BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla is set to begin his fourth season as coach of the Celtics in the fall but how long the young coach remained under contract with the team remained an open question entering Wednesday night. Mazzulla had reportedly agreed to a three-year contract back in 2023 according to Shams Charania of [ESPN.com](http://ESPN.com) after being given the full-time position but there had been no update on his status since then.
After the NBA Draft on Wednesday night, Celtics president of basketball operations revealed that the team had extended Mazzulla’s contract at some point in the last two years.
“I keep any of those discussions in house,” Stevens said when asked about Mazzulla’s contract situation. “But we’ve got Joe under contract for multiple years right now. So, we certainly want Joe to be around here for a long time.”
Mazzulla helped lead the Celtics to a NBA championship in 2024 and has a 182-64 record in the regular season during his three years as coach. Boston had a disappointing second round exit against the Knicks during the 2025 postseason and that tough loss has led to plenty of reflection for Mazzulla, according to Stevens.
“I know Joe has already traveled the world to meet with people and talk about some things,” Stevens said. “I think he was excited to do that. He’s actually at a conference tonight talking about leadership. He’s always trying to learn and grow. I believe wholeheartedly in him and our staff and figuring out how to best maximize our team. That’ll be up to them.
“I think the thing that I took away -- I talked about the Knicks series a little bit. I think it really boils down to the first two games in a lot of ways in my mind. I don’t know with Jayson’s injury, who knows what you do if that series is 3-1 you at that time and do you finish it out or whatever the case. Things can go different ways. I felt that the part of those games that stood out to me was more -- more than anything, when we got stagnant and when we played without pace, you could just feel it. You could see the walking out. You could see all that. I think we’ll try to address some of that.”
Stevens also touched on what he thinks the Celtics can learn moving forward after watching a seven-game battle between the Pacers and Thunder in the NBA Finals.
I think if you watched the Finals, I think the two teams that deserved to be playing were playing. It wasn’t about anything else. The best two teams in the league were playing. They played awesome. They deserved to be there. They outplayed everybody. They played really, really hard. The right way. We were that team last year and we’ll strive to be that again. It’s no knock on anybody else that had a good run or a late run or won a couple playoff series or what else. But, man, watching those games, I hope everybody got a chance to like enjoy it as a basketball fan because those Indiana and Oklahoma City games were amazing."