On this day in Boston Celtics history, current Boston Celtics team president Brad Stevens was born in Zionsville, Indiana in 1976. Stevens played collegiately for DePauw University while earning a degree in economics, earning Academic All-America honors three times and the All-Conference team as many times as well.
Stevens spent some time working as a pharmacy representative after college, then moved into coaching as a volunteer assistant with the Butler University men’s basketball program. It got him the job as a full-time assistant coach the next season, and he would be promoted to head coach of the Bulldogs in 2007.
Stevens quickly garnered national attention for the work he was doing at Butler, breaking the NCAA record for wins by a coach in their first three seasons while making the NCAA title game two seasons running in 2010 and 2011.
That got the Celtics’ attention, who hired him away in 2013, where he took his team to the cusp of the NBA Finals three out of four seasons before hitting some turbulence generated by the exit of Kyrie Irving and Al Horford in free agency and the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the end of the 2020-21 NBA season, Stevens made the leap from head coach to team president shaking up the roster almost from the moment he got the job. He continues to hold that position up to the present.
It is also the date of the trade that made current Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks a Celtic in a strictly technical sense and reunited former Kentucky forward Walter McCarty with head coach and then-team president Rick Pitino.
In 1997 on this date, Boston dealt forward Chris Mills and draft assets for Brooks (a guard) and forwards Dontae’ Jones, Walter McCarty, and John Thomas.
You’ll note we said Brooks was a Celtic in a technical sense, and that is because the future NBA coach never actually suited up for Boston.
He would be waived five days later and would move on to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, his last stop in the league as a player.
Today is also the date of Celtics legend Sam Jones, who played his first game for Boston in a 115-90 blowout of the (then) St. Louis Hawks (now, Atlanta) in 1957.
The iconic Celtics guard had a very modest debut, grabbing just 1 rebound in 3 minutes of play.
Boston legend Tom “Satch” Sanders made his debut exactly three years later in 1960 in a 118-116 win over the Detroit Pistons.
The NYU product also had a conservative inaugural performance, pulling down 4 boards.
It was on this day that Robert Williams III debuted for the Celtics as well, in a 93-90 loss to the Orlando Magic in 2018.
The Louisiana native played just over three minutes of game time, registering no counting stats of note for what was not an especially representative game compared to his later career.
Shooting guard Carlos Clark was cut on this day in 1985 after playing in 93 games over two seasons for the Celtics, drafted by Boston out of Ole Miss in 1982.
The Tennessee native logged 2.4 points per game with the team, his sole stop in the NBA.
Now all those Celtics fans of yore can get out their Dick Murphy jerseys: http://bit.ly/e0C4Rq
— Taco Trey Kerby (@treykerby) March 1, 2011
It is also the date that former Boston guard Dick Murphy passed away in 1973. The New York native played 7 games for the Celtics in their first season of existence in 1946-47.
An alumnus of Manhattan College, Murphy recorded 0.3 points and 0.4 assists per game over that stretch.
Finally, it is also the day that Ed Mikan left us in 1999. The DePaul alum was born in Joliet, Indiana in 1925, and was the brother of Los Angeles Lakers legend George Mikan.
Drafted by the now-defunct Chicago Stags in 1948, Mikan would play for that team, the then-Rochester Royals (now, Sacramento Kings), the also-defunct Washington Capitols, the then-Philadelphia (now, Golden State) Warriors, and also-defunct Indianapolis Olympians before joining Boston to finish his career.
Mikan played just 9 games for the Celtics in 1953-54, retiring from the game at age 28 after logging 2.3 points and 2.2 boards per game with the Celtics.
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