NEW YORK — Brad Stevens was in a difficult position in a brief pregame session with the media last night, but the Celtics coach honored the memory of former Butler star Andrew Smith by staying strong and making it through.
The only topic was Smith, who lost his two-year fight with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma yesterday. He was 25.
“The last week’s been tough,” Stevens said through a quiet, breaking voice, his eyes reddened. “You know, I was happy that I got a chance to say goodbye. And this is really about when you coach somebody, I mean, you get a lot more out of coaching them than they do from you, so .