Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. David Butler II-Imagn Images

Brad Stevens has no reason to take a college job, no matter the blue blood

By Daniel Morrison | Last updated Mar 25, 2026 12:25 PM ET

It's a special time of year for college basketball. March Madness is in full swing, the coaching carousel is kicking off and everyone is wondering if their team could hire Brad Stevens as its next head coach.

Spoiler alert, your college team can't. Not even if you root for the bluest blue blood.

In the wake of the Hubert Davis firing, Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported that the North Carolina Tar Heels would be including Brad Stevens on their list of potential candidates to replace Davis. That report was posted at 9:03 p.m. EST on March 24. By 8:20 a.m. EST on March 25, Norlander was able to report Stevens had already turned down the Tar Heels.

North Carolina is far from the only team this has happened to. It's becoming tradition at Indiana to wonder if Stevens would leave the Boston Celtics to coach the Hoosiers. So, it's pretty clear at this point that there isn't a blue blood in college basketball that's going to get him to jump from the NBA back down to school.

Brad Stevens would be taking a demotion to coach college

Every fan thinks their team is special, like every parent thinks their child is special. That's particularly true for a blue blood like North Carolina. Except, compared to where Brad Stevens currently sits in the basketball world, almost everything would be an obvious demotion.

Stevens is the president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics. It's a role he's won an NBA Championship in and NBA Executive of the Year in, earing the job after he had previously left Butler to become the Celtics head coach.

Any job leading an NBA front office is simply more prestigious than a college coaching job, regardless of the program. In particular, the Celtics' job, where Stevens leads the franchise with the most NBA championships. Even within the NBA, only a handful of jobs are on the same level. Just how quickly Stevens shoots down a job like North Carolina is proof enough that he thinks so, too.

That's also before even considering the chaos college athletics currently find itself in. With NIL, revenue sharing, the transfer portal, potential legislation from Congress and other legal battles ahead, there's an inherent lack of stability at that level of sports. That's before considering other challenges unique to college sports, like academics and recruiting.

There are those who would advocate for kicking the tires anyway. Just "make him say no." But it's a waste of time, and it gets fan expectations up for nothing more than someone quickly saying they're not interested. Eventually, North Carolina will find a hire that looks excellent on paper, but in the meantime, there's no sense wasting time on someone who wouldn't take the job unless the Celtics fired him first. Given the success he's had in Boston, that isn't happening any time soon.

Daniel Morrison

Dan Morrison is a writer originally from Massachusetts, now residing in Florida. He spent four years at On3, working on the National News Desk there. Prior to that, he’s also contributed at Underdog Dynasty.

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