Indiana was reportedly ready to make a serious run at Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski (who has blocked me on Twitter for some unknown reason), the Hoosiers were “prepared” to offer Stevens, who is from Indiana, a seven-year deal worth $70 million. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Yes, Indiana was apparently geared up to pay the former Butler head coach the kind of money you only see in major football.
.@wojespn says that Indiana was prepared to offer Brad Stevens a seven year, $70m contract.
Stevens wasn’t interested. @abc6 #bleedgreen
— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleABC6) April 18, 2021
If Stevens had taken the deal, he would have been the highest-paid college basketball coach by a substantial margin.
Last season, only six college coaches in the entire country made north of $4 million. Only three made more than $6 million.
So, cutting Stevens $10 million a year would have made him by far and away the highest paid coach in the sport.
Clearly, he didn’t take the job and Mike Woodson was hired instead to lead the Hoosiers into their next era of basketball.
View this post on Instagram
I would love to know why Stevens didn’t take the deal. If he wasn’t willing to coach Indiana for $10 million annually, then there’s no shot he wants to coach college basketball ever again. I don’t think that could be clearer at this point.