Joe Mazzulla: An unlikely calming presence in Boston sports

Sometime in the next week, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla could be named NBA Coach of the Year. He is among three finalists, along with Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff and San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson.

While not a shock, the recognition marks a stunning full-circle moment for the Celtics’ eccentric head coach. Despite the Celtics being eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday in Boston, Mazzulla represents a much-needed calm in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.

• Last week, the Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and most of his coaching staff.
• The New England Patriots are trying, unsuccessfully, to negotiate a sordid scandal involving head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini.
  
  With Cora being fired, Mazzulla, who took over in 2022, is now the longest-tenured Boston head coach. Mazzulla will certainly take heat for the Celtics blowing a 3-1 series lead to Philadelphia, but one of his best characteristics is that he is oblivious to the noise and immune to the pressure of Boston’s sports culture almost to the point of being defiant.

The reality is that Boston wasn’t supposed to even be in contention this season, and despite losing in the first round, Mazzulla has been the most stabilizing presence on the Boston sports scene.

Who would have predicted that? Trust me, not many.

A relative newcomer to the volatile Boston sport scene, Mazzulla illuminates a timeless life lesson: When opportunity knocks, open the door. Mazzulla has consistently opened doors and welcomed opportunity with open arms. He has been like that since our paths first crossed 18 years ago.

In March 2008, Mazzulla was a gritty sophomore guard at West Virginia. He scarcely played as a freshman under then-head coach John Beilein, whose finesse approach was not aligned with Mazzulla’s rough and tumble nature. But under new coach Bob Huggins, Mazzulla was unleashed. He came off the bench and led West Virginia to an upset win over Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

He made the most of an opportunity.

Mazzulla had a solid playing career at West Virginia but did not play in the NBA, opting instead to begin his coaching career. He was an assistant coach for 11 years, dutifully climbing the ladder from Glenville State to Fairmont State, to the Maine Red Claws and back to Fairmont State. He joined the Celtics in 2022 and opportunity quickly banged on the door when the franchise was rocked by scandal.

Days before the season began, Mazzulla, then 34, was named interim Celtics head coach after then-head coach Ime Udoka was suspended in September 2022 for violating organizational rules by having an intimate relationship with a female team employee.

Mazzulla was the perfect choice for an image conscious franchise: devout Catholic, a family man with a wife and three beautiful children. That didn’t stop the intense scrutiny from a merciless Boston sports culture that questioned Mazzulla’s competence as an NBA head coach.

In the 2022-23 regular season, he coached Boston to 57 wins. In the playoffs, the Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round and the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Rather than being praised for winning those series, Mazzulla was roasted and indicted — critics argued the team took too many 3-point shots and that Mazzulla failed to properly utilize Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

A social media feeding frenzy and clarion call to get rid of Mazzulla intensified after the Celtics fell into a 3-0 hole to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics won three consecutive games to tie the series and force a Game 7 at home, with the chance to become the only team in NBA history to overcome a 3-0 deficit.

The Celtics lost and calls for Mazzulla’s head intensified, but the Celtics’ two stars vouched for him. He created an environment where Tatum and Brown could coexist and others could comfortably fill complementary roles.

“I think Joe did a great job,” Tatum said after the Game 7 loss to Miami, while Brown said, “I give Joe my respect. Tough situation to be in; he took it head-on and ran with it.”

I have not been around Mazzulla enough to draw large conclusions, but in playoff situations he seemed detached though not indifferent — unbothered and intent on doing the job his way regardless of whose feathers are ruffled. He apparently rarely raises his voice or engages in theatrics. His postgame comments often sound more like reflections, and there is a calculation to everything he does.

Mazzulla seems oblivious to the noise, immune to the pressure of Boston’s sports culture, almost to the point of being defiant. During the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Mazzulla, who is biracial, was asked about Black head coaches facing each other in the NBA Finals. He answered by asking, “Were they Christians?” The response was so bizarre that it stonewalled a follow-up question.

The Celtics’ current season began on a bizarre note in October when Mazzulla engaged Celtics media members — who were expecting to play a pickup game against each other —to play against the Celtics’ coaching staff instead. The staff routed the media 57-4 and applied full-court defensive pressure for the duration of the 12-minute game. Afterward, Mazzulla explained that he wanted a bonding moment, to humanize reporters and the people they cover.

Last year, Tatum tore his Achilles during a playoff series against the New York Knicks. Critics predicted that the Celtics would have a lottery-type season or at best would not compete for the Eastern Conference crown. Instead, they came within a game of advancing to the conference semifinals.

Mazzulla proved himself to be an alchemist who blended the right elements to make the Celtics competitive until Tatum’s return. For that, he has earned NBA Coach of the Year consideration. With Tatum out with a leg injury for Saturday’s Game 7, Mazzulla cobbled together a lineup that managed to hang with Philadelphia.

Mazzulla was philosophic after Saturday’s loss, saying that just as you celebrate winning, you also have to accept losing.

“Too many times it’s all about winning, winning, winning,” he said. “But you have to surrender to the idea of when you’re going after that, you’re going to fail. And, you know, we failed by not winning, but we stick to the process of being able to do that.”

Will Mazzulla become Red Auerbach, the Celtics’ coaching legend who led Boston to nine NBA titles? Will he even win multiple titles with Tatum and Brown in their prime? As a presence, will Mazzulla eclipse Bill Belichick, who turned the New England Patriots into a dynasty?

Time will tell, though the odds are against it. In the here and now, however, Mazzulla is a coach who heard opportunity knock and opened the door. He is also the stabilizing presence in a Boston sports culture in flux.