Brad Stevens: Tom Brady Talked To Kevin Durant ‘About How Much [Brady’s] Family Enjoys Boston’

The news rocked the Twitterverse: Tom Brady is in the room with Kevin Durant, trying to persuade the 2014 MVP to join the Boston Celtics. Oh wow, thought numerous NBA fans, it’s over.

Yet, when the smoke cleared, Brady and Co. were unable to lure the highly coveted free agent. Now, Brad Stevens has revealed the content of the Brady pitch in a podcast with The Ringer‘s Bill Simmons.

Per The Ringer:

Stevens: So, I didn’t even know that [Tom Brady] was going for sure until that morning. … The players and I flew together from Atlanta, because we had met with Al [Horford] the evening before. [Brady and Celtics representatives] quickly went out to eat lunch before the meeting, and you know, I think [he is] a great example of a guy that is obviously an incredibly high achiever, has won at the highest level, is totally committed to being the greatest that he can be, and loves being a part of Boston sports. He loves living in Boston, talked about how much his family enjoys Boston … about raising his kids here — you know everything else. He really came across as just a normal guy, and I was really impressed with him. It was the first time I had really spent any time with him. I had been to a practice of theirs before where I got a chance to meet him briefly, but he was great and people respect not only the fact that he’s accomplished all that he’s accomplished, but he’s just a really down-to-earth person.

 

I felt very good about how we presented ourselves [in the team’s pitch to Durant]. Having been through 13 years of recruiting prior to coming to Boston, I felt like that we went in there, and I think that we focused on the right things to focus on and put our best foot forward, and I felt really good that we had left no stone unturned, so that was that.

Jae Crowder was also at the pitch meeting and called Durant’s decision to choose the Warriors over the Celtics a “slap in the face.”