When the Indiana Hoosiers were looking for a new basketball coach, one of the coaches that they were targeting from the get-go was Brad Stevens.
Despite the rumors, the Boston Celtics' coach remained steadfast that he was going to stay with the team, and eventually, Indiana moved onto another coaching candidate, Mike Woodson.
However, it wasn't for lack of trying to get Stevens. Before the Celtics' Saturday night game against the Golden State Warriors, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Indiana was prepared to make Stevens a seven-year, $70 million Godfather offer to join their coaching staff.
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Before Boston's game against the Chicago Bulls, Stevens took some time to discuss the reported offer and revealed he hadn't known about it.
"I was never offered a package so that's all news to me," Stevens said to reporters.
But what Stevens did say was that the terms of the offer didn't matter. He truly wanted to stay in Boston to continue to coach the Celtics.
"I wasn't going to leave anyways," Stevens said. "And the reason being is this place, regardless of whether it's a pro organization or a college, has been so good to our family, so good to me, and we owe them -- especially in the middle of, at the time, a very trying season that is right in the middle of a pandemic -- we owe them to stay the course."
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Stevens certainly could've taken any offer from Indiana at that price and few would've batted an eye, especially amid the Celtics' early-season struggles. That said, the fact that he stuck around is indicative of how invested he is in this team.
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Beyond that, Stevens seems to appreciate that he continues to have an opportunity to coach in the NBA, and spoke of how fleeting NBA careers can be.
"I don't know how long I'm gonna coach. I don't know how long I'm gonna coach in the NBA. I don't how long they'll want me to coach in the NBA. I don't know what I'll do after that. Maybe I'll figure out something new," Stevens said.
"But right now, I'm thrilled to be the Celtics head coach. And it is a great challenge and great responsibility. So, I try to minimize all the distractions around that, but I was never offered that, so I don't know where that came from."
This year has been challenging for the C's, but they appear to be turning the corner at the right time. They've won six games in a row and are in a back-and-forth battle with the Atlanta Hawks for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference as the playoffs draw nearer.
We'll soon see how far the C's can get in the playoffs this year, but expect Brad Stevens to be around for them. And, perhaps, for a while after, too.