Celtics Tab Butler’s Stevens As New Head Coach

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Thursday, July 04, 2013

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalWorcester Sports Editors

He was, by far, the hottest young coach in all of college basketball for the past five years. And now he will succeed Doc Rivers as head coach of the Boston Celtics.

Brad Stevens

Butler's Brad Stevens is coming to Boston to join forces with Danny Ainge in search of Banner 18.

"Brad and I share a lot of the same values," Ainge said. "Though he is young, I see Brad as a great leader who leads with impeccable character and a strong work ethic. His teams always play hard and execute on both ends of the court. Brad is a coach who has already enjoyed lots of success, and I look forward to working with him toward Banner 18."

Stevens has had multiple opportunities to leave Butler for supposed bigger and better college jobs but has decided to stay in Indianapolis where he led the Bulldogs to back-to-back National Championship games in 2010 and 2011. In all, he spent 12+ years at Butler, 6 as an assistant coach and 6 as head coach. His teams went 166-49 in his 6 seasons at the helm including an impressive 12-5 mark in the NCAA Tournament.

"Our family is thrilled for the opportunity given to us by the leadership of the Boston Celtics," Stevens said. "But it is emotional to leave a place that we have called home for the past 13 years."

The timing of Stevens' move is interesting in that Butler is leaving the Atlantic Ten Conference after one season to enter the newly reconfigured Big East Conference. It will be interesting to see if his successor at Butler can maintain the program at the national level Stevens elevated it to that past six years.

With the moves made by Ainge and the Celtics over the past week, it seems clear that the franchise is in the rebuilding mode with an eye on the future. Ainge likely feels that a young coach like Stevens may be a better fit for such a situation as opposed to a veteran NBA coach.

No word yet on the length or the financial terms of Stevens' deal with Boston but it clearly has to be for multiple years and millions of dollars as he is walking away from a contract at Butler that had him signed through the 2021-2022 season.

A native of Zionsville, Indiana, Stevens is married to his wife Tracy. They have two children, son Brady and daughter Kinsley.