Out of 29 votes for NBA Coach of the Year, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens received zero votes from his coaching peers. Stevens, who led the Celtics to a 55-27 record and the second best record in the East (without its big free agent acquisition in Gordon Hayward), lost to Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.
If you’re memory was wiped clean of the past two weeks, you could make a case for Casey, who led the Raptors to the best regular season in franchise history. What would be tough to make a case for is how seven other coaches received votes ahead of Stevens, the man who is one win away from heading to the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie Irving or Gordon Hayward.
Those seven coaches were:
Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers.
Doc Rivers’ Clippers finished 10th in the West. Yikes.
To add insult to injury, the NBCA Coach of the Year is chosen by fellow coaches, as opposed to the actual Coach of the Year, which is voted on by media members. So as a refresher: of the 29 other coaches in the NBA, none of them thought Brad Stevens deserved to be named their Coach of the Year.
The only logical conclusion here is that fellow coaches hate Brad Stevens. Jealousy? Gotta be. DOC FUCKING RIVERS!
Isaiah Thomas, who played under Stevens from 2014-2017, was dumbfounded.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Evan Turner chimed in.
Others felt strongly too.
DOC FUCKING RIVERS THOUGH!?