PHOENIX — The opposing coaches in last night’s Celtics-Suns game are well-liked by their bosses.

And by the other team’s boss, as well.

While Celtic president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and Phoenix general manager Ryan McDonough are extremely happy with their hires of first-year NBA head coaches Brad Stevens and Jeff Hornacek, respectively, they also had interest in each other’s choice.

After leaving the Celtics and taking over the Suns last May, McDonough reached out to Stevens about the coaching opening here. And Ainge actually checked in with Hornacek back in 2004 when he was in the process that eventually led to the hiring of Doc Rivers.

McDonough told the Herald last summer that he and Ainge had identified Butler’s Stevens as a coach who could do well in the NBA.

“When Ryan McDonough went to Phoenix, you know, Ryan and I had talked a lot about how much we liked Brad Stevens,” said Ainge. “I thought Ryan was going to hire Brad to go coach the Suns, but he didn’t and he got a great coach in Jeff Hornacek.”

Ainge was looking to investigate potential hires that might be outside the box a bit when he was brought in by the Celtics. He spoke to a couple of former players to see if coaching was something that interested them.

“I talked to Jeff back in the days when we were first hiring Doc, but Jeff wasn’t really ready to get in the game,” Ainge said. “I talked to him about his desire to coach. He was somebody that I thought of when I knew we were going to be looking for a new coach. Doc was on the top of our list, but I was just checking to see on Jeff.

“I also talked to John Stockton to see if he might be interested. Those were two players who I just liked who they were and how they played and how they approached the game. I felt like those guys would make great coaches if that was something they wanted to do. But neither one of them was interested because they were just retiring and had been away from their families for so long.”

When Rivers and the Celtics divorced, Ainge had a target in mind. McDonough, who worked 10 years for the C’s, was quoted here last offseason, saying, “As you evaluate players and try to figure out who the next best guys are going to be, you know, you also have to be prepared if there’s a coaching change and who the next best coaches are that are out there. He was a guy that, when I was there, we always had our eye on.

“But we thought and hoped at the time that Doc would be the coach for a long, long time, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it. But I guess you always have to be prepared.”

Nowadays, McDonough is understandably reluctant to speak about checking in on Stevens, though it is clear he made a great move with Hornacek.

“We have a good coach,” McDonough said. “We’re happy with him. The Celtics have a good coach.

“We talked to, I’d say, five to 10 different guys. Brad was one of them. Read into that what you will. But we have a guy who I think is going to win Coach of the Year. So was it close or not close? To me, it’s never close until it’s done.”

Stevens was also a little hesitant yesterday to discuss the call from the Suns.

“I don’t go into any of that stuff,” he said, “and the reason I say that is because a lot of different people as they go through their coaching searches reach out in different ways. So I’ve never really talked about anybody that has approached me in that regard, even the schools and everybody else. As they go through that, they go through the process that they think is best for their group, and that’s that.

“The bottom line is that prior to the Celtics I’d been — I don’t know if ‘called’ is the right word — gauged by a couple of different places, not only this year, but in years past. Both (NBA) and also obviously college teams. But, again, I don’t really want to go into it.”