The Boston Celtics have had a disappointing 2020-21 campaign. This is not necessarily anyone’s fault — the team has been demolished by injuries and absences due to COVID-19 — but for a franchise that enters every season with championship expectations, going 36-36 and needing to go through the play-in tournament to earn a playoff berth is inherently going to lead to questions.
Apparently, one person who does not have to worry about these sorts of questions is head coach Brad Stevens. While the coach is usually the easiest thing to change with a team after a bad year, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN appeared on Get Up! and revealed that Stevens can rest easy knowing his job is not in jeopardy.
"Brad Stevens … is going to be back. The idea that his job might be in jeopardy is just not accurate."
—@wojespn pic.twitter.com/OpSQ6pOHd7
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 18, 2021
“This is still a Boston organization with two star players in [Jaylen] Brown and [Jayson] Tatum, with a coach, Brad Stevens, who is going to be back,” Wojnarowski said. “The idea that his job might be in jeopardy is just not accurate. This is a coach who’s been in the conference finals three out of four years, they’re going to certainly continue with Brad Stevens.”
Stevens did, apparently, turn down the Indiana University job earlier this year, so the Celtics would raise some eyebrows if it canned him despite that and all the additional context laid out in the segment. The Celtics have gone 354-282 in the eight years Stevens has been at the helm, and while we’ll have to wait and see how their fortunes play out in the play-in tournament, the team has only missed the postseason once under his tutelage.
