2023-05-09 09:23:23
ATLANTA — Exactly 90 minutes before the Boston Celtics face the Hawks in the First Round of the Playoffs, Joe Mazzulla He briskly enters the State Farm Arena press room. He takes a seat behind the podium.
While journalists pepper him with questions, he gives immediate answers. He is direct and concise. He has an intensity that radiates through his gaze.
Mazzulla patiently answers any and all questions, from rotations to strategy. But there is one that he has rarely talked about: Who is Joe Mazzulla? Little is known about the personality of the man in charge of one of the favorites for the title.
“Which side do you want to meet?”asks Celtics TV commentator Brian Scalabrine. “The side that shows the media or the side that shows the rest of us?”
Mazzulla lets his personality leak to the media from time to time. His friends, players and coaching staff see him daily. They will gladly talk about the man they classify as unique, intense, analytical, intelligent, vocal and highly competitive.
But above all, Mazzulla is a very funny guy.
The Celtics coach has an extremely quick-acting wit.
“Because it’s so intense, people probably don’t know this.“Celtics assistant coach Ben Sullivan said. “But he has a great sense of humor.”
And that sense of humor is incredibly cutting.
“Sometimes I can’t understand if he’s serious or not”dijo Jared Weiss de The Athletic. “There have been a couple of times where he’s been so direct that I think it was funny.”
Some Mazzulla gems of the season include:
Current Youngstown State head coach Jerrod Calhoun coached Mazzulla as a player at West Virginia University and later hired him as an assistant at Fairmont State. Calhoun described the Celtics coach as “a type that was constantly intense or impertinent”.
Calhoun recalled an incident during his time with Joe. Andy Kettler, one of the physical trainers, was arguing with a referee. The referee asked Mazzulla: “Who is this guy? He’d better calm down.”
“And Joe said: Well, then ask him for a technique.”
The referee didn’t quite know what to say after that.
Joe Mazzulla is the guy to Scalabrine is afraid to play an impromptu match.
Mazzulla’s impromptu encounters have become the stuff of legend. He plays with his staff before most home games. Short clips of him dropping players to the ground or hitting 3-pointers off the corners made their way onto broadcast television and went viral at lightning speeds.
Stan Van Gundy claimed that Mazzulla went to the bench in a fight for a loose ball during a game that took place hours before the start of the TNT broadcast.
Those clips offer a perfect summary of what happens in the coaching staff’s pick-up race. Mazzulla missed two games during the Regular Season due to a blow to the cornea in one eye that he suffered in one of these “training sessions”.
It also deals a lot of damage. It grabs, pushes and even carries because, as it says, “It’s an important psychological advantage.”
Scalabrine, an 11-year NBA veteran, participated in one of those sessions only once. The experience was too intense for him to repeat.
“I always sign up for any impromptu game”said Scalabrine. “You put me in any of these games and I’m the one who brings the energy. And I have nothing against Joe. He brings a level of intensity. It pushes you and makes you wonder why you’re there more than anyone else, and that includes [Kevin] Garnett!”.
Mazzulla’s impromptu encounters have become the stuff of legend. He plays with his staff before most home games. Short clips of him dropping players to the ground or hitting 3-pointers off the corners made their way onto broadcast television and went viral at lightning speeds.
Stan Van Gundy claimed that Mazzulla went to the bench in a fight for a loose ball during a game that took place hours before the start of the TNT broadcast.
Those clips offer a perfect summary of what happens in the coaching staff’s pick-up race. Mazzulla missed two games during the Regular Season due to a blow to the cornea in one eye that he suffered in one of these “training sessions”.
It also deals a lot of damage. It grabs, pushes and even carries because, as it says, “It’s an important psychological advantage.”
Scalabrine, an 11-year NBA veteran, participated in one of those sessions only once. The experience was too intense for him to repeat.
“I always sign up for any impromptu game”said Scalabrine. “You put me in any of these games and I’m the one who brings the energy. And I have nothing against Joe. He brings a level of intensity. It pushes you and makes you wonder why you’re there more than anyone else, and that includes [Kevin] Garnett!”.
“Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I don’t want that life. I had that life when I was 30, but at my age now, that’s not what I like.”
Joe Mazzulla is addicted to competition.
Where does this propensity to take the reins in improvised matches come from? It goes back to his days in West Virginia when “probably led the Big Eastin that category, according to Calhoun.
As a college player, Mazzulla loved to match up against the best he could find. Despite his height (1.88) he took on assignments like the DeMarcus Cousins (2,11) o Luke Harangody (2,07).
Mazzulla still maintains that intense competitiveness. Early in his coaching career he would challenge his college players to push-up contests. He spontaneously performed a jiu-jitsu somersault in front of Marcus Smart earlier in the season and told him: “I bet you can’t do that.”
Fight with your billionaire players. He once challenged player development coach Garrett Jackson to walk a mile with him while holding some weights.
Al Horford once said he wouldn’t run a marathon because he couldn’t run more than a mile. Mazzulla’s response? “I would do it until I died.”
Mazzulla’s competitiveness leads him to study the rules of whatever he participates in. Calhoun recalled a card game that came up during a joint family vacation… Until a rule came into question.
“It’s not that bad”joked Calhoun. But Mazzulla insisted that there is “rules in this game”.
The Celtics coach closely studies the NBA rules. He looks for any loophole and every little advantage, like when he started making his team roll the ball when they were leading so the timer would run out without affecting time of possession.
Whatever the rule, Mazzulla will find a way to exploit it. When asked about the idea of banning fouls in attack he replied: “I don’t mind. Whatever the rules, we will find a way to follow them and manipulate them at the same time.”
The young Celtics coach is a self-improvement junkie and a master motivator.
Mazzulla is an avid reader. He likes to start his mornings with a walk and a passage from the Bible. Meditation is part of his daily routine.
He was also addicted to gum but quit cold turkey because it interfered with his breathing exercises, as he told Justin Termine de SirusXM Radiowhich took away his concentration during the games.
“He is a deep thinker” Calhoun said. “He really thinks and plans. There’s nothing he won’t try to do to motivate his players to win a title. He’s creative. I don’t think he’s afraid to do anything.”
A technique that Mazzulla often uses is visualization, either with an image or an object. He has placed a sandcastle in the viewing room to remind players that, like a sandcastle that disappears every day, the team needs to build a new success every day.
“Not afraid to try something a little different that might seem a little strange,” Celtics player Luke Kornet said. “But if he believes in it, then feel free to do it.”
That includes showing the team clips of orcas attacking seals to demonstrate the team’s need for killer instinct.
“It became something for the team,” Kornet commented. “Works. Images are often more powerful than trying to say something over and over again.”
He is the smart coach who will do anything to win. He is the relationship builder through humor and praise to smooth over difficult conversations. He is the witty trainer who will give the most literal answer possible to the question he receives.
He is Joe Mazzulla.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the NBA or its organizations.
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