just seems that when the losses still stand out more
than the winds, for sure. But I do enjoy the
winds more than I did as a coach. Why. I
just think because you're not so when when you're coached,
and I don't know how you may would say this,
you walk back into the locker room and you're like, oh,
how does this effect tomorrow? Right? Like you're like, we
just beat you know, UM, a couple of weeks ago
(32:31):
when we when we beat Golden State. Okay, how are
we going to play in Sacramento? And how does this?
What do we need to say to make sure we're
just as alert, just as focused, just as ready, just
and so you're always thinking about what's next. You're never
thinking about what just happened, unless you are over analyzing
a loss, which you do think about what just happened
from time to time. Yes, and now you know, at
(32:52):
forty four years old, I had to stop coaching. Well, Brad,
we know what's next. It's you learning what the next
two months of the NBA schedule are like. Oh, I
don't know, we'll see what are you expecting from these
next couple of months leading up to the NBA Draft?
This is the part this, This is the well I'm
most looking forward to watching our team play, UM, because
we have a really good team, you know, and and
(33:14):
they're really dialed in and they are good on both ends.
And but the defense has a chance to be unique
and special, and so our chance, our chance of being
special is that UM. And so you know, to be special,
you gotta win a lot of playoff series. UM, but
this is gonna be really tough. You know. I think
as you look at the East, this is the best
(33:35):
East that I've ever seen, at least since I've been here.
And so we have, um we got our work cut
out from us from day one, and so anything we
can do in the next five games, the next ten days,
next fifteen days, whatever it is before we play our
first playoff game, to improve, we need to do that.
This is weird to have another person in between us,
(33:55):
the referee, but I'm glad you were here. Mark. We
could have used There are many times that many times
over the eight years who probably could have used that,
um as we would meander down crazy pass and the
game will be tipping off of the pregame thing would
still be running. And and that's why seven people tuned
in's and that's by the way, that's the eight years combined.
(34:16):
And for this podcast there will be nine s. So
it's all steps forward, baby steps, right, it's baby steps.
That's just because that's just because Mark. Yeah, I'll bring
in one or two extra listens, that's right, So now
three per person here the audiences it is big, but overall, yeah,
for the cameras and the fancy microphones would take a
little bit of a hit, but overall, just to increase
(34:38):
that overall, Qune, I'll try to bring in a couple
of extra listeners. But Brad Stevens, President of basketball Operations
for the Boston Celtics, thank you for coming on. We're
looking forward to these next couple of months. It should
be a lot of fun, all right, guys. Thanks. Today's
episode is presented by the Boston Celtics credit card powered
by Cardless. You'll be eligible to earn a special sign
(34:59):
up bonus when you apply and are approved at Carlos
dot com slash Celtics. Then redeem your points for cash, back,
game tickets, merch in much more. Card issued by First
Electronic Bank Member f d I C offers subject to
credit approval. Visit Cardless dot com Forward slash Celtics for
more information. That's Cardless dot Com Forward slash Celtics. Well, Sean,
(35:24):
what stood out to me most from this conversation with
Brad was the comment that he made I feel the
best that I felt in twenty years. And the first
thing that went through my head is what job do
I need to switch to to make myself feel better
than I have in twenty years. But um, what do
you what did you think about that comment? I mean,
I personally, every interaction that I've had with him since
(35:45):
this change in Rolls has made me think exactly that.
I mean, he he sounds more energized, there's more life
in his voice. You can just tell that he's in
a better place physically and mentally than it was as
the everyday head coach that's grinding. Literally. What's what struck
me and it was not at all surprised. Is it
flashed me back to his first couple of years here
(36:09):
and the assumptions that people make about Brad Stevens because
all people do is look at what they have known
and look at the past college coaches come to the
NBA coach for a couple of years and then go
back to college. Everybody knew Brad Stevens is a college coach.
They just assumed that he would co share for a
couple of years and then go to Indiana or go
to Duke or go wherever some big college job. And
(36:30):
they simply weren't paying attention to the details. And the first,
the one that struck me the most was the first
time Gordon Hayward came in as a member of the
Utah Jazz and I was playing against Brad for the
first time. And if you listened to the interviews that
Gordon was giving about Brat, you realized he would say
things like, yeah, Brad would call me my first year
or two in the NBA. He would always call me
(36:51):
and see how I was doing. But very quickly the
conversation would turn to the NBA game. What was that
play you ran out of the time? What was it?
And if you're paying at ten, shin to what Gordon
was saying, what others have said his conversation with Steve
Kerr at the Final four. A couple of you know
that this is something that Brad had his eyes on
from the beginning, that he wasn't leaving to go back
(37:12):
to college, that this is what he wanted to be
an NBA head coach. I think the same thing happened again.
Everyone just assumes he's going to go back to coaching,
and who knows, maybe he will one day. But Brad
Stevens has he he did what you accomplish as a
college coach. Obviously, win a national championship for a major program,
but he took a mid level school too, and he
built it, by the way, he didn't just coach it,
(37:33):
he built it. I mean he would argue with that
and say there were a lot of others involved, but
let's let's call it. And there's a again for those
who don't know the legendary story, I just told us
to Emay did not know the story. I just told
it to him recently of two thousand ten National championship
game against Duke Butler gets there, Steve Paluka, great story.
One of our owners is sitting with Danny in the
(37:54):
front row, and when the coaches and the teams walk out,
Danny says, the pegs there goes the best coaching college basketball,
and PAGs like everybody else. Mike's arrow might have been
there too. Everyone just assumes he's talking about Mike Sachowski.
He's not, And might you mean Mike Ship No, the
other guy, that guy over there, and three years later,
obviously he hired him. So I think that there was
(38:14):
these assumptions. Brad, It's more than just being all right.
You heard and talked about being around the kids and
you know, being back around a sam. And that's why
I asked him about the bubble, because that put an
extraordinary strain and him and I was glad he brought
up that turnaround about that that how ridiculous it is
anyone today. If we felt that as the media members,
(38:35):
I can only imagine how that felt to them who
were actually going through. Here we are, you know, we're
going to be approaching. Basically, what the NBA did was
play a season. By the time we get to, you know,
in a year and a half, like we're at the
end of the next season and the bubble, the championship
that the Lakers won, we hadn't gone to the bubble yet,
so it was everything has been really compressed, and that
(38:57):
put strain onto But I think it's that people just
assumed they know what Brad is gonna do next one
he wants. This is another challenge for him. This is
brand new. This is doing a job that people didn't
think he could do. Oh, Brad Stevens in the NBA.
