What does loose and happy Brad look like?
“Just more smiles,” Ainge said, “and some jokes he normally wouldn’t tell, which is great.”
▪ Stevens has stayed out of the spotlight all season. His predecessor, Danny Ainge, used to sit in a courtside seat and bark at officials. Stevens watches from a private box. So it was no surprise that as the on-court celebration unfolded, Stevens made his way to the tunnel that leads to the locker room, away from the din.
He beamed when his close friend and former Celtics assistant Micah Shrewsberry, who now coaches Notre Dame, walked through.
“Now that was sweet,” Stevens said to Shrewsberry.
▪ There were reports that Celtics senior consultant Jeff Van Gundy might replace associate head coach Charles Lee, who was hired to coach the Hornets. But according to a league source, both sides agreed it would be best for Van Gundy to accept an offer to become the Clippers’ top assistant instead.
The Celtics, the source said, were somewhat uneasy about the prospect of Van Gundy leapfrogging members of the coaching staff who had been instrumental in this championship season, and Van Gundy agreed. But there is unanimous sentiment that Van Gundy was an invaluable sounding board for the young staff this season.
Look for the Celtics to fill Lee’s position by promoting from within.
▪ Vice president of basketball operations Mike Zarren crossed paths with coach Joe Mazzulla soon after the final buzzer, and Mazzulla’s message was predictably succinct and direct.
“He said it took math and effort,” Zarren said.
▪ It’s unclear whether Dalano Banton and Lamar Stevens, who were traded by the Celtics in February, will get championship rings. Teams must receive permission from the NBA before gifting rings to players who are no longer on the roster. It’s hard to imagine the league would say no to a request, and the Celtics appreciated the contributions of both players during their brief stays.
The Celtics made three tiers of rings after winning the 2008 title. Players, coaches, and top front office members received rings from the most diamond-studded tier. All other full-time employees received second-tier rings, and part-time game-night employees were part of the third tier.
▪ There were some suggestions last year that Mazzulla would have been fired if the Celtics had been swept by the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Celtics executives have pushed back against that notion, and co-owner Steve Pagliuca stressed that the franchise’s commitment to Mazzulla never waned.
“We were always 110 percent behind Joe,” Pagliuca said. “We never had a question about him being coach. Our whole philosophy here is to stick with great people and look at the facts, and the fact was he did a great job last year and was only going to get better. Now, you see the results.”
▪ Yes, the Celtics did hold a six-player draft workout at the Auerbach Center Tuesday, about 12 hours after winning the championship. Some members of the front office were running on no sleep.
The Celtics also had a draft workout the day after winning the 2008 title, and that did not turn out very well. The session included New Mexico forward J.R. Giddens, who wowed the group with his athleticism and was ultimately selected by the Celtics with the 30th overall pick. Giddens scored just 28 points over 1½ seasons with the Celtics.
The brass unwisely held that 2008 workout at 10 a.m. following a night of partying. This year’s session took place about four hours later.
▪ Speaking of the draft, it will be stretched into a two-day event this year, with the first round held next Wednesday and the second next Thursday. Zarren was part of a group of executives from about 10 teams who brought this idea to the league office in 2013, but it did not gain traction until now.
Zarren thinks the shift will be beneficial.
“The second round has become too important for teams to only have two minutes to make a decision about trades or who to pick,” he said. “You often call a team in the second round to make a trade and they don’t have the pick anymore, and by the time you find out who has it, it’s too late.”
There will be four minutes between second-round picks this year.
▪ In the afterglow of Monday’s win, NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown’s thoughts were with his grandmother Dianne Varnado, who died last year.
“I woke up from my pregame nap, and I’d had a dream, and my grandma was in the dream, and she gave me a hug this afternoon,” Brown said. “I just knew everything was going to be all right. But I wish she could be here. But she was so important and pivotal in my life. And it’s just awesome. I know she would be proud of me.”
▪ The locker-room celebration was beginning to die down sometime after 1 a.m., but 20-year-old rookie Jordan Walsh could not resist the opportunity to dump a bottle of Michelob on Jayson Tatum’s head. Most players never win an NBA title, and Walsh is now a champion less than a year after being drafted in the second round.
▪ A Hornets contingent that included former Celtics forward Grant Williams, center Mark Williams, and rookie sensation Brandon Miller attended Game 5, almost certainly as guests of Lee, who will now become their coach. Still, it was a little odd to see all three in the Celtics’ locker room amid the revelry.
▪ What were Brown’s thoughts on Payton Pritchard, who drilled the half-court buzzer-beater to end the second quarter of Game 5?
“That dude,” Brown said. “He’s a [expletive] legend, man.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.
Christine Lake is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. With an extensive background in sports journalism, he covers everything from major league championships to grassroots sports events. When she’s not on the field or at the stadium, you’ll find Christine coaching youth sports teams.
