Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has been a tremendous replacement for now-Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. It was a rough start at 25-57 in his first season coaching the NBA in 2013-14. Since then, Stevens has gone nowhere but up with a team that was expected to be a rebuilding team for years to come. They made the playoffs after a 40-42 season last year and improved that to 48-34 while finishing just two games away from a second round series.
Stevens is hoping to help bring a championship to the historically successful city of Boston, and in an interview with an Indianapolis sports radio station, WFNI-AM 1070 The Fan earlier this weekend, and discussed why he's never be able to smoke a cigar, specifically one of the legendary Red Auerbach's championship victory cigars.
“My wife laughs at me because when I first got here, [cigars were] a nice, common courtesy gift that people gave me,” Stevens told “The Dan Dakich Show.” “I was sent a couple of cigars, or people gave me cigars. And anybody that knows me knows that, if I tried to smoke a cigar, I would probably throw up on the spot. She wants us to win one for every reason, but the biggest reason she wants us to win a championship would be to see me throw up on the court once I had to smoke that stogie.”
Stevens has a great seat to fill after Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck spoke on Stevens' new contract extension, saying that he thought if Auerbach was still here, he would approve of the decision to extend Stevens' contract.
“I do walk by a chair that [Auerbach] used, that's kind of up on a perch, right next to my office, and I walk by it every day with a picture of him smoking that cigar,” Stevens said. “And there's a little pressure and responsibility that comes with that when you walk by it. Sometimes, after a loss, I walk in the back way, so I don't have to feel it quite as bad. But no, he's a legend here, and all that they accomplished puts a lot of responsibility on the rest of us, but it's a lot of fun trying to live up to that tradition.”
Stevens will look to capitalize on the Celtics' best regular season since winning 56 games back in 2010-11, when they had Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett led by Doc Rivers.
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