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The Legend of Brad Stevens


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Listening to Louisville sports radio, and one of the hosts said that UofL had to reach out to Stevens and make him say "no".  That sounded vaguely familiar and got me to thinking.  Has the legend of Brad Stevens outpaced the man himself?  I know he is a good coach, but is he the savior that so many fan bases think he is?  Could he possibly live up to the hype if he came back to college basketball?  I know he took two consecutive teams to the Championship game, but that was 10 years ago.  He also went 49-24 over the next two seasons, missing the tournament once and losing in the first weekend the other.  Would a fanbase tolerate that if they hired the Legend of Brad Stevens?  Again, I'm not debating that he is a good coach, that's not the point here.  My question is, could he live up to the hype created around him, and could that be a reason he wouldn't return to the college game?

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13 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

Stevens at kitchen table over the years reviewing job opportunities

  • UCLA - Pass
  • IU - Not going to do it
  • Arizona - Yawn
  • Duke - Nope
  • UNC - Nah
  • UL - Hell Yeah!  Honey, pack up the kids.  I have my dream job!

I'd honestly be a bit embarrassed to ask if I were Louisville.

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13 minutes ago, slojoe said:

No doubt taking Butler to the final game 2x a great achievement, but his trip to the pros had taken a lot off of that.

Granted with the Celts you have a high bar -- i.e., win an NBA championship, but so far he's fallen short both as  a coach and GM.  Still time though.

I gotta disagree with this. Stevens was fantastic for the most part as the Celtics coach. Last season was on Ainge way more then it was on Stevens. 

It's not as simple as to just say that the Celtics have a high bar. Brad Stevens never once had a championship roster as coach of the Celtics. 

Stevens went to what? Four Eastern Conference Finals as the Celtics coach? He took a team led by Isiah Thomas to the ECF and he took LeBron 7 games with a team led by a rookie Jayson Tatum (both Kyrie and Hayward were injured).

I don't see his tenure as the Celtics coach as anything other then a success. 

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2 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I gotta disagree with this. Stevens was fantastic for the most part as the Celtics coach. Last season was on Ainge way more then it was on Stevens. 

It's not as simple as to just say that the Celtics have a high bar. Brad Stevens never once had a championship roster as coach of the Celtics. 

Stevens went to what? Four Eastern Conference Finals as the Celtics coach? He took a team led by Isiah Thomas to the ECF and he took LeBron 7 games with a team led by a rookie Jayson Tatum (both Kyrie and Hayward were injured).

I don't see his tenure as the Celtics coach as anything other then a success. 

A success for any other franchise except the Lakers.  Yes, he's a good coach, but he was hired to win the crown.

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3 minutes ago, slojoe said:

A success for any other franchise except the Lakers.  Yes, he's a good coach, but he was hired to win the crown.

He was never given a roster where a title was a realistic possibility. 

He was hired to navigate the franchise through the rebuilding process from Doc/Pierce/KG to the next phase of the franchise, and as a Celtics fan I would say he navigated that process much faster then anyone could have anticipated or expected. 

He's a highly respected NBA coach. 

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I’m pretty sure this has been mentioned previously, but I think it would have been hard for him to live up to expectations had he came to IU. I mean most IU fans have unrealistic hopes/expectations.. could you imagine what those expectations would have been like if a coach with Stevens’ reputation became coach? I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that position if I were him.

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8 minutes ago, 02Hoosier said:

I’m pretty sure this has been mentioned previously, but I think it would have been hard for him to live up to expectations had he came to IU. I mean most IU fans have unrealistic hopes/expectations.. could you imagine what those expectations would have been like if a coach with Stevens’ reputation became coach? I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that position if I were him.

National Championship game every year.  He wouldn't have to win all of them.  8 out of 10 would have been acceptable.  

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4 hours ago, BGleas said:

He was never given a roster where a title was a realistic possibility. 

He was hired to navigate the franchise through the rebuilding process from Doc/Pierce/KG to the next phase of the franchise, and as a Celtics fan I would say he navigated that process much faster then anyone could have anticipated or expected. 

He's a highly respected NBA coach. 

 

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I understand the animosity, but he was and would still be an excellent college coach.

I love having Woodson and believe he may build something even better, but I think Stevens would have been very successful at IU. If he were to choose Louisville,  he would probably win big. He would become persona-non-grata for me if he chose Louisville after turning us down (I can accept him staying in Boston/NBA, but Louisville...) but I don't doubt what he would do on the court. 

At this stage I have nothing against Stevens. I still think his explanation is misunderstood and misrepresented at times. I thought it was nice. 

Regardless, my coach is on the sidelines.

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On 2/6/2022 at 4:32 PM, 02Hoosier said:

I’m pretty sure this has been mentioned previously, but I think it would have been hard for him to live up to expectations had he came to IU. I mean most IU fans have unrealistic hopes/expectations.. could you imagine what those expectations would have been like if a coach with Stevens’ reputation became coach? I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that position if I were him.

If the money they were rumored to be offering him were true, I would take whatever criticism y'all wanted to throw my way.  Benjamin Franklin could wipe away my tears.

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