Celtics have subdued reaction to election result

Coach Brad Stevens and his team were in Washington when they heard the election results. They play the Wizards Wednesday night.Getty file

WASHINGTON — It is generally Brad Stevens’s way to avoid potentially controversial topics. But when the Celtics coach was asked Wednesday about the results of the presidential election, he offered a response that was at once subdued and loud.

“The advice that I’ve always been given is don’t talk about politics and religion,” Stevens said. “And those are hard not to talk about right now. It wasn’t my vote. Let’s put it that way.”

The Celtics spent Tuesday afternoon touring the newly opened Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture here. Then on Tuesday night, they watched the presidential election unfold along with everyone else.

Point guard Isaiah Thomas wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday that he hoped Donald Trump would not win. Then on Wednesday he woke up in the nation’s capital to the news that he had.

“It was a rough night,” Thomas said. “Hopefully he’s good. That’s all I’m going to say.”

During the preseason and at the start of the regular season, the Celtics locked arms and bowed their heads during the playing of the national anthem as a sign of unity in protest of police brutality. Stevens said then that the issue had sparked deep, meaningful discussions among his players.

He said this election cycle had been a topic of conversation among the team, too, but no more than it was anywhere else in the country. Now, he said, the Celtics will look to shift their focus back to basketball, back to Wednesday night’s game against the Wizards.

“I think you have to be able to compartmentalize,” Stevens said. “We talked about that this morning, and that’s a hard thing. Everybody is — because it’s such a passionate topic right now, every team’s going to be feeling that this morning. It’s not going to be one team and not another.”