Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

How Brad Steven Saved Jeff Teague’s Career When He Was In High School

In this year’s off-season, Jeff Teague signed with the Boston Celtics. The one-time All-Star will have an important back-up point guard role with the Celtics, that hope to make some noise in the Eastern Conference.

In Boston he reunited with an old acquaintance – not among his teammates, but his head coach, Brad Stevens, whom he knows from his high school days.

And it turns out that Stevens might have saved Teague’s career while the point guard was still in high school.

Per NBC Sport’s Chris Forsberg:

I knew Brad since high school, he actually changed my whole life, basically,” Teague said. “Because I had a path that I wasn’t really focused on school as much. I played basketball, obviously, but school wasn’t my favorite thing to do. So he pulled me into a room at Butler as a sophomore in front of my dad and he basically showed him my grades. I had been hiding report cards for some years. And basically just told me, ‘If you want the opportunity to play college basketball, you have to bring your grades up.’ And my dad not seeing my grades for a couple of years, he was pretty mad about that.”