Brad Stevens refused to sweat over not getting one vote from his peers in the fraternity’s Coach of the Year award, which is different from the writer’s vote, which stands as the official award.
There has been much discussion regarding theories for the snub. Coaches can only vote for one candidate, unlike the writer’s award which ranks three deserving coaches. And many theories have the ring of possible professional jealousy over the media attention Stevens has garnered this season after losing Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward and playing a portion of the year without Marcus Smart.
Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe examined the situation and came up with this:
It is perhaps an indictment on 1) how Stevens is perceived around the league that he didn’t receive one vote despite leading the injury-plagued Celtics to 55 wins with Gordon Hayward playing five minutes and Kyrie Irving missing 22 games and 2) how much NBA coaches respected the way Casey took the Raptors to the No. 1 seed and how they feel such an honor may help him keep his job.
Do NBA coaches regard Stevens’s accomplishments as much as they should? Are many of them tired of the “wonder coach” references he has received over the past few years? There appeared to be some resentment there because he didn’t receive one vote from any of his 29 cohorts.
Rivers also coached an injury-plagued team and one that made a major trade during the season, but the Clippers won 42 games, missed the playoffs, and had losing streaks of nine and four games (three times), but he still received a vote.
Popovich coached all but nine games without All-Star Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs still reached the playoffs. D’Antoni was able to integrate ball-dominant point guard Chris Paul with ball-dominant guard James Harden and finish with the NBA’s best record.
Still, the fact Stevens didn’t receive any votes is perplexing, although before Wednesday’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the 76ers, he said he had no interest in comparing himself with others and if he were, “I’m screwed.”
It was typical Stevens. He isn’t motivated by awards and accolades. He is motivated by improving and winning.
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