https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2017/06/14/brad-stevens-even-checked-with-markelle-fultz-high-school-counselor/x1ZIfYNWozwf0cSBhr3mhL/story.html
Attached is an even more in depth interview with her in today's Boston Globe.
Not able to read it can you post the full article please
TP for the efforts
Here you go:
Markelle Fultz, the top prospect in next week’s NBA draft, has had every aspect of his game analyzed by the league’s top decision-makers for several years. But before making a substantial investment in a prospect, teams will often comb through information that is unrelated to basketball, too.
And that is why Joan Phalen, the assistant director of academic support at Fultz’s alma mater, DeMatha Catholic High School, recently received a surprising phone call from the head coach of the Boston Celtics.
“I had a wonderful conversation with Brad Stevens,” said Phalen, who worked with Fultz almost daily during his time at the private high school in Hyattsville, Md. “He was so interested in how Markelle learns, and I just thought that was an amazing concept for a coach to be interested in and concerned about. We had a great conversation.”
Phalen said the Phoenix Suns were the only other NBA team to reach out to her about Fultz.
The Celtics, of course, hold the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and Fultz, who visited Boston last week, is widely viewed as their primary target.
“[Stevens] was interested in how [Fultz] learns,” Phalen said. “How he handles disappointment when he confronts weakness in some part of his development, specifically in academics. We talked about his personality.”
Phalen said she told Stevens that Fultz, who graduated from DeMatha in 2016, displayed an unusual dedication to learning. Fultz would often ask her to meet with him at 6 a.m. on school days — nearly two hours before class started — and also on weekends.
“It is unbelievably rare,” Phalen said. “Often people would say to me, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And I’d say, ‘Listen, when a student shows that much interest in getting better and becoming an academic achiever, if I ever say no to that, that’s ridiculous.’ ”
Stevens studies the game closely and is known as a brilliant basketball tactician, but he is also an avid consumer of books and speeches about qualities like growth and leadership and grit.
Phalen said she and Stevens made a connection based on the work of Carol Dweck, a psychologist and author who focuses on the “growth mind-set,” or the idea that the brain’s capacity to learn and solve problems can continue to grow.
“We base a lot of what we do in academic support at DeMatha off of her,” Phalen said.
Phalen appreciated Stevens’s phone call because it showed a true interest in Fultz beyond basketball, and she also appreciated it because she is a Celtics fan.
She grew up in Norwood, and her entire family still lives in the Boston area, including her five siblings and her 92-year-old mother, Veronica, who is perhaps the biggest Celtics supporter of all of them.
Phalen said Fultz and the other athletes at DeMatha used to joke with her about cheering for Boston. But the possibility that one of the school’s brightest stars might become a Celtic has shifted the narrative.
“It’s so funny now, because it’s gone completely 180 degrees like, ‘Ms. Phalen, the Celtics,’ ” she said. “And I laugh and say, ‘Yeah, I know.’ ”
But Phalen said she generally does not talk to her family about her students, and she has yet to tell them that she even knows Fultz.
“And they’re all Celtics fans,” she said with a chuckle. “They have no idea.”
She said “her fingers and toes are crossed” that the Celtics will select Fultz, and that she would be so thrilled to introduce her family to him in Boston. She said Stevens did not tell her whether or not the Celtics would draft him, but the simple phone call from the coach resonated with her.
“It was so nice,” she said. “He just seemed like a wonderful mentor and teacher.”