Tom NoieSouth Bend Tribune
Aug. 1, 2026, 4:16 p.m. ET
SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame basketball junior power forward Bryce Dortch had questions.
Really, one specific question. For one specific teammate.
It was only fitting having transferred after two seasons at Rutgers that Dortch would have questions. He wasn’t even a month into his first real look at and feel for Notre Dame, the campus, the environment, how everything in the basketball program runs day-to-day. It would leave anyone a bit baffled.
Dortch sought answers from someone who has been around the program for three seasons but has never played in a game. He wanted to speak with preferred walk-on guard Brady Stevens.
This wasn’t a Notre Dame question. This was a question about the Boston Celtics. Specifically, the July 1 blockbuster trade of perennial All-<a href="https://comicvibe.com/star-wars-visions-presents-the-ninth-jedi/” title=”Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi”>Star and 2024 NBA Finals most valuable player Jaylen Brown to the team’s biggest Eastern Conference rival, the Philadelphia 76ers.
A native of Somerville, Massachusetts, the 6-foot-9 Dortch is a Celtics fan. Fitting that he would ask Stevens, whose father, Brad, is the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, about Brown.
“I went and asked B-Steve, what are we doing?” Dortch told the Tribune during an exclusive summer conversation. “I was just chilling, but was like, ‘what’s up? Do you have any insight didn’t tell me that much.’”
Dortch didn’t expect to hear a laundry list of whys or how’s or what for’s about the trade. He just wanted to talk Celtics with someone in South Bend. He wondered how his hometown team could trade one of its best players. No, scratch that. He didn’t wonder. He knew.
“It’s a business at the end of the day,” Dortch said. “It hurts a little more because he did a little more for the city. He was very impactful in that area.
“Seeing him gone really hurts.”
Especially after Dortch sat for the first time in the office of Irish head basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry. On the west wall of that room hang framed green Celtics jerseys of Jayson Tatum (No. 0) and Brown (No. 7). Shrewsberry spent six seasons (2013-19) as a Celtics assistant. He also was in TD Garden that June 2024 night when Boston beat Dallas for its 18th NBA championship.
The first time Dortch saw those jerseys in Shrewsberry’s office, he was like, whoa.
“It was dope,” said Dortch, who played for the same AAU team, Mass Rivals, as Irish senior guard Braeden Shrewsberry. “Having that shared Boston bond, he was around during the winning times. It was cool having that connection.”
Dortch was asked if he would become a Sixers fan after they traded for Brown. Maybe buy one of Brown’s new jerseys.
No and no, Dortch answered.
Days later, after leaving Rolfs Hall, Dortch strolled toward the sidewalk that runs along Leahy Drive. His head was down. He was scrolling his phone. Minutes earlier, LeBron James had announced that he would sign as a free agent with … the Philadelphia 76ers.
A passerby asked Dortch if he had changed his mind. With the additions of JB and LBJ, was he now a Philly fan?
Dortch offered only a smile and what’s become his trademark response to anything he finds cool.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