What was everybody's reaction in that press was shock, Brad
Stevens in the NBA. I don't want that because nobody
(39:17):
heard a think about it. That's why he had been
contemplating this idea. And to me, and I'll tell you
this straight out I was as surprised, you know, as
close as we were. I was caught off guard, not
that Brad Stevens one day would want to do this.
That had happened that morning. Who was it the day
after the regular season ended, two days after, the day
after the day after, it was the day after the playoffs.
(39:39):
It was the next morning it self. Inc we all
thought that we were done, gonna get some rest. The
next morning it all happened. And I think a lot
of us on the inside knew that Danny, that the
Danny's time was done. But I think the you know,
and that if you had played it out in your
head said, oh, I wonder if that, but there was
(39:59):
no just happened too fast, there was no time. So
I don't know. I hope that people got a little
glimpse because I know there are probably a lot of
you listening that maybe didn't participate or hear any of
the six hundred seven hundred pregame conversation that Brad and
I have, But uh, it was a little bit of
that and just every night to me was a little
(40:19):
bit of an insight into yeah, and one of the things,
and I know I brought this up during the conversation.
But one of the things that has always stood out
to me since the moment. I wouldn't say the moment
I first met him, because I didn't know exactly what
was going to happen with him as a head coach,
but talking to him at Summer League, his first Summer league,
talking to him at the beginning of training camps every
single year, sometimes during the season, and again this was
(40:42):
like off the record, just side conversations. He had this
intuition that I've I've literally never felt it or or
heard it come out of anyone else's mouth, like in
the NBA, talking to I'm talking about talking to Danny,
talking to Mike Zarin, like talking to executives around the league, players,
coaches around the league. No one has ever voiced as
(41:02):
much intuition accurately as Brad has to me in some
of those conversations. It's like he just you would talk
to him at a certain point and he knew exactly
what was going to happen over the next couple of
weeks or the next couple of months. And to me,
the fact that he has that skill and you know,
whatever you want to call it, I think that translates
perfectly to this type of role, perfectly because he could see,
(41:25):
like there that trade deadline this year could have gone
a lot of different ways. Uh. And the fact that
he saw what he saw in early January, which you
know that's when things were just starting to turn, but
he he recognized that as real. This wasn't just a
blip on the radar. He recognized this as real, and
that's why he made the moves that he did. Nobody
(41:47):
saw Danny doing this either, he was, he had been
a player and as coach of the Phoenix Suns. Nobody
had projected this ahead. But it is how and I
hate listen. It is extreme only painful for me to
say this out loud, where it is super smart is
a high intelligence guy. And that's I think there's a
(42:09):
great time. I love when things from Celtic history tied together.
But there was another guy from Indiana years ago who
played here, made a few records as his name brought
with the rafts, and people underestimated him because what do
they call He was anything but right? He was anything
(42:31):
but And I think people took Brad's politeness and his
Indiana way, and I think there's a way in the
in the big city in the big city in the east.
You know, to look down on that is maybe the
wrong word. Look at the whole Nicks Pacers, you know,
Nicks versus Hicks thing to listen, you know, derisively. Whatever
(42:54):
we would disagree about, something I would often probably more
than I should have, maybe make reference to the farm.
And you know, just different Indiana, but we have a
we have a tendency to yeah, like listen, don't talk
to me, don't tell me that little Caesar pizza. For
everyone who doesn't know Sean. Sean hales from New York City.
(43:16):
So so we have a different view of things. And say,
people grew up in in Indiana, and that's sort of
why that had changed my dynamic too, because I had
never been I had never been younger than the head coach,
because I had always been you know, the youngest, this,
youngest that. So that was a change in the dynamic too.
And then you know, you quickly developed into you know,
(43:37):
big city, you know, New York, Indiana, Northeast, Midwest. You
just find dynamics and things like that. So, um, that's
that's one of the reasons of work. But I said,
hopefully get a little more insight into end of the guy. Yeah, absolutely,
he was comfortable, he was confident, he was energetic. It
was everything that we wanted to hear out of that conversation.
(43:58):
And I don't know if this is true, but I
think that had to be his longest exclusive interview that
he has done since he switched into this role ten
months ago. So hopefully our listeners got a little bit
of extra insight out of that, and also just hearing
that chemistry between you two and here and Brad come
out of his shell. For anyone who did not get
(44:18):
to listen to your pregame shows with him, I don't
think we. I don't think a lot of our fan
base got to hear that side of him that that's
kind of comfortable and willing to joke around and have
a lot of fun. So hopefully everyone, Hey, the last year,
I was trying to put him back in the show,
like you get so carried away, But yeah, hey, it
all works out in the end. Right, great conversation, Sean.
We appreciate you coming on to have it with him,
(44:41):
and we appreciate everyone for giving it a listen. Please
make sure to rate, subscribe in download and we'll see
you next week. We got two episodes left this season.
I'm sure you're gonna enjoy both of them. Will see soon.
Thank you for listening to view from the Raptors behind
the scenes with the Boston Celtics, presented by Cardless
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Rafters. It is
my absolute pleasure to welcome in one of the pillars
of this organization. Everybody, forget that party. Good, don't go,
they're not yet what will We talked about it in
our podcast. You haven't told him like he had just
come off the battlefield. I know what a dream is
to work with. Half our listeners probably don't even know
what that is. Always gonna be green Baby. Welcome to
(00:23):
View from the Rafters, Behind the Scenes with the Boston Celtics,
presented by Cardless. Here are your host, Mark Demiko and
Shawn Grandy. Well, Shawn Grandy. There are not many members
of the Boston Celtics media, or the national media or
any media that no. Brad Stevens better than you, my friend.
