Can Pete Buttigieg get a little credit?
The Secretary of Transportation helped assemble an NBA champion, shepherding the Boston Celtics to their record-setting 18th championship.
Oh, wait… you mean that’s not Mayor Pete? There’s another lean, youthful-looking white guy from Indiana who serves as the Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Brad Stevens, meet Pete Buttigieg. Doppelgängers unite!
He had to go from the bench to the boardroom but he built a championship team. What a legacy for a kid from Indiana. pic.twitter.com/542HPQufvp
— Norm Charlatan (@normcharlatan) June 18, 2024
The Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks Monday to complete one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history. They won 80 games and were the best team in the league from beginning to end, finally getting over the proverbial hump.
Stevens, a Hoosier State native, was there from the start.
The cerebral exec became head coach of Butler University at just 30 years old, making him the second-youngest coach in Division 1 basketball. The Bulldogs went 27-3 during his first season at the helm and qualified for the NCAA tournament, and their fortunes only increased from there. The mid-major program was a perennial powerhouse with Stevens in charge, playing in two straight national championships. With a total enrollment of only 4,500 students, Butler is the smallest school to play for a national title since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Stevens to become one of the hottest coaching prospects in basketball. The Celtics hired him in 2013 to oversee what was supposed to be a long rebuilding process, but they found success very quickly. Boston made the playoffs in Stevens’ second season on the job, and every year thereafter.
After drafting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum–who are now two of the best players in the NBA–the Celtics made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. They took LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games, despite being years ahead of schedule. For his work, Stevens was considered a coaching prodigy.
Buttigieg enjoyed a similarly quick trajectory in the world of politics. The Navy vet was elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana at 29 years old, making him the youngest incumbent mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 people. He publicly came out as gay before running for his second term, and won in a landslide.
The following year, the New York Times asked if Buttigieg was poised to become the first gay president. He decided to put that theory to the test in 2019, when he declared his presidential candidacy. And his campaign was an instant success.
Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa Caucus, and finished a close second in New Hampshire. Against all odds, his presidential ambitions seemed to be within reach.
With soaring national profiles, Stevens and Buttigieg embraced their physical and stylistic commonalities. It was difficult for many to tell the difference between the two Hoosier kids.
Adding to the confusion, Stevens joined Buttigieg for a joint virtual rally ahead of the 2020 election.
“Politics is not my specialty by any means,” Stevens said, per CBS News. “I’m excited to join Pete. The thing we have most in common is we’ve both been told on several occasions that we look alike for the last, how many years?”
Game on. pic.twitter.com/lyQtsAm7Wp
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) October 31, 2019
Game on @PeteButtigieg pic.twitter.com/POPn26frSi
— Tracy Stevens (@TracyWStevens) October 31, 2019
But success is seldom linear, as both Stevens and Buttigieg found out. Stevens was dismissed as Celtics’ head coach following the 2020-21 campaign, which ended with a disastrous playoff loss to the rival Brooklyn Nets. He was kicked upstairs to the basketball operations department, a witness protection program of sorts for coaches down on their luck.
Buttigieg, for his part, failed to replicate his early primary success. More experienced candidates targeted him at debates (especially Amy Klobuchar), and he dropped out of the race following a disappointing fourth-place finish in South Carolina.
It didn’t take long, however, for Buttigieg’s fortunes to change. He emerged as one of Joe Biden‘s most effective surrogates, appearing on Fox News and sparring with right-leaning hosts. Biden named Buttigieg his Secretary of Transportation, making him the first out gay cabinet official in U.S. history (Buttigieg won confirmation in a deeply polarized Senate with a vote of 86-13).
Meanwhile, Stevens went ahead and started building the Celtics into a champion. He added veteran reinforcements to their young core, all of whom played vital roles in their championship run. Stevens also plucked another young head coach, Joe Mazzulla, out of relative obscurity. At 35 years old, Mazzulla is the youngest head coach since Bill Russell to capture an NBA championship.
Now, Stevens is often compared to Red Auerbach, the legendary architect of 16 Celtics championship teams.
Big night for Pete Buttigieg. Gambling on bringing in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Going to bat for a controversial infrastructure bill. pic.twitter.com/jnMNsDO5Ai
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) June 18, 2024
With the Celtics’ celebrations in full swing, Stevens will earn his kudos. But the most fitting congrats will come from Mayor Pete.
We’re waiting!
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