Brad Stevens

I'm not a late-night guy.

I think the first assumption as a coach can't be that we just have to run harder or do it tougher. You have to understand that everybody is a human being and you have to understand that everybody has things that they're dealing with.

If we can do something to help show people that it's not only OK - we encourage asking for help, because we take care of everybody's physical needs all over the place, we should all be on top of all of our mental needs and wellness needs.

When you work in the pharmaceutical industry you realize that there's a lot out of people's control, and there's ways that people can be helped.

We want to be as routine-oriented as we can, but it's just not always feasible.

As far as routine goes, one of the things we talk about all the time is that if you have a routine that's great. But you can't be like married to it because the bus could break down on the way to the arena, you could get stuck in traffic, you may be sick that day and you may feel better by game time.

At the end of the day, you do this job because you really like working with your team and like the chance to compete as an organization.

If somebody gives you accolades, that's nice to hear but it's not the end-all, be-all for me.

In an ideal world, we all walk out our door and we all feel the same way about going out to run an errand, going for a jog, whatever the case may be. That shouldn't be a stressful thing.

Jaylen's a high achiever. You can be a high achiever in every which way. He's a guy that - we've talked about several times - is gonna do bigger things off the court than on it, and he's a special player on it.

As I've grown older, I appreciate what I had at Lilly even more than I did back then.

The difference between mediocre, good and great is you're able to have the enthusiasm for prep, to work to prepare to win the same in January that you do in August, when everybody says they're excited.

One of my biggest regrets in coaching was my eighth or ninth game of my career. I was wound up about a conference game in December - I was wound up tight, and we ended up playing really tight. Our players were bickering with the officials, I was bickering... and then all of a sudden we lose.

My care is that we play with great effort and togetherness. That is what we're looking for. That's what we want to be.

I'm not one of these guys that can stay up until 3 in the morning and get up at 5.

I'm only interested in being better than everyone else thought you could be.

I have a pretty good idea of what makes NBA players great - especially at the different positions, and where the biggest problems lie that you have to address in defending those people.

One thing I'd like to do better personally is decompress. Obviously when things don't go your way, you'll be thinking of it all the time.

I do think in numbers. My mind works that way.

I've always been a guy that if you can shoot 3s, you need to shoot 3s. It extends the defense, especially when you've got a guy that can play an undersize 5 role.

There's an old adage of, 'This is what I do, it's not who I am.' There is a line that gets blurry at times because you sometimes become your work, or you sometimes put so much into your work that you can't separate from it. It swallows you up. It really happens during the season and it's a difficult line to manage.

I'm not a big basketball book guy.

I'm pretty bland. I'm not a big decorator.

I think that some of the best runs that I've been on as a coach have come as the result of a tough loss or a string of tough losses that galvanized us and made us figure out who we were. Then we were able to take off. You have to use them as learning experiences and move forward.

I could probably go through our losses in a lot more detail than our wins, all through my career. But you have to be able to move on to what's next, and I'm very process-oriented and next-day oriented.

I don't focus well angry.

I've always enjoyed football.

What makes Butler truly unique is the people that we have been so blessed to work with.

We truly love Butler University and Indianapolis and are very thankful to have had the opportunity to celebrate so many wonderful things together.

It's so much fun to dream in your driveway. I had an old wooden backboard in my driveway. That's where my friends and I hung out.

I always was intrigued by the N.B.A.

One of the great things about coaching is it's a different challenge every day.

One of my greatest regrets in coaching is the Butler Final Four runs, because if I would have been a seasoned coach, I think we would have won.

I can tell you right now, anybody that says I'm genius, that is the farthest thing from the truth.

There have been many a days in coaching where I've said, What was I thinking? Because it is not the easiest job in the world. But it is very fulfilling, not because of the results you achieve but because of the relationships you build.

I don't have the five positions anymore. It may be as simple as three positions now, where you're either a ball-handler, a wing or a big.

I've always found that in a team of 15 people, it's a little different than in a team of 40 or 50 people. If I name two or three people captains, inevitably you're disempowering more than you're empowering.

I try not to schedule too many meetings. That's one of the things I learned in corporate America - that you can spend your days having meetings and never actually have time to work.

If I was playing a game of Sorry or checkers with my nine-year-old, I hate losing. That's just my makeup and personality.

There's no doubt what the goal in Boston is. There is no grey, it is black and white. You're going to try to win the whole thing every single year.

I couldn't be more proud to be in the NBA, to be with the Celtics and be surrounded by the people I get to go to work with every day.

I think the NBA's amazing and I think our players are amazing.

I think the game will always be dependent on the players that are at its most elite level at that time.

I've always been a huge Oladipo fan.

Just as you get older, you gain more experiences, you see more things.

When things don't go your way, the day after you wake up and try to get better and be as good as you can be the next day.

I've been really fortunate to have coached in some moments that you can only dream about coaching in. The day after, you wake up and you try to do it again.

Keeping myself motivated is not hard.

I haven't been near perfect by any means. In fact, I've got a list of things I want to do better.

I've said this about many people, but when you were recruiting against John Beilein you knew it was a fair fight, a real fight and he was going to do it the right way. I have a lot of respect for John. He's a heck of a coach and he will do a great job in Cleveland.