I mean he I don't know if you're comfortable with
(00:44):
me sharing this, but he was at your wedding. He
attended your wedding to the beautiful Dana Jacobson, a very
lucky man you are. I don't know about her end
of that deal, but he was down there. You guys
formed a really strong relationship over the what was eight
years and seven pregame interviews that that you conducted with him. Uh,
first and foremost, how did this come about? Like how
(01:06):
did the relationship build? And why do you think you
two connected. That's a great question. I don't know because
I had been with It's really funny because when Emay
stepped in an Opening Night this past year, I talked
about April of two thousand four and where Emay was
and what he was doing, and he had just finished
his season overseas, and I ended up by and starting
our that segment on Opening Night by saying, and this
(01:28):
is the first time since then, seventeen and a half
years since that somebody other than Brad or Doc had
been in that spot. That's a long long time on
the other end of that conversation. And so with Brad,
you're coming off nine years of duck and that relationship
was what it was, and Doc didn't make it to
the wedding. Is funny. I'll tell you a funny story
(01:49):
now allout him, because that's what the podcast is for.
So Doc rs vps. Yes, he's coming to the wedding.
He didn't realize that that year nineteen, the Clippers, his
final year there, they were opening training camp in Hawaii.
My wedding was the Saturday before training camp, so they
had to go early to Hawaii. So at the very
(02:12):
last second we get the you know, when the tables
are all set up. He did all the work arranging
who's gonna sit with who and whatever, because it would
have been that's probably why he booked them in to
go to Hawaii. Probably. I mean, that's that was a
pretty good choice. I didn't have that option, like last
chance to get out and not break back into jail,
and you could go to y for the weekend, but instead,
you know, so it's nine years of duck. So Brad
(02:33):
is a completely this is as different animal as you
could possibly get, and you know, obviously extremely pleasant right away,
and you could tell right away there was a lot
there beneath the surface. But my job on the air
was to get there, and that was not easy. Remember
the Celts lost the first four. The fourth game was
in my Memphis and that day the Richie Incognito story happened.
(02:59):
Google it if you're a Google machine, and that was
a story. Now with Doc anything was fair game, pop
culture politics, anything had happened that day we could discuss
with Brad. I knew the parameters were going to be
a lot smaller. But that day the Richie Incognito story happens,
which is about sports, it's about locker room culture, it's
about all the above. So I'm like, all right, this
(03:21):
is gonna be a chance to at least take a
step in that direction. I get back into his office
in Memphis and casually before we started to say so
you saw the Richie Incognito stories. This was a story
that was on every channel ESPN, c N and all day.
It was a monster story that day, and he goes, no,
what happened? Okay, that's when it sank in that the world,
(03:48):
And eventually I came to realize that Brad had a
life full of the things that we all enjoyed, pop
culture and movie but it stopped the second he became
a chipp So I quickly realized, if you want to
do an Austin Powers joke one million dollars, he'll get it.
But there's a cut off to his pop culture. So
(04:10):
as time goes by, I realized, Okay, to make this work,
who's the one person I know is listening? That team
went south pretty quick after the first month and a
half of the year. Who's listening every night? His wife
Tracy is listening every night, so I started doing this
show for her, what's going to entertain her? And slowly
but surely that sort of chipped away. I may have
(04:31):
gotten some inside tips from Tracy as to anyway. Eventually,
and then the following year I tell the story a lot,
but for Brad and for me together, and on air,
graduation night came, I think the following year it was
clear he had developed a special relationship with Greg Popovich
from the start, and Pop a polling aside before games,
(04:52):
and you could see that happening. So one night, without
a net, not knowing what he was gonna do or say,
but feeling confident he was going to pull this off,
we wrap it up. I asked him a pop of
Its question, and then after he answers it, I say,
do you think Brad you could ever become one day
the kind of coach that might listen to a question
and one on one interview situation that might be a
(05:14):
little long winded, It might be a run on question,
it might take on different directions that might distract people
from what the actual question is, and then just suddenly
come back with a one word answer and he goes no,
and that was that was graduation night and not moving on.
It was you know, it took on obviously a life
(05:36):
of its own, and that was a function of our
our relationship. To um. We both The other bright story
I like tell was that we were both you know,
I became a runner, and I'll call myself a runner.
I'm just someone who runs because to try to stay
in shape. So occasionally we're both on the road a lot.
(05:57):
I do run a lot now, but it's to make up,
trust me, for of my teens in childhood when I
wasn't running at all. So anyway with you know, Brad
would run a little bit too, So on the road
we would occasionally run together, and I've never felt safer
in my life. We used to run together in Indianapolis.
Is a great place to run outside the hotel and
you run by the n C A A and there's
a I've never felt safer in my life than running
(06:18):
with Brad in Indianapolis across these big giant streets and
highways because I know if a car ever came near him,
it would swerve into a tree or a lamp post
before with dare hit, you know, Brad Stephens Indianpolis I've
never felt, hey, you gotta protect bread, especially in Indianapolis.
That's the point. But you know, it became a life
of its own. I think that's what. One of the
(06:39):
cool things about this that you guys are about to
hear is that we spent you know, do the math,
uh shows, pregame shows times six, seven, seven minutes, eight minutes,
nine minutes, used to so do the math. We have
not been on the air together since June the Onet
or whatever it was last year until what you're about here,
(07:02):
and it really was. It was a lot of fun
for me to be a part of it, uh and
to listen to the conversation that you guys had partaken
it a little bit, but you could just you could
feel the chemistry being there. And I know that all
of our fans and our listeners are going to hear
the exact same chemistry coming through their ears right now.
So let's turn it over. Here's a conversation with Brad Stevens,
(07:22):
president of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics, and his
good friend Sean Grandy. Maybe a little bit of me
all right here it is. Enjoy the conversation. Well, Brad,
I've been instructed to ask the man sitting to my
right what text he sent you the day that the
news broke. So Sean Grandy take it away, Okay, I don't.
(07:43):
I don't have any idea what text. I'm not asking
you will tell the story. I had to tell the
stories and carry the segment as I did for eight years.
