Sorry, Indiana fans, but you can already cross one high-profile coach off your wish list.
Boston Celtics executive Brad Stevens on Friday publicly declined interest in the Hoosiers’ head-coaching job. Stevens communicated his message to The Field of 68 college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman.
“I thoroughly appreciate being a Celtic and love the people I get to work with every day,” Stevens told The Field of 68.
Stevens was always an extreme long shot and unrealistic candidate for the job. He always gets linked to Indiana because he is from the area. The 48-year-old is from Zionsville, Indiana, and went into coaching after playing at DePauw. He was an assistant at Butler from 2001-2007 and became its head coach from 2007-2013.
Over his six seasons as head coach, Butler went 166–49, made the NCAA Tournament five times, and reached the championship game in back-to-back seasons.
After spending six seasons at Butler, Stevens left to become the Boston Celtics’ head coach. He had a .557 winning percentage in eight seasons as the team’s coach. He only missed the playoffs once, and his teams reached the conference finals three times.
Following the 2020-21 NBA season, Stevens decided to move into a front-office role. He took over as the Celtics’ president of basketball operations and serves as their GM. The Celtics won the NBA championship last season. Rather than make Stevens feel like he needs to get back into coaching, that might embolden him more to continue winning in the NBA — as an executive.
The Indiana Hoosiers are looking for a new coach after agreeing to part ways with Mike Woodson after the season. IU is a top historical program in college basketball, but they’ve only made the NCAA Tournament twice since the 2016-17 season.
