The oldest and newest members of the Boston pro coaching fraternity see lessons that can be taken from Celtics coach Brad Stevens guiding his team on an improbable playoff run.
“Coach Stevens is incredible,” Belichick told Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal. “He always points out that the players are the ones who, regardless of the situation, have made this a special team, defying all expectations and adversity game after game after game. But he clearly is a driving force behind it. Coach Stevens is a phenomenal person, leader, teacher and strategist, and the job he does is a model for all coaches.”
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Stevens, who just completed his fifth season as Celtics coach, has visited Patriots training camp and has talked about feeling "inadequate" as a coach compared to Belichick's resume that includes five Super Bowl championships as New England's coach.
Cora sees parallels between managing his young Red Sox players and Stevens handling his own young roster and how important it is to "keep teaching the game" no matter how much success the teams are having.
"I think everybody gave up on them after Opening Night when [Gordon] Hayward goes down and people just wrote them off. And then when Kyrie [Irving] went down, that was it," Cora told WEEI's Rob Bradford. "And you know just listen to Brad and listen to players, the learning process, it seems like on a daily basis, regardless of the results throughout the season and through the playoffs. They keep teaching the game. Something that we do feel we have to do here.
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"...That was something we were talking about the other day, like on a daily basis, regardless of how good these players are, you got to teach them. It’s not only on the field stuff, it’s about preparation. What to look on video. What to look in the numbers. Structure as far as preparation. That’s something Brad did throughout the season. The future is bright. I was watching and just thinking about what can happen next year. It was fun to watch. And at the same time, when everything was over, kind of like, it hit me, it’s like, oh, it’s just us now. I guess the season starts today."
