Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens sure pulled quite the bro move last night when, rather than stand on the sidelines to coach his team against the Chicago Bulls, he decided to skip the game and go see a friend.
Stevens wasn’t hitting the town with a buddy, though, instead visiting one of his former players, Andrew Smith, whom he coached while with the Butler Bulldogs and who has been battling cancer.
The head coach, who led the school to back-to-back national title appearances during his tenure, knows that a coach is like a father figure, so when he got word that Andrew wasn’t doing well and needed prayers, Stevens didn’t hesitate to go and visit Smith.
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
The 25-year-old Smith has been dealing with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and played for four years at Butler under Stevens, so it’s pretty awesome to see his former coach still care so much about him, really showing how much of a bond Stevens creates with his teams.
It speaks volumes to the character of Brad Stevens, too, as he was willing to miss an NBA game in a career that pays him millions of dollars to deal with an issue that’s MUCH bigger than basketball.
Here’s to hoping Smith is on the rebound, and kudos to Stevens for doing the humanizing thing rather than the easy decision to stick with his Celtics team.