Despite the Boston Celtics not having All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving for their last nine games, head coach Brad Stevens has led his team to victories in seven of those nine, including six straight wins.

He is certainly a top-tier candidate for the 2017-18 NBA Coach of the Year award for the fantastic job he has done with the injury-riddled Celtics (53-23) throughout the season. However, when asked before Saturday night's 110-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors about what he thought about potentially winning that award, he gave a priceless answer.

“Could care less,” coach Stevens said, via ESPN. “There are 29 other great coaches, and just to be a head coach in this league is enough. It's super hard. There's no way that I would ever consider myself to be in that race.”

Stevens frankly wanted candidates like Raptors head coach Dwane Casey and Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan to get much more attention for what they've done with their respective teams this season.

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“I think that Dwane should be at the top of anybody's list, and that's the way it goes. At the end of the day, to me, it's more about getting a chance to coach our team. But what [Casey has] done is special. What Nate McMillan has done is special.”

The Celtics have been without Irving for 16 games this season and have had star small forward Gordon Hayward miss all but one game in 2017-18 because of the gruesome leg injury he suffered in the opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Coach Stevens and his Celtics will look for their seventh straight victory on Tuesday night when they travel to take on the Milwaukee Bucks (41-36) at BMO Harris Bradley Center.