Suns GM Ryan McDonough talks about recruiting Brad Stevens to Phoenix

In the Spring of 2013 the Phoenix Suns had put the finishing touches on a 25-57 campaign cobbled together by head coach Alvin Gentry, who was fired after 41 games, and interim coach Lindsey Hunter who helped the squad limp across the finish line in the second half of the season.

On The Vertical Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski this week, Suns GM Ryan McDonough details efforts the team made to recruit the now Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, then coaching at Butler University.

"We thought we had a chance, and Brad and I did not know each other that well going into the process. We had a number of conversations over the phone from the time I arrived in Phoenix to when I was in Chicago in May for the predraft camp. Then actually the weekend after the Chicago predraft camp, the combine, it was close enough where Robert Sarver, our owner, flew in from Phoenix. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife Valerie, she was living in Louisville, Kentucky so I was down visiting her for the weekend. I drove up and the three of us met at Brad's house in Carmel, Indiana with his wife Tracy there as well. So we were at his kitchen table, we were meeting with him about potentially coaching the Suns, ultimately he decided at that time to stay at Butler, and then a month or two later he chose to go to the Celtics. As far as how close it was or how his decision making process was, you'd have to ask him about that, but we were sitting around his kitchen table discussing him potentially coaching the Suns in May of 2013."

.@Suns GM Ryan McDonough joins @TheVertical Pod w/ Woj to talk draft, trying to hire Brad Stevens in 2013 and more. https://t.co/V5aF5x3ZQR

— The Vertical (@TheVertical) June 28, 2016

Who knows what could have been. Maybe Markieff Morris would still be in a Suns uniform and would be the NBA's model citizen. Maybe not. McDonough talks about the pursuit of Stevens at the 25:39 mark.