# Brad Stevens leaving Butler to Coach Boston Celtics **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 3, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593 "2013-07-03T23:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/1 "2013-07-03T23:37:25Z")
I’m surprised. Brad has consistently turned down coaching offers at bigger Universities. I guess the lure of a NBA job was too much for him. I remember a previous coaching wonder kid named Rick Pitino. Incredible championship run at Kentucky. His forays into the NBA was a disaster. Ironically enough the Celtics was one of the pro teams Rick coached. It took a few years to reestablished himself at the Univ of Louisville. I always saw similarities between Brad and Rick. Both are coaching geniuses with a keen knowledge of the game. I can’t help but hope that Brad returns to the college game someday. I feel bad for the players at Butler. Abandoned three months before the new season. It’s going to be a tough year. This isn’t how the seniors wanted to end their college careers. [http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/2013/07/03/celtics-hire-butler-brad-stevens-team-coach/KDqKfTciOfhtEfowYsPUiI/story.html](http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/2013/07/03/celtics-hire-butler-brad-stevens-team-coach/KDqKfTciOfhtEfowYsPUiI/story.html) ---
**Author:** ![opossum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2bfe46/32.png) [@opossum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opossum)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/2 "2013-07-04T00:57:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m surprised. Brad has consistently turned down coaching offers at bigger Universities. I guess the lure of a NBA job was too much for him. > > I remember a previous coaching wonder kid named Rick Pitino. Incredible championship run at Kentucky. His forays into the NBA was a disaster. Ironically enough the Celtics was one of the pro teams Rick coached. It took a few years to reestablished himself at the Univ of Louisville. > > I always saw similarities between Brad and Rick. Both are coaching geniuses with a keen knowledge of the game. I can’t help but hope that Brad returns to the college game someday. > > I feel bad for the players at Butler. Abandoned three months before the new season. It’s going to be a tough year. This isn’t how the seniors wanted to end their college careers. > > [http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/2013/07/03/celtics-hire-butler-brad-stevens-team-coach/KDqKfTciOfhtEfowYsPUiI/story.html](http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/2013/07/03/celtics-hire-butler-brad-stevens-team-coach/KDqKfTciOfhtEfowYsPUiI/story.html) I’m surprised too. I figured he would stay at Butler until a white shoe college job opened up (Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina or UCLA). He’d certainly be considered at any of those schools. But on the other hand he might see Butler as winding up in the middle or bottom of the New Big East rather than at the top of the Horizon year to year. I haven’t read anything about his thoughts on the move. It might be better for him to make the break now, do a few years in the NBA and maybe show some success at another college if that doesn’t work out while he waits for the call. Failing in the NBA won’t hurt his college prospects (see Rick Pitino). Butler falling off a cliff would. And the money’s probably not bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/3 "2013-07-04T01:12:38Z")
> [@opossum](#): > > I’m surprised too. I figured he would stay at Butler until a white shoe college job opened up (Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina or UCLA). He’d certainly be considered at any of those schools. He turned down UCLA earlier this year. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/4 "2013-07-04T07:20:36Z")
Once the big Garnett-Pierce-Terry trade finally goes through, Stevens will actually be older than all of the players on the Boston roster. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/5 "2013-07-04T09:22:54Z")
Not uncommon, I think that Lawrence Frank went to the finals with multiple older players (as did Mike Wallace w the Steelers). It’s got to be so hard to be able to stay at a smaller program when huge offers come to you, from major programs, as well as the NBA. Mark Few is one of the only ones that I can think of that hasn’t moved up. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/6 "2013-07-04T09:40:47Z")
I’m sort of impressed the two sides were able to pull this off so quickly and quietly, especially compared to the very public wrangling over Doc Rivers. > [@aceplace57](#): > > I remember a previous coaching wonder kid named Rick Pitino. Incredible championship run at Kentucky. His forays into the NBA was a disaster. Ironically enough the Celtics was one of the pro teams Rick coached. Actually he did pretty well as coach of the Knicks (when he was a kid of about 35). When he was made coach of the Celtics a decade later it was a mess. > [@](#): > > I feel bad for the players at Butler. Abandoned three months before the new season. It’s going to be a tough year. This isn’t how the seniors wanted to end their college careers. It’s typical college coach horseshit, too: Stevens is quitting three years into a 12-year contract that was going to expire in 2022. The Celtics are giving him an unusually long contract for a professional coach ($22 million) and they’re bumping his pay up to almost $4 million a year from $1 million. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/7 "2013-07-17T22:59:17Z")
Has any college coach succeeded in the NBA? Lon Kruger. Mike Montgomery. Leonard Hamilton. Pitino. Calipari. I’m sure there’s more. That guy from the California college who ran that all offense/no defense system. No, no, no, no and no. Anyone name any others? Can anyone name one college coach who who won and was offered a second contract in The NBA. The college coach just pockets millions, gets wacked and then returns to another college job making more than the one he left. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/8 "2013-07-17T23:53:37Z")
Larry Brown, Rick Pitino. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/9 "2013-07-18T00:18:00Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Larry Brown, Rick Pitino. Since he went from college to the pros twice, I’ll say Larry Brown again. In fact you could argue he did it three times including the time he coached Davidson in one preseason and then went to the ABA, but I won’t bother. Anyway he’s the only guy who won a championship on both levels. Most college coaches don’t succeed in the pros, but I don’t know that their success rate in the pros is any lower than that of assistants who get promoted. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-stevens-leaving-butler-to-coach-boston-celtics/662593/10 "2013-07-18T01:54:23Z")
I would suggest that a college coach who goes to the NBA _is_ successful if he takes over a program that has just blown it up (or never had something to blow up) and is starting over, like Boston is now, and simply makes them a contender. Yes, the skills to take an existing good team to the top are very different, very few coaches have that full range, and there will have to be a change at that point.