After seven hundred times doing this, this is the first
time we've been together since then. On the motivations of
moving to this job was to make sure that you
had a better radio show for the pregame. Well, and
it's been Actually, I've actually come from scouting on a
(08:04):
couple of occasions, have been able to hear it and
like just got into the game late and it was
it's been good. I've enjoyed it. Good. Not good, No,
it's been great. It's been great. Has been great. So
on the morning it all breaks and those of us
that thought we were so close to Brad obviously got
completely blindsided like the rest of us, and I texted him,
(08:25):
I said, if you didn't want to do the pregame
show anymore, there were other options could have chosen instead
of dramatic one. I don't know. I think that that's
actually part of the coaching gig. Right, it's the pregame
show that seven people listened to, Yeah, it is. And
the daily the rising to the level of the great
(08:45):
socratic process, that is the pregame gaggle with the media
and everyone's everyone's favorite time, the third time spoken to
them that day. That's right, this is what everybody wants
to hear, because it's been ten months. Why are you
sitting in that chair? What was the process? When did
this start? When was the first time it crossed your
(09:07):
mind that this might be an option in the direction
you wanted to go? Um, I don't even know in
the first time. I mean Danny for years I had
mentioned Danny would come in and we'd sit and talk about, how,
you know, all the different things that go into making
decisions with regard to draft or deals or free agency
or whatever the case may be. And and you know,
(09:29):
and those would just be random discussions and any any
and and it always stuck with me. Would even talk about,
you know, he had coached and now he was living
this life and the differences in the two right, and
so when he decided to retire and move on and uh,
and then we got kind of down the road maybe
a couple of weeks and you know, we had had
(09:49):
discussions Aboutkay who's going to replace him and and you know,
who are the best people out there and everything else
or internally which we have great people internally. Um, you
know it's presented to me as an idea too, you know,
to do this, and um, for me, it's been great
and I think I think number one, I think it
(10:10):
was good for the team too. I think like I
think he mays, I've been awesome. Uh and the team
is doing well and it's you know, I think it's
a it's a really positive thing for for me after
twenty one straight years of one cadence and one kind
of cycle that you're in every year, it's it's been
awesome to have a job where it's just as much work,
(10:33):
but it's spread out over twelve months and so it's
like you have a little bit more of a you know,
like and you know this, I get to all Bradies
games or a lot of Bradies games, and and I
get to see Kinsley play, Like tomorrow I'll see Kinsley's
soccer game and Brady's basketball game. Like that's important to
me at this time because you don't get that time back,
and so there was a side benefit to that. UM.
(10:57):
And it was just like I just think, you know,
you know when it's time to you know, do something different,
and you know, I don't know if it was the
you know, the couple of years all jammed together, UM,
but it was just time and it's been good. I
recommend to everyone at some point in your life to
jump off a cliff professionally and to do something that
(11:17):
you didn't think you're gonna do, or something it's brand new,
because that's how you know you're alive. Number one. But
one of the things I've been dying to know is
are you sitting there? Does this all happen the way
it happens if you are not forced to spend three
months away from your wife and your kids, friendly and
your friends in the bubble? Did that begin a Did
(11:40):
that change your love and affection for the life you
had known? No? Um. In fact, I would say that.
I would say the hardest part of the of the
ten months of coaching was the next five was when
we just had the two months off. I'll never forget
the first practice in December. It was like, man, we're
just like seeking for energy. On the first day, of practice,
(12:02):
Like it's just gonna be really tough to come back
from what we just experienced just finished back into the
kind of COVID NBA, right and so um, but no,
I've told people since I was in my early thirties,
I didn't want to coach till I was sixty, and
then it became fifty, and then um, an opportunity presented
(12:22):
itself at forty four, and so that was really you know,
I think there are so many things, like you said,
there's so many other things out there to do, but
this is all I've done for twenty one years, right,
And so yes, there was a lot of angst and
making the move. Luckily, our front office was really well
set up, um, you know, with with the leadership team
(12:45):
already really established of Mike and Austin and Alison Feaster
and others. And then you know, obviously the major task
was hiring the coach and and him hiring a staff,
And the major source of ankst for me was what
happens to my old staff and so um, you know,
they've all, you know, most of them have done really
well this year at very different places. A lot of
(13:06):
them are still here. Um. But there was a transition
period that was really you know, it was it was tough,
and and I would be lying if I didn't say
the summer was like a it was just a hurricane.
I mean, it was just NonStop. That's what I want
to ask about, is that transition period. And you're you're
a learner, right, You're inquisitive. You're always going to be
(13:27):
learning about this role. But at what point in the process,
and maybe you haven't even reached there yet, but over
these ten months, did you feel like, Okay, I've got
a little bit of a solid foundation underneath me here
about what this role is all about. Mike and I
met today as a matter of fact, and he even
like said, because because you know there, Mike Zarin has
(13:50):
has been with us forever. He's vice president of basketball Operations.
He's really good. He's a podcast and he yeah, he
he'd be terrific. You guys have to have him on.
But he he said, you know, the next two and
are also going to show you things because right because
I've never lived, you know, the setup of the draft workouts.
I've always been at the draft workouts. I've never lived
a set up. And then the you know, going to
(14:10):
the hoops summit next week or you know, before you know,
all of the different things that you do with this
job and this role, a calendar year kind of covers it. Now,
the calendar year is a little messed up because last
year the draft was thrown off, the summer league was
thrown off. But I've got a better feel for how
the first ten months of the year ago. And I
mean I felt really comfortable as we entered training camp
(14:33):
UM about kind of the decisions we had to make
and how it was all going to fit together and
piece together. I was hoping it would start out better
than it did, UM. But I was pretty encouraged most
of the time, even when we were going through our
dul drums early, because there were a lot of things
pointing to we were a lot better than UM than
we our records suggested. But as far as the job goes,
(14:56):
I'm telling you, it was made so much easier by
the people you work with, you know, And I think
that that's I can't say enough about the people that
I work with, and that's they've really they've carried me.
Is it easier in your new spot to get through
the doldrums? I asked emy, this is things started to turn.
It was late January. So and asking the following question,
(15:16):
which I'm not going to ask you, how hard is
it to remain true to what you believe in your
core principles when the results and the day to day
aren't what you hope they would be. And because he
may as you know, is the stand up as against
He's like, yeah, it was hard, it was hard. There
are nights that it's hard to do that. I think
you quickly, you quickly transition and almost in a way
to your thinking in terms of weeks, months and years here,
(15:40):
you know, and instead of that last play, they'll play
forget the day. It's like that play. I mean, I've
lost sleep over plays. Or I'd wake up at three
in the morning and think about the play that we
needed to run in this moment against this team, against
this that's someone else's gig. So and and now when
(16:01):
you wake up and you lose sleep, it's about, you know,
does everybody feel good about where we are? How can
we all function as one together? Do we have a
group that's all pulling in one direction? Do we are
we able to bounce back from a tough day? You know?
