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Brad Stevens misses Celtics-Bulls to visit ailing ex-Butler player
Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens missed his team's nationally televised road game against the Chicago Bulls "to visit a former Butler University player of his," according to a team statement. Assistant coach Jay Larranaga took over as the team's head coach for the night.
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"We ask that the private nature of this visit be respected," the Celtics said in a team statement.
According to multiple reports, it's believed Stevens traveled to Indiana to visit Andrew Smith, a 25-year-old ex-Butler center "who has been battling cancer in recent years and has been readmitted to an Indianapolis-area hospital," according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:
Smith’s family members have been posting on social media to pray for Smith, who played four seasons for Stevens at Butler and participated in two Final Fours. Stevens has spent time with Smith during his battle and the two have kept in constant touch. It is the first game Stevens has missed as Celtics coach.
Smith has been undergoing treatment for two years. Stevens and Celtics video coordinator Alex Barlow, who also played at Butler, had dinner with Smith when the team visited Indiana in November. From Adam Himmelsbach of the Globe:
“I’ve seen Andrew go through a lot of really tough stuff over the last two years, and that son of a gun always responds,” Stevens said. “And he’s as tough as they come, and I have no doubt that he’ll respond again." [...]
Stevens was struck by Smith’s interest in the progress of the Celtics. He wanted to know how the team was playing, how everyone was coming together.
“Those are small problems, aren’t they, in the big picture?” Stevens said.
Smith's condition recently took a turn for the worse, according to David Woods of the Indianapolis Star:
Smith’s family made a renewed request for prayer Wednesday after Smith, 25, was readmitted to the hospital. [...]
Please pray. Pray so very hard. We need a miracle & Andrew asked me to have you all rally with us in prayer in this moment.
— Samantha Smith (@Samantha44Smith) January 6, 2016
Smith has been largely confined in recent weeks but attended the Dec. 19 game in which Butler defeated previously unbeaten Purdue 74-68 in the Crossroads Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Smith was released from the hospital in time to be home for Christmas. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2014.
The Celtics would neither confirm nor deny the identity of the former player Stevens is visiting before Thursday's game. From Marc D'Amico of Celtics.com:
“(It’s a) difficult situation for Coach Stevens and people close to him, obviously,” Larranaga said as he stood in Stevens’ place at tonight’s pregame media availability. “So we told him, ‘Don’t worry about what’s going on here. We’ll try and keep the ship going straight.’”
Stevens’ calm demeanor on the court does a great job of masking his competitiveness. Danny Ainge has oftentimes said that Stevens is one of the most competitive people he’s ever met. So for Stevens to miss a regular season game, one to be played against the East’s current No. 2 seed, it says a lot about the enormity of the situation.
As Larranaga stated, it also says a lot about what Stevens stands for at his core.
“He makes it very clear to our players on a day-to-day basis that family is the most important,” Larranaga said, “that the things they’re able to do away from the court … are so much more important than what happens on the court.”
Larranaga said he found out late Thursday morning that he'd be filling in, and that he wasn't yet sure when Stevens would rejoin the team.
The Celtics lost to the Bulls, 101-92, dropping their fourth game in their last five outings to fall to 19-17, just out of the Eastern Conference's top eight. Despite boasting seven players in double-figures, led by Jae Crowder's 17, the Celtics shot just 35.7 percent from the field as a team and missed 20 of their 25 3-point attempts.
Jimmy Butler (19 points, 10 assists, five rebounds), Pau Gasol (17 points, 18 rebounds, four assists) and Derrick Rose (18 points, seven rebounds, three assists) led the way for Chicago, which has now won six straight and seven of eight to improve to 22-12, just 2 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for the top spot in the conference.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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