Joe Mazzulla has no chill.
That’s not an insult by the way.
If you’ve followed the Celtics even a little bit these past few seasons you’ve at seen several examples of Mazzulla’s trademark intensity and insatiable competitive drive. It’s what makes him one of the best coaches in the NBA and one of the reasons Banner number 18 hangs from the rafters at TD Garden.
Whether it’s getting all over a ref in a meaningless preseason game.
Or using a coaches challenge up 30 late in the 4th quarter.
Or trying to block an opposing player’s 3 point attempt after the whistle.
Or berating reporters who ask questions he doesn’t feel like answering.
Every exchange is viewed as combat. Kill or be killed.
That mentality crossed over into a “friendly” scrimmage vs the media earlier this week at the Auerbach Center in Boston.
The concept was amazing (even if hijacked and altered by Mazzulla at the last minute.) A chance for media members to play alongside Celtics coaches – led by coach Joe Mazzulla – and a collection of assistants with past NBA and D-1 college experience.
Fun!
The execution. Well, that left something to be desired.
What ensued was a – to be expected – 57-4 bludgeoning.
When news of the score trickled out social media had a good collective belly laugh about it.
This game is traditionally media vs media. But this year Joe Mazzulla made the media face coaches presumably to embarrass them.
Diabolical. https://t.co/jsFt4vjiji
— John Zannis (@John_Zannis) October 14, 2025
But then details of the game started to emerge.
The 57 points were scored in only 12 minutes.
There was a shot clock.
And, an 8 second count to cross half court.
And, the group of former NBA and D-1 players – at Joe Mazzulla’s frantic urging – pressed and trapped the hapless and hopeless scribes full court the entire game. First person accounts estimate that the media team only crossed half court 4 or 5 times.
Oh, and the media team’s dismemberment was witnessed by Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and team President Brad Stevens who chuckled from the balcony as the media team got rolled.
Are we having fun yet?
After Mazzulla and co dismantled the media things mellowed out. The coaches and journalists spent a few moments palling around and then the media played in the game they expected to play in vs one another. A much more competitive 27-23 affair.
By all accounts the media who played almost unanimously seem to have enjoyed the entire experience, beatdown included. Even though this isn’t what they initially signed up for.
This was more akin to being invited to a barbecue and being told when you arrive, ‘We’re going to eat later, but first off we’re going to hunt you. You have a 30 second head start. Go.”
Participants actually liked it so much several scribes wrote glowing pieces about it and have said publicly that they look forward to the next opportunity to take on Joe and his coaches, vowing to do better next time.
Thank you sir, may I have another.
Mazzulla for his part, promised that there will be another game like this in his first public appearance the following day. A scheduled interview with broadcast partner 98.5 the Sports Hub with “Zo and Beatle.”
Mazzulla was however somewhat surprised that the hosts didn’t view the entire affair in the same light as he did as hosts Marc Bertrand and Scott Zolak chided Joe about his decision to humiliate the media or as Zolak – a former professional football player – said “put them in their place.”
“(It’s) kind of the world we live in today,” Mazzula responded. “Where one tweet doesn’t tell the whole story, or you missed the context of what the point of something like that is. The intention of it wasn’t to get out, but that’s kind of the world we live in.
It’s unfortunate that people don’t get the whole context of the day but we all got to be in a competitive environment together.”
No Joe.
This was NOT a “competitive environment” any more so than the jungle is a competitive environment for a Zebra. Nor was it a “level playing field” as Mazzulla also suggested.
Then Bertrand followed by asking the Celtics 3rd year coach really the only question that matters. Why?
Why was the beating necessary to achieve the desired goal? To which Mazzulla – channeling his inner Hanz and Franz – quipped that maybe Bertrand doesn’t have “any competitive juices” flowing through him.
Don’t call me a bully you wuss!
Or, maybe you’re just a little Girly Man.
“Well I could go down to the playground and beat a bunch of 4 year olds,” Bertrand clapped back. “If that’s what gets you going Joe.”