And I think that that's that's the challenges, more of
the big picture, ten thousand foot view, and then you
(16:22):
just have it starts with players and coaches, but everybody
in the building put in position where they're they're playing
to their strengths. And you know, we have a really
good setup. And and I'm and I've really enjoyed the
last few months, not just because of the way we've played,
but the way we look, the way we're interacting, the
way we um support each other, the energy of the
(16:45):
team in wins and losses, UM, the ability yesterday to
come off of a tough loss and just go through
some stuff, and the energy you felt in the building. UM,
the appreciation for like getting back into the playoffs, which
is not easy, right, and being able to kind of
do it, celebrate it appropriately, but also recognize it like
(17:07):
the guys that have been here all year, this was
a tough run to get that playoff spot clenched early, Like,
this was not an easy deal. And so you know,
it's really been fun to kind of look at it
more from that lens. I mean, I sit up in
a suite during games. I'm not involved in every play.
I don't yell at the officials all game or whatever,
and isaid, Kater, do you have like the whole fancy
(17:28):
have its? Usually all we have is bottle of water
and peanut m and M's would think, Yeah, I was
gonna say, who's your agent? And then uh. You famously,
when you were Butler, you would talk to different guys
who were in the league thinking about what might be next.
Who have you talked to? Whose brain did you pick
(17:49):
making this extraordinary professional transition Danny's you know, one of
the reasons what one of the things about it is
that transition last year or even moving from Butler to
a new job, you're only talking to people you know
aren't gonna say anything, and so you know, it was
(18:10):
pretty much a Tracy and Danny discussion, and so um,
you know, and obviously obviously obviously or PAGs or you know,
Rich Gotham, others that have been involved or if you know,
if you have a friend that you that you have
confided in the past, but it is so important to
be confidential. Um because of Danny, because he was going
(18:33):
to announce that he was done, and I think that
that was for me. I owed him that and you know,
when I left Butler, we wanted that so we could
tell the players. And that's one of the things about
this place is there's some It does a pretty good
job of, you know, being confidential, to the point that
the joke for many years was you're hiring here. The
(18:55):
joke was that's going to be the last news ever
broken by press release, and it was until a day
everything happens. Maybe maybe if I can be known for
something in my life down the road, is that more
of the news around his, you know, more of the
time around his type of things was broken by press
release and not by whispers. And if they're listen, if
(19:16):
there's nothing else people need to remember, I pointed this
out a lot. Has it happened. Go back and google
every trade room worth the deadline and find me Derek
White in any of them, right, and that kind of
what Nobody would point that out. But I'm like, again,
put your hands up to what everyone wants to jump
into all that stuff, and okay, well this is what happened. Well,
and there's you know, obviously there's there's a lot of
(19:37):
talk going on at that time. There's a lot of
teams involved, there's agents of all, there's players involved, and
and there's all kinds of things and all kinds of
things swirling, and some of it is has some something
behind it, and some of it's just who knows where
that came from? Right, and you're reading it almost comically.
But then you do get into a discussion for a
few days like that, and you're like, you know, and
(19:58):
and I of a lot of credit Santonio like that.
That was a very very quiet discussion between two teams.
What has been almost said, harder and easier than you expected?
What has been different? And I don't think you had
firm expectations. You generally don't like, Okay, whatever happens happens.
Has anything really surprised you or thought, well, I didn't
(20:19):
really know how this worked, this is interesting to me,
or in this year where it hasn't been what you
thought it was going to be. I think the biggest
thing is just getting getting an understanding of the rhythm
of the job. And what I mean by that is,
you know, I went to a few different practices college
practices in October, which I absolutely loved going to so
old friends and saw them in their element and saw
(20:42):
teams practicing, and I got its chance to see some
of the prospects that people are talking about now kind
of for the first time. And you know, there were
times when I was in those travels, I was like,
this is the perfect time to do it. And there
were times in those travels where I realized, Man, I
probably should have wait until two days from now because
of this, this and this that's coming down the pike.
(21:02):
And so I think that you just kind of learn
the cadence of when you should travel, when you don't
need to travel, when you need to be around the team,
and some of that stuff sometimes is you know, based
on how it's going. Um. But I think my number
one job is to be a support and to be
(21:22):
a person that helps manage the noise of everything, um
for everybody in the building. But that's especially important for
the players and the coaches. I mean, it's just it's email.
I have a greater appreciation for Emay's job than anybody does,
but just because I was in it. And I will
tell you without a doubt that I feel better physically
(21:43):
and than I have in twenty years. Though I don't
look better, I feel better. So I know how Emay feels.
Though I know what he's you know, I know what
these first seventies six games have been like. And so
the more that I can be there to take you know,
to at least be as supportive, I think is important.
You have to appreciate, you know. You know, my son
is the same age as he may son, yep, and
(22:05):
you know some of the things that I went through
to have time around him, and he may has taken
this extraordinary step in his life and facing all the
challenges that you're talking about, everything that you've had to
go through that you are just aching with him and
he has to deal with and he's doing it largely
without his family here. So he could keep us son
in school. And that I know, given some of the
reasons you made the choice you made, you have to
(22:25):
have a great sympathy is the wrong world, but great
empathy for what he's dealing with. Well, I think that
then that's important, right, is that that for any of
our staff, like you need to if you need to go,
go like if we you need thirty six hours, go
take it, right. I think that one of the things
about this is and people talk about load management for
(22:46):
players are getting through it, and I think there are
important to having them, you know, take a day off emotionally,
just take a day off and take a step back
and kind of take a deep breath. And and the
coaches needed um, the training staff needs it, the sports
scientists need the people that are are working NonStop through
that eight month or nine month period, depending on if
(23:06):
you're good, right, it's as long as it can be.
