Stevens talks basketball at West Newton Cinema

On a record-breaking windy night in Bloomington, Indiana, stood two infamous squads. The year was 1985, and the Indiana Hoosiers were up against the Purdue Boilermakers. Assembly Hall had a body in every one of its 17,222 seats, and you could hardly hear the person next to you. Indiana wasn’t a very good basketball team in 1985, but it was coached by the fierce Bob Knight.

But this isn’t about that team, or even the coach. One of the onlookers to this historic chair-throwing contest would grow up to be the architect of one of the most surgical NBA runs of recent memory. Watching the game was the then-eight-year-old Brad Stevens. This experience has had an extreme effect on Stevens, and in many ways, it is where his love for basketball started to bloom.

Stevens has extensive experience at every level in the sport. He was a ball boy in the 1991 Indiana State Basketball Championship that was headlined by Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, and he even led Zionsville High School in Indiana to a sectional title in 1995. He finished his high school career as Zionsville’s all-time leading scorer with 1,508 points. In high school, Stevens was coached extremely hard. “I loved my coach, even though he ripped my ass for four years,” Stevens added. Stevens was pushed to the brink during his time as a player, but he knew that it was out of love.

Fast forward to the present day, and Stevens is now serving as president of basketball operations and de facto general manager for the Boston Celtics. Under his watch, the Celtics won an NBA championship in 2024. Stevens was formally the head coach of the Celtics from 2013 to 2021.

On Sunday, March 1, Stevens, along with Newton North High School basketball head coach John McNamara, made a special appearance at West Newton Cinema to watch a presentation of “Hoosiers” along with a large crowd. The film is based on the 1954 Milan High School basketball team that won the state championship. After the presentation, Stevens and McNamara were asked questions about their basketball careers. “Hoosiers” was cited by Stevens as one of his favorite films, mainly because of the different personalities of those on the team and the lessons that the film can teach you.

Coaching two final fours before the age of 35 did not come without learning. Stevens has grown to understand that as a coach, learning what type of instruction players will resonate with most and what they need from you as a coach is part of the job. Not only are you supposed to coach them, but helping to move them forward as a person is also important.

“Build a relationship, and the more someone knows you are in their corner, the more you can challenge them to be their best,” Stevens remarked. Coaching is complex, and at times impossible. But being able to learn your players and funnel their needs into the team’s is key to success. Whether or not you can coach in this manner relies heavily on the relationship you’ve built with the individual.

Often asked about the differences between coaching college players and professionals, Stevens, sporting his grey Celtics pullover, explained that his answer is always the same. “That isn’t the question to ask. The question to ask is, are all the guys willing to be coached,” and that only those people are “exceptionally coachable.”

Being coached is a two-way street. You have to have someone who is willing to teach, and you have to have someone who is willing to be taught. Stevens exclaimed that this is the base of coaching, and whether you succeed will depend on the relationship you can foster with your squad.

As the crowd in the stuffy theater was ready to file out, one more question rang in. This one was again for Stevens: “When are you going to eliminate the three-point shot and get back to playing real basketball?”

Stevens responded, “I would say come back to West Newton Cinema and watch a rerun of ‘Hoosiers.’

–April 7, 2026–