By the time I get to Brad Stevens, he is already more than well aware of the joke.



Yes, he looks a lot like that guy running for president.



“I actually had a friend a few years ago who had met him, and he goes, ‘He is really impressive and he looks exactly like you,’” Stevens says, referring to his doppelgänger and Democratic hopeful, Pete Buttigieg.



It is the morning of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in late April, and Stevens has a few minutes to talk while his players tie their shoes and check their phones before shootaround.



The topic I have in mind is indeed Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor from South Bend, Ind., who in March went from “never heard of him” to the candidate everybody was talking about on Twitter, MSNBC and, eventually, even Fox News. It was around then when the casual observer began to realize, Damn, Buttigieg looks a helluva lot like the Boston Celtics coach, that guy who...