And you know, I think that is that maybe what's next, right,
is figuring out ways to even take advantage of those
off hours better for each team. And I think that,
you know, we should be I should be able to
help at least in those regards. You've talked about email
a little bit here. That was the first obviously major
(23:28):
move that you made in this position. Yeah, how have
you seen him grow over these ten months at the
same time that you've been growing in a new role
as well? Well, I thought, I thought, you know, to
no fault of his own, it was just a really
hard start because we hired him and he went to
Tokyo um with Jason, which they had to do, and
they were successful and won a gold medal. He comes back,
(23:50):
he gets COVID right before the season, the ten days
before the season starts, which is like the days that
you're thinking about preparing, talking to your staff, getting everything
the an outlined. Then we go into training camp and
two of our guys are out for two weeks that
are going to be two of our main guys. And
so it was one of those deals early where it
(24:12):
was kind of like we're going to start slow. It
was pretty clear and it had nothing to do with
anybody's ability. It just looked like it needed probably to
come together and needed time to come together. And so
that was good and at least know that, Um, but
it wasn't easy to live it for anybody, especially for
a new head coach and a coaching staff that's new
(24:33):
and players that have been here and have dealt with
and expect there to be big expectations and expect to
play winning basketball and expect to be in the playoffs
and win and and so. But everybody stayed the course.
And that's what's most impressive is there's no panic. It
(24:55):
was very even, It was very measured. Um. It wasn't
fluff though, you know, Um, he does a really good job.
He's not a guy that raises his voice a lot.
He's not a guy that goes after people all the time. UM.
I think he's a guy that really just says what
he's thinking. Like in the moment in practice, and he's
(25:16):
very direct, but he has a great way about him.
And then his staff is really good. Like I just
think that he did a good job with that too,
which is a critical part of being a head coach.
He told me that he hit on every single one
of his targets first staff. He said that never happens
in the NBA, to get all your first options. Yeah,
and it was interesting for me to see how because
he also retained some um and that has meshed nicely
(25:39):
and that always isn't the case UM, And that's you know,
that's one of the reasons why I like when we
were going through it, my encouragement to him was, you know,
I think as a head coach, you have to really feel,
you know, challenge appropriately but also super comfortable with the
people in the room. And they have to be humble
and they have to be hard working, and they have
(25:59):
to bring you good ideas that you know, you can
implement when you want to. And so he's done a
really good job with that, and they do a really
good job of you know, you know, being um just
adding value in any which way. What is your role
for them? There are I think most of us have
been around long enough feel there are future head coaches
(26:22):
on EMAY staff now in this league. What is your
role for them? I think that's been the most enjoyable
part of one of the most enjoyable parts of my
job has been being removed enough that I'm not in
the weeds on every play. And but I watched the
(26:43):
games close enough where I can go back and talk
about most of the players that just happened, or we
can pull them up and it's quick like and and
but that is really just mostly in walking by the
video room or walking by, you know, an assistance office
and they pull me in and say, you know, you
guys play these guys three years ago. You know, what
(27:05):
do you think here? And and I and I appreciate
that because I certainly don't want to like barge in
and do that. And I'm not doing that with EMAY
for sure. Right I think the biggest thing is what
what are the big picture things that I can help
with if needed? And you know, for me, the big
picture of things over the last couple of weeks are
(27:26):
how do we make sure we're managing minutes appropriately? And
some of that's ramping up so guys are ready to
roll um and play big minutes in the playoffs, and
but how do we also get nine to twelve ready?
Like and that's Ronald game was great because you saw
some of those guys that we might need. You might
need to throw them in for chunks. You might need
to throw them in for ten minutes a half in
(27:47):
game five of a series because somebody twists our ankle. Like,
those guys gotta be ready. How do we maintain our
defensive identity? And then how do we get a little
bit more just tightened up because you've gotta be really
tightened up as you get into the playoffs. And um,
so I'm more thinking about it in those terms and
big picture terms than those guys have to figure out
the plays and all that stuff. I've lived that life,
(28:10):
I know for many many years. If the most enjoyable
part is spending that time with these as coaches, is
the least enjoyable part. I was wondering what was going
through mind the first time you had to trade somebody
that's been tough And the first one was tough, right
because it was kimba Um. But you know, I think
the reality is your role when you're when you're in
(28:31):
that role. You have to just constantly remind yourself you
have to do what's best for the Boston Celtics. And
you know, I think and and we have high expectations.
We want to be really good. You know, you do
your best to be prepared for moments where you think
you can make a deal that makes sense for your team.
But it doesn't mean that when you do that, there
(28:51):
isn't a emotions attached to it. But you know, there's
a lot of difficult conversations you have to have in
this job. There's a lot of fires you have to
put out. But the hardest part is the trade, for sure,
especially again like trade and Kimba was hard. It's pretty
clear you're happy to be home. Has anyone asked your
family if they were happy to have you there? I
don't know you can ask. You've got their numbers. You
(29:13):
got one of the number, Yeah, you've got Tracy's number. Yeah.
I said I need something. My I've got a I've
got a friend here for the for the games this weekend.
And you know, he was asking me yesterday kind of
what it's like, and I said, it's you know, I
feel like I'm so much more present when I am
home than you know, worrying about the film or whatever.
And I turned to Tracy and I said, you agree
(29:34):
with that? And she she kind of looked at me
like she said, you're okay, You're all right. Well, that
sounds like exactly what everyone would expect from a healthy relationship, right. Yeah. Now, really,
there is one thing that I wanted to follow up
with you on that you're coming it on just a
few minutes ago, that you kind of had a feeling
at the start of this season that there might be
(29:55):
some tough times coming into those opening weeks and months.