Pretty much.
Mazzulla continued to stress the bonding aspect of this exercise during his media availability the following day, spending more time on what happened after the beating than the impetus for it, which still remains unclear.
“Yesterday was very, very important,” Mazzulla said Wednesday before hosting the Toronto Raptors in a preseason game. “It will be laughed at and joked about, but it means a lot more to humanize (the coaches and media.) We have too many interactions where it’s the coach and you. Like, everyone’s doing their job.”
I mean, yeah, that’s kind of how it goes.
“I felt like after yesterday we all had our guard down, “Mazzulla continued.” And we were all in the competitive arena together. And that meant a lot to lower everyone’s guard and bust balls and do all that stuff. So, it was cool to see everybody in a natural environment. And, sometimes, we’re coming from a competitive arena, and you’re not in a competitive arena — you’re just doing your job. And that’s where things get misinterpreted. But for all of us to be in the same arena, I think that says a lot.”
How exactly does 57-4 humanize the media? They were human before Joe, whether you realized it or not.
Also, please tell me how does the media get to “bust balls” back after the beating they took?
‘Hey Joe, remember that time where you trapped me with the shot clock winding down to zero, I pooped my pants, dribbled the ball off my knee and crashed to the ground in a heap trying to grab the ball before it rolled out of bounds?’
Boom Roasted!
Newsflash. Sports media and the people they cover are never on a level playing field. Not off the court and Certainly not ON it.
Even the smartest, most knowledgeable writers on the beat bring a middle school level understanding of basketball to each Q & A session relative to the multiple PHD’s Mazzulla and the players possess. Same goes in other sports as well.
These guys are on a different level, and we already know it.
The power dynamics in each media session are already heavily tilted in Mazzulla’s favor. Perhaps even more so now.
While I understand that the relationship between sports media and the people they cover can sometimes come off as adversarial, the reality is the majority of Celtics coverage is overwhelmingly positive and supportive.
And you shouldn’t need to humiliate people in an effort to humanize them. That humanity should already exist through a mutual understanding and respect that each person is here trying to do a job.
I’ve made no secret in the past that I think Joe Mazzulla can be somewhat of a bully. Not the first coach in these parts to play the part either.
His tense exchanges with the media linger with some reporters long after they walk out of the press room. And when they return, they ruminate over how to approach an interview without asking the type of question that will draw Joe’s ire and get them posterized or worse, they don’t ask those questions at all.
Maybe now that Joe has “humanized” the reporters who cover him on a daily basis he’ll mellow out and the back and forth between the two sides will be less combative.
Or maybe Joe did it to soften them up in the hopes that they won’t come at him as hard. If so, well played.
Full disclosure. I was signed up to play in the game. I changed my mind once I heard the coaches were going to be part of it. NBC Sports Boston play by play guy Drew Carter said on the broadcast he did the same thing claiming he didn’t “want to get blown out or choked out.”
Call me a coward. But I didn’t feel like being the butt of a joke and have the people who perpetrated it on me act like I was in on it. And that’s before I knew Mazzulla was going to go full Psycho Joe on the brave souls who went through with it anyway.
Was it textbook bullying by Joe? I’m not sure. Even if it was bullying behavior it may not have been the intent. Just Joe being Joe.
I liken it more to light fraternity hazing. Or like breaking a horse.
Was there however a better way to bond and get on the same level as the people who cover you that didn’t involve physical domination and public humiliation?
Absolutely. So, so, so so, SO many other ways.
Have the coaches play alongside with the media, go bowling or axe throwing. You know, something where you actually are on a level playing field and doing it together.
That’s something that Tuesday’s game did not accomplish. The two sides didn’t do anything together.
It was us vs you. And it was ugly.
Mazzulla said the other day, “The only thing that would have made it better is if we all went out for a beer afterwards.”
A beer with Joe Mazzulla? Sure, I’d be down with that. Just replace the word “afterwards” with “instead.”
See you at the Red Lobster, Joe!