Boston — Only a season ago, Joe Mazzulla was promoted from interim to full-time head coach of the Celtics, replacing the fired Ime Udoka only days before the team’s training camp.
That was not an ideal situation for any coach in the league, putting Mazzulla in a difficult predicament given his only assistant coaching experience in the NBA. However, the 35-year-old, who is never afraid to speak his thoughts and can identify to Jayson Tatum in terms of media response, validated himself. Mazzulla became the youngest head coach to win an NBA Finals since Bill Russell in 1968, leading Boston to a triumph over the Mavericks and the organization’s record-setting 18th title.
“Joe is an animal,” Kristaps Porzingis said after the Celtics defeated the Mavericks 106-88 at TD Garden on Monday night.
Last season ended in an unacceptable manner. Whether it was Mazzulla’s inexperience, the team’s immaturity in handling big moments, or a roster that couldn’t gel, one thing was clear: a repeat couldn’t and wouldn’t be acceptable, which is why Boston’s front office pursued Porzingis and Jrue Holiday aggressively in the offseason.
Mazzulla earned the trust of the locker room by being creative and open-minded, incorporating lessons learned from watching the NFL, re-watching the UFC, and Premier League soccer. He always stood by his players, never failed to praise anyone on the roster who deserved it, and prioritized the team’s best interests above all else, even if it meant unleashing a hack-a-Andre Drummond defense to help Boston advance during the In-Season Tournament in November.
It was a difficult and unexpected journey, but the end result was well worth it.
“We all know Joe was thrown into the fire last year, and I felt like he did the best he could,” Al Horford said. “But I think everything was different this year when we arrived for workouts before training camp. He seemed to have put a sprint on everything he wanted it to be and how he wanted us to work, carry ourselves, and be driven.”
Even with an NBA championship on Mazzulla’s still-young head-coaching CV, the Rhode Island native understands that winning once will never satisfy the outsiders, particularly in Boston.
“You need critique. You require praise. “You need expectations,” Mazzulla stated. “All those things go into making who you are as a person, making who you are as people, as an organization.”