That's right, from knowing you for nine years and having
some conversations here and there, you know, off the record,
you've always had a really incredible intuition with regard to
that type of stuff. It's like, you know what's coming
before it even happens, even after just like a day
or two training camp. It's always blown me away. How
does that happen? Where does that intuition come from? Yeah? Unfortunately,
(30:17):
when you've been in it this long, good or bad,
you know what's coming, right, you at least have an idea. Now,
it doesn't mean you're gonna win, but you know, you know,
I knew when I saw us get healthy in January
and we started that run even before the trade deadline,
it didn't look the same. It looked even though we
were playing teams that were beat up and didn't have
all their guys, we looked different. We looked more dynamic,
(30:38):
we looked more um, we were playing every possession, we
were executed. We just looked different, and you could see
something that click there, and and in large part it
was health, right, And then the the other thing was
our best players became really really good, and our role
players became unbelievable in their role. And so then you know,
(31:00):
you can see that coming at start of the year,
when you're trying to piece together a team with a
new staff and new players, and you're missing your starting
lineup for the most of the training camp and you
play maybe one preseason game with your entire lineup, you
know you know what's coming the other way. It's gonna
be you're gonna have to learn through the games, which
is not ideal, right, And so you just you keep
(31:23):
in mind there's eighty two of them, and you're kind
of like kicking, like, aren't I wish we could wish
we were in position to start better. And but you know,
like that first game, that double overtime loss at New York,
You're just like, if you can get one in that moment,
you need to get one because you may drop one
or two others just because of where you are versus
everybody else in regard to preparation and so and again
(31:45):
that was nothing to no fault of anybody's deal. Is
just we we were missing somebodies and we had a
new staff. And did he say it wasn't living game
by game And he's still going over the opening game
like seventy something games ago and he's still that was
a memorable one. That was a memorable one. Yeah, those two,
both of those games in Madison Square Guardens. Yeah, yeah,
none of us will forget that one. Yeah, it's it's
(32:08):
just seems that when the losses still stand out more
than the winds, for sure. But I do enjoy the
winds more than I did as a coach. Why. I
just think because you're not so when when you're coached,
and I don't know how you may would say this,
you walk back into the locker room and you're like, oh,
how does this effect tomorrow? Right? Like you're like, we
just beat you know, UM, a couple of weeks ago
(32:31):
when we when we beat Golden State. Okay, how are
we going to play in Sacramento? And how does this?
What do we need to say to make sure we're
just as alert, just as focused, just as ready, just
and so you're always thinking about what's next. You're never
thinking about what just happened, unless you are over analyzing
a loss, which you do think about what just happened
from time to time. Yes, and now you know, at
(32:52):
forty four years old, I had to stop coaching. Well, Brad,
we know what's next. It's you learning what the next
two months of the NBA schedule are like. Oh, I
don't know, we'll see what are you expecting from these
next couple of months leading up to the NBA Draft?
This is the part this, This is the well I'm
most looking forward to watching our team play, UM, because
we have a really good team, you know, and and
(33:14):
they're really dialed in and they are good on both ends.
And but the defense has a chance to be unique
and special, and so our chance, our chance of being
special is that UM. And so you know, to be special,
you gotta win a lot of playoff series. UM, but
this is gonna be really tough. You know. I think
as you look at the East, this is the best
(33:35):
East that I've ever seen, at least since I've been here.
And so we have, um we got our work cut
out from us from day one, and so anything we
can do in the next five games, the next ten days,
next fifteen days, whatever it is before we play our
first playoff game, to improve, we need to do that.
This is weird to have another person in between us,
(33:55):
the referee, but I'm glad you were here. Mark. We
could have used There are many times that many times
over the eight years who probably could have used that,
um as we would meander down crazy pass and the
game will be tipping off of the pregame thing would
still be running. And and that's why seven people tuned
in's and that's by the way, that's the eight years combined.
(34:16):
And for this podcast there will be nine s. So
it's all steps forward, baby steps, right, it's baby steps.
That's just because that's just because Mark. Yeah, I'll bring
in one or two extra listens, that's right, So now
three per person here the audiences it is big, but overall, yeah,
for the cameras and the fancy microphones would take a
little bit of a hit, but overall, just to increase
(34:38):
that overall, Qune, I'll try to bring in a couple
of extra listeners. But Brad Stevens, President of basketball Operations
for the Boston Celtics, thank you for coming on. We're
looking forward to these next couple of months. It should
be a lot of fun, all right, guys. Thanks. Today's
episode is presented by the Boston Celtics credit card powered
by Cardless. You'll be eligible to earn a special sign
(34:59):
up bonus when you apply and are approved at Carlos
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credit approval. Visit Cardless dot com Forward slash Celtics for
more information. That's Cardless dot Com Forward slash Celtics. Well, Sean,
(35:24):
what stood out to me most from this conversation with
Brad was the comment that he made I feel the
best that I felt in twenty years. And the first
thing that went through my head is what job do
I need to switch to to make myself feel better
than I have in twenty years. But um, what do
you what did you think about that comment? I mean,
I personally, every interaction that I've had with him since
(35:45):
this change in Rolls has made me think exactly that.
I mean, he he sounds more energized, there's more life
in his voice. You can just tell that he's in
a better place physically and mentally than it was as
the everyday head coach that's grinding. Literally. What's what struck
me and it was not at all surprised. Is it
flashed me back to his first couple of years here
(36:09):
and the assumptions that people make about Brad Stevens because
all people do is look at what they have known
and look at the past college coaches come to the
NBA coach for a couple of years and then go
back to college. Everybody knew Brad Stevens is a college coach.
They just assumed that he would co share for a
couple of years and then go to Indiana or go
to Duke or go wherever some big college job. And
(36:30):
they simply weren't paying attention to the details. And the first,
the one that struck me the most was the first
time Gordon Hayward came in as a member of the
Utah Jazz and I was playing against Brad for the
first time. And if you listened to the interviews that
Gordon was giving about Brat, you realized he would say
things like, yeah, Brad would call me my first year
or two in the NBA. He would always call me
(36:51):
and see how I was doing. But very quickly the
conversation would turn to the NBA game. What was that
play you ran out of the time? What was it?
And if you're paying at ten, shin to what Gordon
was saying, what others have said his conversation with Steve
Kerr at the Final four. A couple of you know
that this is something that Brad had his eyes on
from the beginning, that he wasn't leaving to go back
(37:12):
to college, that this is what he wanted to be
an NBA head coach. I think the same thing happened again.
Everyone just assumes he's going to go back to coaching,
and who knows, maybe he will one day. But Brad
Stevens has he he did what you accomplish as a
college coach. Obviously, win a national championship for a major program,
but he took a mid level school too, and he
built it, by the way, he didn't just coach it,
(37:33):
he built it. I mean he would argue with that
and say there were a lot of others involved, but
let's let's call it. And there's a again for those
who don't know the legendary story, I just told us
to Emay did not know the story. I just told
it to him recently of two thousand ten National championship
game against Duke Butler gets there, Steve Paluka, great story.
