Walter will get to feel Tommy Heinsohn’s affection from close range for at least the next three seasons, if Mr. McCarty so chooses.

Walter McCarty agreed to a three-year contract to remain as a Celtics assistant coach under Brad Stevens. Deals for other assistants are also in the works.

Though McCarty made no secret of his desire to move into a head coaching position — he sought the Boston College job earlier this year — he is thoroughly pleased both with his current job and its location.

“I’m excited just to know that I’m going to be here another three years and continue to work with the guys and work with Brad and our staff and Danny (Ainge),” McCarty said. “This is a great organization to work for, and I think we have a lot of chemistry on our staff. I think we have a lot of good things going for us, so I’m excited about being here.”

“Here” is also where McCarty spent 71⁄2 years playing for the Celts. It’s been the main home for his wife and children.

“That’s a big part of it,” he said. “It’s great to be on a staff where everyone gets along and everyone pulls for each other and helps each other out, but it’s important, too, for my family to just be situated and not worry about where we’re going to go next. Just to have that security is great.”

If there is any insecurity for McCarty these days, he is bringing it on himself. Having spent three years as an assistant under Rick Pitino at Louisville and a year on the Indiana Pacers bench, he has been looking to move up the coaching ladder for a while.

“All coaches are different in their style of play, how they teach,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to see a lot of different things.”

McCarty looked at a number of openings in the last few years, and made the advance toward BC when the Eagles fired their head coach after this past season. That foray never got off the ground, but he’s open to other situations.

“Oh, definitely,” said McCarty. “In this profession, you have to be. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m happy where I’m at, and I’ll continue to learn under Brad and Danny and all these guys. We’ll see what happens.”

Stevens is not disturbed by the wandering eye. In fact, he understands the situation.

“We’ve talked about it,” McCarty said. “He knows every coach on our staff aspires to be a head coach at some point, and he’s said to us that if we need any help or we want any advice or if we need him to put in calls for us or whatever, he’s willing to do that.

“You don’t have a lot of head coaches who are like that, so for him to be that gracious is really nice. He’s pulling for us to help our dreams come true, so that’s a great situation.”

McCarty knows that if a head coaching opportunity does present itself, it will likely be a college job. There are obviously more possibilities there, and he did well as a recruiter for Louisville.

In light of that, McCarty is just happy to be working for Stevens.

“You learn every day what works and why he was successful at Butler,” McCarty said. “I’m going to continue to pick his brain and learn from him each and every day. It’s been a joy to be around him and have some of that rub off.

“I want to be a great coach, whether it’s college or pro or whatever it is. Right now it’s just about learning as much as possible.”