Melo gives Brad Stevens credit for studying the history of the game: “There’s no team that ever won a championship who didn’t have a Batman and Robin”

brad-stevens

After Boston’s president job had been occupied for the previous 18 years, Brad Stevens took over the team, and he created a new blueprint that has the NBA world raving about his mastery.

Stevens’ genius has led even former players to catch on. Carmelo Anthony may have not had the opportunity to play under Stevens, but he can appreciate his work from afar. On a recent episode of the ‘7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Anthony gushed praise for Brad's role making Boston’s roster the best in the NBA.

“I think the credit should go to Brad Stevens,” Anthony said. “The fact that Brad Stevens studied the game, he studied the history of the game, he studied championship teams and organizations.

“You got to have Batman and Robin. You have to. There’s no team that won a championship that didn’t have a batman and robin. We should be embracing Jaylen [Brown] and [Jayson] Tatum for what they doing.”

Sitting on the bench with a clipboard in his hands, trying to coach a teenage Jayson Tatum and barely-into-his-20s Jaylen Brown, Stevens called the shots for the young Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 against LeBron James and the defending East champion Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018. Although Boston lost in gut-wrenching fashion, Stevens was lauded for his incredible achievement.

While Boston never made an NBA Finals appearance under Stevens’ coaching, the head coach was praised for doing the most he could with a bunch of young talent. Ever since he became President of Basketball Operations in 2021, his legacy has only grown.

‘Batman’ and ‘Robin’ 

When Stevens was still the coach, the vast majority considered Tatum as the better player by far. While Brown was young and ascending, Tatum was the golden boy out of Duke in 2017. His role in Boston’s 2018 playoff run earned him the label of the game’s most potent young player.

Fast forward seven years later, Brown and Tatum have become the league’s most scrutinized duo, with so many asking who the better player is. To their credit, they’ve put all the noise behind them and haven’t let it sour their relationship.

If they play their hand right, Boston has a duo that can make them a perennial title contender for the next 5, 6 — who knows — maybe 7 years. Then again, without Stevens’ leg work in the front office, the duo would’ve probably been split up a long time ago.

The Brad Stevens effect

Sure, there are plenty of great front-office decision-makers in the NBA. But the Celtics are the direct beneficiaries of the ‘Brad Stevens effect.’ As a former coach who’s led these very Celtics players through deep playoff runs, Stevens has a unique birds-eye view as the president.

He’s coached Brown and Tatum — he understands their strengths and weaknesses like the back of his hand. This perspective — that no other current president has — allows Stevens to gather the pieces that he knows for certain will work. Look at the Jrue Holiday addition: That was a masterful piece of work by Stevens. Had he not coached the two Boston superstars for multiple seasons, the Holiday trade might have never happened.

Moving forward, Stevens will use the same approach. With the majority of Boston’s core still in their NBA prime, Brad’s work will require him to retain his pieces and keep the rotational players on par with the system Boston runs.