Stevens feels ‘special vibe’
Enjoys another visit with Sox’ Cora
FORT MYERS — There might come a time when the Boston sports teams are less cordial, when the fight for fans’ attention is too fierce and perhaps one or two of the teams actually have losing records.
Until then, buddy up. For the second straight year, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was invited to Red Sox spring training during the NBA All-Star break and watched the team practice alongside manager Alex Cora.
Cora was quick to generate a theory on why Kyrie Irving has played in just five of the Celtics’ past 11 games.
Stevens is “great,” Cora said. “I think he mentioned that Chuck Daly used to say, ‘All you have to do is land the plane. There are going to be ups and downs, but just make sure you land the plane and go.’
“They’ve been playing better. When we went there for the championship thing, they were playing OK offensively. Lately it’s been OK. With them, it’s just be healthy. I think sometimes I do feel they’re doing the same things we did last year as far as Kyrie. I might be wrong, but from the outside, it seems like they’re taking care of him so when the playoffs come, he’s ready to roll. Hopefully there are a few games we can go watch, some cool games, and we have a Finals and they can do the same things the Patriots and we did.”
It’s like last September, Cora said, when the Red Sox rested Chris Sale so he’d be healthy for the postseason, though that didn’t exactly work out as the ace struggled in October. Or last April, when Mookie Betts was on the bench to rest the sixth game of the season.
Cora has been watching Stevens, whose mother lives in southwest Florida, and noticed similarities in his coaching style. They both admit they learn from each other.
“I think you get so much more out of talking to people who are in the same line of work but a different spot because I think you’re all dealing with the same things on a day-to-day basis,” Stevens said. “The challenges of team, the challenge of being the best that you can be … these guys are amazing at it. You could sense it last year when we were here that it was just a unique feel and had a special vibe about it, and it feels the same this year.”
It was quite the scene on the Red Sox practice field, with Tony La Russa (six pennants, three World Series titles) and Cora (two World Series titles in two seasons as a coach) standing on both sides of Stevens.
Cora, 43, is a year older than Stevens, but both are among the youngest coaches in the four major sports.
“I don’t look at it as young/ old whatever,” Stevens said. “I could sit and listen to Alex Cora give a thesis on coaching and Tony La Russa (74) give a thesis on coaching from two different generations all day long.
“It’s special to get a chance to pick the brains of all of them, and it’s one of the great benefits, I guess, of being the Celtics coach is you can get a chance to meet those people and learn a great deal from them. I just try to, whether it’s those guys or (Bill) Belichick, or whoever, we’re really blessed to have a lot of people to pick the minds of in Boston.”
Last time Stevens was in Red Sox camp, Cora was a brand new manager who was about to make his firstever speech to his team. Cora asked Stevens to say a few words, and eight months later, the Red Sox were world champs.
Though spring training officially opened Sunday, Cora won’t address the 2019 Sox until Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Celtics are 37-21, on pace for fewer than their 55 wins last season, but they’ve won 12-of-15, and Cora said he’s noticed something about the way Stevens is handling it.
“Looks like he’s on an eight-game losing streak in our town,” Cora said. “Expectations are high. I think that’s something I learned in the offseason just following the Patriots and the Celtics. Just how the media handles the whole thing, and how (the coaches) handle the media.
“I’m still learning. I’ve only been here one year, and there weren’t too many downs for us. It’s not that I’m expecting a lot of them, but when it comes, I know how the city and media reacts to it. It’s a good learning experience.
“Brad is younger than I am by a year. Just to see what he’s done through the years, rebuilding and now with the expectations, there’s no up and downs with him. It’s very consistent.”