One of our owners is sitting with Danny in the
(37:54):
front row, and when the coaches and the teams walk out,
Danny says, the pegs there goes the best coaching college basketball,
and PAGs like everybody else. Mike's arrow might have been
there too. Everyone just assumes he's talking about Mike Sachowski.
He's not, And might you mean Mike Ship No, the
other guy, that guy over there, and three years later,
obviously he hired him. So I think that there was
(38:14):
these assumptions. Brad, It's more than just being all right.
You heard and talked about being around the kids and
you know, being back around a sam. And that's why
I asked him about the bubble, because that put an
extraordinary strain and him and I was glad he brought
up that turnaround about that that how ridiculous it is
anyone today. If we felt that as the media members,
(38:35):
I can only imagine how that felt to them who
were actually going through. Here we are, you know, we're
going to be approaching. Basically, what the NBA did was
play a season. By the time we get to, you know,
in a year and a half, like we're at the
end of the next season and the bubble, the championship
that the Lakers won, we hadn't gone to the bubble yet,
so it was everything has been really compressed, and that
(38:57):
put strain onto But I think it's that people just
assumed they know what Brad is gonna do next one
he wants. This is another challenge for him. This is
brand new. This is doing a job that people didn't
think he could do. Oh, Brad Stevens in the NBA.
What was everybody's reaction in that press was shock, Brad
Stevens in the NBA. I don't want that because nobody
(39:17):
heard a think about it. That's why he had been
contemplating this idea. And to me, and I'll tell you
this straight out I was as surprised, you know, as
close as we were. I was caught off guard, not
that Brad Stevens one day would want to do this.
That had happened that morning. Who was it the day
after the regular season ended, two days after, the day
after the day after, it was the day after the playoffs.
(39:39):
It was the next morning it self. Inc we all
thought that we were done, gonna get some rest. The
next morning it all happened. And I think a lot
of us on the inside knew that Danny, that the
Danny's time was done. But I think the you know,
and that if you had played it out in your
head said, oh, I wonder if that, but there was
(39:59):
no just happened too fast, there was no time. So
I don't know. I hope that people got a little
glimpse because I know there are probably a lot of
you listening that maybe didn't participate or hear any of
the six hundred seven hundred pregame conversation that Brad and
I have, But uh, it was a little bit of
that and just every night to me was a little
(40:19):
bit of an insight into yeah, and one of the things,
and I know I brought this up during the conversation.
But one of the things that has always stood out
to me since the moment. I wouldn't say the moment
I first met him, because I didn't know exactly what
was going to happen with him as a head coach,
but talking to him at Summer League, his first Summer league,
talking to him at the beginning of training camps every
single year, sometimes during the season, and again this was
(40:42):
like off the record, just side conversations. He had this
intuition that I've I've literally never felt it or or
heard it come out of anyone else's mouth, like in
the NBA, talking to I'm talking about talking to Danny,
talking to Mike Zarin, like talking to executives around the league, players,
coaches around the league. No one has ever voiced as
(41:02):
much intuition accurately as Brad has to me in some
of those conversations. It's like he just you would talk
to him at a certain point and he knew exactly
what was going to happen over the next couple of
weeks or the next couple of months. And to me,
the fact that he has that skill and you know,
whatever you want to call it, I think that translates
perfectly to this type of role, perfectly because he could see,
(41:25):
like there that trade deadline this year could have gone
a lot of different ways. Uh. And the fact that
he saw what he saw in early January, which you
know that's when things were just starting to turn, but
he he recognized that as real. This wasn't just a
blip on the radar. He recognized this as real, and
that's why he made the moves that he did. Nobody
(41:47):
saw Danny doing this either, he was, he had been
a player and as coach of the Phoenix Suns. Nobody
had projected this ahead. But it is how and I
hate listen. It is extreme only painful for me to
say this out loud, where it is super smart is
a high intelligence guy. And that's I think there's a
(42:09):
great time. I love when things from Celtic history tied together.
But there was another guy from Indiana years ago who
played here, made a few records as his name brought
with the rafts, and people underestimated him because what do
they call He was anything but right? He was anything
(42:31):
but And I think people took Brad's politeness and his
Indiana way, and I think there's a way in the
in the big city in the big city in the east.
You know, to look down on that is maybe the
wrong word. Look at the whole Nicks Pacers, you know,
Nicks versus Hicks thing to listen, you know, derisively. Whatever
(42:54):
we would disagree about, something I would often probably more
than I should have, maybe make reference to the farm.
And you know, just different Indiana, but we have a
we have a tendency to yeah, like listen, don't talk
to me, don't tell me that little Caesar pizza. For
everyone who doesn't know Sean. Sean hales from New York City.
(43:16):
So so we have a different view of things. And say,
people grew up in in Indiana, and that's sort of
why that had changed my dynamic too, because I had
never been I had never been younger than the head coach,
because I had always been you know, the youngest, this,
youngest that. So that was a change in the dynamic too.
And then you know, you quickly developed into you know,
(43:37):
big city, you know, New York, Indiana, Northeast, Midwest. You
just find dynamics and things like that. So, um, that's
that's one of the reasons of work. But I said,
hopefully get a little more insight into end of the guy. Yeah, absolutely,
he was comfortable, he was confident, he was energetic. It
was everything that we wanted to hear out of that conversation.
(43:58):
And I don't know if this is true, but I
think that had to be his longest exclusive interview that
he has done since he switched into this role ten
months ago. So hopefully our listeners got a little bit
of extra insight out of that, and also just hearing
that chemistry between you two and here and Brad come
out of his shell. For anyone who did not get
(44:18):
to listen to your pregame shows with him, I don't
think we. I don't think a lot of our fan
base got to hear that side of him that that's
kind of comfortable and willing to joke around and have
a lot of fun. So hopefully everyone, Hey, the last year,
I was trying to put him back in the show,
like you get so carried away, But yeah, hey, it
all works out in the end. Right, great conversation, Sean.
We appreciate you coming on to have it with him,
(44:41):
and we appreciate everyone for giving it a listen. Please
make sure to rate, subscribe in download and we'll see
you next week. We got two episodes left this season.
I'm sure you're gonna enjoy both of them. Will see soon.
Thank you for listening to view from the Raptors behind
the scenes with the Boston Celtics, presented by Cardless
Host
Marc D'Amico
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