Brad Stevens is the brain behind Boston’s brilliance

At 12:19 a.m. Tuesday morning, two hours, 18 minutes, after the championship had been sealed, Brad Stevens approached NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House on the parquet floor.

He sported a backward white hat, an NBA champion black t-shirt and a massive grin. We’ve seen Dad Brad, Mad Brad and Glad Brad, but we’ve never seen Frat Brad.

Scalabrine joked with Stevens that anyone would have made the Jrue Holiday trade. He lightheartedly made fun of Stevens for doing a great job, and Stevens took it in stride.

“I’m a genius, Scal,” Stevens deadpanned, before going back into giddy mode. Then a pause. “That might be the dumbest thing ever said.”

House insisted that Stevens is, in fact, a genius. Stevens said he appreciated it, but it was easy to see he thought he was getting way too much credit.

“When I say I didn’t do anything, I didn’t do anything,” Stevens said. “I sat and watched and ate popcorn in the suite for like 100 games.”

There’s a fine line there. The players, of course, deserve the most credit. Then the coaches. Yes, you the fans, deserve credit for making Boston truly different than other NBA cities. But let’s not forget Stevens (and yes, Danny Ainge, too) in all of this – even though he’ll repeatedly insist we should.

He may not be a genius, but he’s a pretty darn good President of Basketball Operations. Yes, he was a heck of a coach, but he’s even more shrewd as an executive. Stevens has the right temperament to lead. He knows how to balance taking risks with staying patient. He’s pressed the right button every single time. Legitimately every time.

Saying farewell to Marcus Smart couldn’t have been easy. That man gave everything he had to the franchise. Same goes for Robert Williams, Grant Williams and Malcolm Brogdon. At the time, those moves felt bittersweet. Now, while they’re certainly missed spiritually, the deals feel like no-brainers practically.

It’s hard to imagine a better fit alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown than Jrue Holiday. His calm demeanor, poise in the clutch and versatility are exactly what this team needed. It’s not a coincidence that both the Bucks and Celtics won as soon as he arrived. He makes everyone around him better.

Like Stevens alluded to, acquiring Holiday wasn’t exactly a risk, but acquiring Kristaps Porzingis was. The talent was always there. That much was clear. But the health and career winning percentage were legitimate concerns. We can all agree that Porzingis was infinitely more cheerful and upbeat than we initially realized.

It’s easy to tell how much he loves being in Boston, and the city quickly embraced him knowing he was going to do everything he could to play whenever there was doubt. Porzingis showed his true colors in Game 1 and gutted it out in Game 5. Credit to Stevens for trusting not only the player, but also the man.

Yes, Stevens deserves credit for the Derrick White and Al Horford trades, too. Again, they seem obvious now, but they weren’t then. Did Horford have anything left in the tank? White is good, but how good? Was it worth giving up Romeo Langford? In hindsight, those questions seem laugh-out-loud funny, but in the moment, they were legitimate concerns. Talent matters in the NBA, but fit matters way more. These guys fit.

We can’t forget Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser. Stevens trusted that each player would improve. He could have included them in a deal, but he opted to let them work on their craft and get better. Both stepped up in a major way – Hauser with his consistency, and Pritchard with his thunder bolts – in the Finals. Again, the players make the plays, but Stevens gave them the green light.

Last, but certainly not least, Brown and Tatum. Foolish folks wanted to break them up, but Stevens never came close. He knew, deep down, that they could win it together.

“I think the criticism’s stupid,” Stevens told Rachel Nichols. “So, I don’t care. I’m with Jaylen on that. Those two had achieved more than most 25 and 26 year olds ever had. The only reason they received scrutiny is because they were playing in late May and June. And you know, as a good friend of mine said, ‘I’d rather be in the mix and have my guts ripped out than suck.’ Those two guys have been really good a long time.”

That’s a great outlook – not just in basketball, but in life. It’s better to come so close to something so many times than to never come close to it at all. Who knows…one day you just might achieve it.

Stevens gave the Celtics a chance to do just that, and they seized the opportunity.