Brad Stevens joined the NBC Sports Boston broadcast during Celtics blowout over Clippers

On Monday, Kristaps Porzingis made his return to the court which many thought was the significant news of the day. However, President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens appearing on the NBC Sports broadcast is what everyone was talking about.

“I figured that I was coming on tonight. We almost pushed Porzingis back a couple days because this was gonna be such a big deal,” Stevens joked with Drew Carter and Brian Scalabrine. “Did you guys think you were gonna need something to talk about on the second night of a back-to-back?”

When asked about when he knew that Porzingis returning in late November was a possibility, Stevens replied, “I don’t think we realized it until we really got into camp and then you started seeing him work.”

“When you saw him in Abu Dhabi, the way he was moving and the way that he felt, it was a pretty good indication that he was gonna be at the front end of that timeline.”

Stevens also revealed that Porzingis had played 32 minutes last Monday and 32 minutes last Thursday in scrimmages with the Maine Celtics. Before confirming what Joe Mazzulla has already said, that the team knew he would be returning on Monday for a week.

Stevens was also nothing but complimentary of Jeff Van Gundy, who is now a Clippers assistant coach after spending last year as a consultant with the Celtics.

“It was super to have him around last year,” Stevens said. “He was everybody's favorite for sure.”

“Last year he watched the games back in the back room with some of our player enhancement coaches,” Stevens added. “It was like having that ESPN broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy without any, like, time constraints or filter.”

Brad was also very complimentary of both Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser. Saying of Pritchard, “he just improves everyday. This guy just loves basketball so much. He works as hard as anyone I’ve ever been around.”

After Scal said that the Celtics had gotten hot from three after a slow start, Stevens said, “well, Payton and Sam don’t know they started off slow. They weren't in there. Those guys come in firing regardless. That’s one of their many great attributes, but certainly at the top of every scouting report of teams we play has to be their shooting off the bench.”

“And it’s every day,” Stevens added when Drew Carter mentioned how they warm up. “It’s very purposeful, it’s very organized, well thought out... they work, they are big time workers.”