Brad Stevens

Bradley Kent Stevens (born October 22, 1976) is an American basketball executive and former coach who is currently the president of basketball operations and de facto general manager for the Boston Celtics. Born and raised in Zionsville, Indiana, Stevens starred on the Zionsville Community High School basketball team, setting four school records. After high school, he attended DePauw University, where he played basketball and earned a degree in economics. Stevens made the all-conference team multiple times and was a three-time Academic All-America nominee. He transitioned into coaching after quitting his job at Eli Lilly and Company, joining the basketball program at Butler University as a volunteer prior to the 2000–01 season. Stevens was promoted to a full-time assistant coach the following season. After five seasons in the role, he assumed the position of head coach on April 4, 2007, after Todd Lickliter left to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes. In his first year, Stevens led Butler to 30 wins, becoming the third-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I history to have a 30-win season. In 2010, his third year as head coach, Stevens broke the NCAA record for most wins in a coach's first three years, exceeding the previous record by eight wins. In the NCAA tournament, Stevens coached Butler to the first Final Four in school history, while also becoming the second-youngest head coach to make an NCAA national championship game, losing 61–59 to Duke. With the following season's team also making the Final Four, Stevens became the youngest coach to go to two Final Fours. Stevens coached the Bulldogs in their second consecutive national championship game on April 4, 2011, where the team again lost, this time to the Connecticut Huskies. Stevens was regularly named a finalist for Horizon League Coach of the Year award, winning twice, and was also a nominee for both the Hugh Durham Award and Jim Phelan Award in every year of his college career. This success garnered Stevens the head coaching job with the Boston Celtics in 2013, when he signed a six-year, $22 million contract. After undertaking a rebuild early in his tenure, Stevens led the Celtics to the NBA playoffs every year from 2014 to 2021, won a division championship in 2016–17, and appeared in the Eastern Conference finals in 2017, 2018, and 2020. He gained a reputation as one of the NBA's best coaches, with his motion offense and stingy defense earning plaudits from fans, peers, and players. In June 2021, Stevens was named as the president of basketball operations and the de facto general manager of the Celtics following the resignation and retirement of Danny Ainge, before Ainge was talked out of retirement to join the Utah Jazz as their alternate governor later that year. In April 2024, Stevens was named the 2023–24 NBA Executive of the Year. Following that, he won his first NBA championship while with the Celtics as an executive, completing the rebuild that Stevens helped begin and oversee as the head coach.