Andrew Smith lost his battle with cancer Tuesday, but the former Butler basketball player clearly left his mark on this world.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who coached Smith at Butler, was visibly distraught while speaking with reporters Tuesday night prior to Boston’s game against the New York Knicks.
“I was happy that I got a chance to say goodbye,” Stevens told reporters, as seen on Comcast SportsNet New England. “And this is really about when you coach somebody, I mean you get a lot more out of coaching them than they do from you. So that’s that.
“I mean, I don’t know, I could go on and on and it wouldn’t do him justice, so. He was special, he was tough. He set a great example.”
Stevens visibly struggled to keep his composure while talking about Smith, as his voice cracked and trailed off several times while he answered questions. Asked what made Smith so special and so tough, Stevens explained the impact went beyond the basketball court.
“Those two years, right, he got tough as a player, he was a really good player. Found a niche and became one of the more high-achieving guys that I got to coach from where he started,” Stevens explained. “But the last two years, he’s been through a lot, and he just never gave in.”
Stevens said he’d get back to Indiana to attend services for Smith and pay his respects, and was sure to say how appreciative he was to the Celtics organization for letting him visit his former player last week, too.
Basketball on Tuesday night, however, was nothing more than a distraction.
“I don’t know (if it’s good to have the game Tuesday),” Stevens admitted. “I mean, I think at the end of the day I’m going to go out and I’m going to do my job and do it as well as I can.”
That’s probably all Andrew would have asked for, too.
Thumbnail photo via Justin Ford/USA TODAY Sports Images
