Brad Stevens was absent on the Boston bench on Thursday, the first time he's missed a Celtics game since being named head coach in 2013.
Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Stevens was flying nearly a thousand miles west, making the trip to Indianapolis to spend time with an ailing former player.
Andrew Smith, who played under Stevens’ tutelage at Butler University from 2009 to 2013, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the winter of 2014. Smith was playing professional ball in Lithuania when he learned that a tumor was “taking shape inside” him, in the words of his wife, forcing the family back to the States to seek medical attention.
Now, two years later, the 25-year-old Smith still seems to be struggling -- a sentiment that Smith’s wife indicated on Twitter on Wednesday and that drew Stevens away from the hardwood and to his former player’s Indiana home.
In the three years that he was in Butler’s starting lineup, the 6-foot-11 center averaged just over 10 points and five boards a game, shooting the ball at an effective 53.8 percent clip.
And even as the updates on Smith’s health seem increasingly bleak, we should all remember that Smith has defied the odds as an underdog before -- helping a no-name Bulldogs squad to two straight national championship games, shocking the collegiate hoops world in the process.
We’d love to see another upset here.
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