The Boston Celtics are keeping the band together.
The off-court band, that is.
After tying for the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics have announced extensions for team president Danny Ainge and head coach Brad Stevens. The announcement came via the team’s official website:
The Boston Celtics announced Wednesday that they have extended the contracts of president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and head coach Brad Stevens. The terms, per team policy, have not been disclosed.
Managing partner, governor and CEO Wyc Grousbeck told Celtics.com that based on Stevens’ and Ainge’s success in their respective roles, the decision to extend their contracts was made without hesitation.
“A major job of ownership is to find the right people to run the basketball side,” Grousbeck said. “We believe we have found them in Danny and Brad.”
“Once you find your people,” he continued, “you need to support them in their efforts and create a work environment that enables them and the team to succeed. If all of that is in place, the topic of extending contracts becomes an easy one, because everybody wants to keep moving forward together.”
No real surprises here.
Ainge has done a phenomenal job ushering the Celtics into the post-Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo era. He has outfitted them with plenty of picks, prospects and reasonably priced talent, not to mention the financial flexibility to be major free-agency players in the summers to come.
Stevens, meanwhile, has been an absolute stud since leaving Butler University to join the cause in 2013-14. His winning percentage has drastically improved through each of his three seasons, he has shown a knack for experimenting with rangy lineups that emphasize speed and length over size, and many of his players, most notably guys like Jae Crowder, Isaiah Thomas and Evan Turner, have enjoyed career seasons under his watchful eye.
All of which has left the Celtics as one of the NBA’s most promising teams. They are still in the early stages of a rebuild, yet appear just one move away from contention. That’s not an easy position to sustain, and just as the players deserve all the credit, Ainge and Stevens deserve to be recognized for their involvement.
