On Monday, the University of North Carolina hired former Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone as its new men's basketball coach.

However, before that, there were rumors that UNC was interested in Boston Celtics executive Brad Stevens for the position. Of course, there's nothing wrong with UNC shooting high, but Stevens has shown no interest in returning to the sidelines - especially in college.

When asked about being linked to these opportunities on Tuesday, Stevens said the following:

"It's always flattering ... I'm not motivated to do anything but what I'm doing is the bottom line. And I'm really happy with the people we're around and everything else ... I don't really have any other motivation than being around people that I wanna be around."

The 49-year-old Indiana native spent six seasons coaching at Butler University. Through those six seasons, he went a whopping 166-49, making the NCAA Tournament five times. He won the Horizon League four times and made trips to back-to-back Final Fours. His 2009-10 team advanced to the national title game, falling just short against Duke.

After leaving Butler, Stevens spent eight years as the head coach of the Celtics, also maintaining solid success. He went 354-282 (.557), finishing over .500 in six of the eight seasons. He was 36-36 in 2020-21 when the season was only 72 games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He made the playoffs in seven of the eight years in Boston, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals three times. He also helped the Celtics play through the Isaiah Thomas era, the Kyrie Irving era, the Gordon Hayward era, the early Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum era, and the Kemba Walker era.

Following the 2020-21 season, Stevens transitioned to an executive role in the front office. The team hired Ime Udoka, who took them to the NBA Finals, and then brought in Joe Mazzulla after Udoka was let go for non-basketball reasons. The C's won the title in Mazzulla's second year at the helm, beating Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

This season, the Celtics enter play at 53-25 on Tuesday. They'll play the Charlotte Hornets as they look to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

It's been an incredible season for the C's, who have dealt with injury issues and an offseason reset that included trades of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holliday.

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