Barstool Sports Crashes Brad Stevens' Conference Call, Hilarity Ensues
BOSTON (CBS) -- Through all of their exciting comebacks and buzzer-beater wins, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens always remains calm, cool and collected.
The stone-faced non-reactions and serene demeanor are Stevens staples. He never gets too high or too low, no matter the situation.
That holds true on his conference calls as well. Stevens had a chat with the media on Friday, ahead of Saturday night's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final in Cleveland, and didn't miss a beat when a few interesting (read: absurd) questions came his way.
Barstool Sports' Big Cat and PFT Commenter crashed Stevens' conference call on Friday, and hilarity ensued. First, Big Cat asked Stevens if, despite being up 2-0 on the Cavaliers, he felt like he was coaching for his job. Stevens, true to his form, showed no hesitation and answered the inquiry.
"I don't really ever think about it. This is one of those things, when you're in coaching, you get into coaching understanding that it's probably not going to end well," said Stevens. "There is only so much you can control; you just try to enjoy being around the players you're with, the coaches you're with, the front office you'r with and everyone else, the ownership. You just try to enjoy the experience and have as good of an experience as you can have. When it comes to an end it comes to an end."
It's a truly insane question to ask a man who sits two wins away from the NBA Finals despite losing a pair of all-star players during the season, but it was all in good fun. And Stevens didn't seem to mind playing along. He did have to draw the line when the other half of Barstool's Pardon My Take podcast asked about Boston being interested in free-agent-to-be LeBron James.
"Hey Brad, it's PFT Commenter from DraftJoshAllen.net, can you tell us if you have any interest in signing LeBron James this summer?" he asked.
"I can't answer that," Stevens said swiftly.
After a lengthy pause, PFT Commenter snuck in a follow-up "please" before the C's PR crew ended the conference call.
In all, it made the usually snooze-inducing conference call rather entertaining.
Of course, not everyone in the Boston media wasn't too enthused with the antics, thought they did lighten up a bit when after learning who posed those questions.
Stevens call ends abruptly with a ill-suited and completely out of line question about whether he would be interested in LeBron James as a potential free agent this summer. It's COMPLETELY against NBA rules to comment on players currently under contract with another team.
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) May 18, 2018
I. GOT. PLAYED. Well done sir. https://t.co/jzv15S4nNm
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) May 18, 2018
Apparently this was Barstool. I thought it was the owner of some boutique website starving for attention.
— Marc D'Amico (@Marc_DAmico) May 18, 2018
Those silly guys at Barstool are always up to something.