Indiana Coaching Search: Brad Stevens Is A Popular Choice, But Is It Realistic?

Many fans want Brad Stevens to become Indiana’s next basketball coach, but he wasn’t interested before. What would make him interested now?

Boston Celtics general manager Brad Stevens talks to reporters during media day at Auerbach Center. / David Butler II-Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – With Indiana men’s basketball on a coaching search, one of the candidates often mentioned by fans is former Butler head coach and current Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens.

Stevens has been at the top of the list for many fans for years. When the Indiana job last opened up in 2021, Indiana reportedly made Stevens a very lucrative offer to leave Boston and come back to his home state.

“I said it the other day: I’m not (going to Indiana). And I tried to say it as clearly as I could and also make sure that people understand that that place, to me, (is) special,” Stevens said in a press conference while coaching the Celtics in 2021.

“I love coming to work every day. I love this area. People have been great to us. My family is so happy,” Stevens added.

Stevens has been consistent in saying he is happy in Boston – and that was before he left the coaching sideline and became the president of basketball operations. What makes 2025 any different from 2021?

What Makes Stevens An Attractive Choice

Certainly, one can understand why Stevens is enticing to casual fans who may not have followed Stevens’ career with the Celtics.

A Zionsville, Ind., native, a DePauw player from 1995-1999, and associated with Butler as an assistant and head coach from 2001-13, Stevens has the in-state chops many Indiana fans like.

He took an established winner at Butler to the next level, coaching the then-Horizon League team to the Final Four in 2010 and 2011. The Bulldogs lost the national championship game in those seasons, but leading then-mid-major Butler so far was a monumental achievement. Indiana fans are no doubt attracted to his Final Four success.

He left to become the Celtics head coach in 2013 and had that post for nine seasons. He compiled a 354-282 record. As an executive, he was part of the team that helped the Celtics earn the NBA championship in 2024.

Also attractive to Indiana fans is Stevens’ “Butler Way” manner of coaching. He’s a big believer in statistical analysis, but he has a way of communicating it to players that makes sense. Rather than explaining it in conceptual terms, he boils it down to needing x-amount of defensive stops per game to get better.

Stevens’ teams were fundamentally sound, another reason Hoosiers fans are attracted to him.

Why Stevens Wouldn’t Come To Indiana

For one thing, Stevens himself has said on several occasions that he’s happy in the pros. Now he’s an executive in charge of building a team rather than coaching it. That’s appealing to Stevens.

Another is how much college basketball has changed since Stevens coached at Butler. Being a head coach in college basketball is more demanding than ever. Stevens never had to worry about NIL or the transfer portal when he coached in college before.

Recruiting was arduous enough when it was just a matter of wooing high school prospects. Now recruiting requires a coach to recruit on three fronts: high school, the transfer portal and your own roster.

Perhaps if Indiana created a general manager type of role, Stevens might be swayed. But Stevens voluntarily left pro coaching. It begs the question why Stevens would want to return to the bigger workload required from a college coach with less power than he has in Boston?

It would be a logistical challenge to hire Stevens even if he was interested. The Celtics won’t end their season until May at the earliest. It would be unlike Stevens to walk away in the middle of the NBA season, which he’d almost certainly have to do if he took the Indiana job. With the portal being part of the dynamic, Indiana can’t wait much past mid-March to hire Mike Woodson’s replacement.

Is It Realistic To Expect Stevens To Become Indiana’s Next Head Coach?

Stevens will remain forever a popular man to be mentioned when any Indiana-based job opens up. He’s been successful at every stop so it stands to reason. At this point, his career suggests he could be just as viable to run the Indiana Pacers as he would be the Indiana Hoosiers.

Money could be a motivation to come to Indiana depending on how much the school would make it worth Stevens’ while. Ownership change is coming to the Celtics, but is that enough of a reason to turn Stevens’ head from his current job?

Given how happy Stevens says he is in Boston, the different kind of workload he has now versus what he’d have as a head coach at Indiana, and how much the college basketball landscape has changed, it seems remote that Stevens would take any college job – Indiana included. 

That’s to say nothing of the fact that the Celtics could repeat as NBA champions, and Stevens is building a NBA legacy that is outshining his collegiate record.

If you are skeptical, take the word of Stevens himself. Not much has changed from when he said this in 2021 to the present that would shake one’s belief that he’d drop what he’s accomplished in Boston to head to Bloomington.

“People can hopefully appreciate that (the state of Indiana) still means a lot to me and I hope whoever (they) hire and they are there for 20 years and kids feel like I did. But I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a 44-year-old Masshole,” Stevens said.

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