Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla watches from the sideline as they take on the Philadelphia 76ers during game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images
Joe Mazzulla led the Boston Celtics to the NBA title in 2024, but he interestingly won’t call himself a championship head coach. Mazzulla appeared on the No Show Dogs podcast this offseason, where he was asked about the new challenges he has had to tackle after winning a championship at a young age.
“You never stop tackling them,” Mazzulla said. “The main one is just in the phrase alone, like I’m not a championship head coach. I’m just a guy that won a championship with a bunch of other people. And I think it comes back to the identity piece. You start walking around saying like, ‘Oh, I’m a championship head coach,’ to me there’s coaches who are better than I am that may have never even gotten to the playoffs.
“You can’t start looking at success because of that,” Mazzulla continued. “And so I think it’s like in your wording is the most important thing. I’m just a guy that won a championship with a group of people, and we did it together. So I think that’s the No. 1 thing is like my identity cannot be wrapped up in that, or else you’re just a failure for the rest of your life.
“Because you may only get one,” Mazzulla added. “So if you coach for 20 years and you go one out of 20, did you have one successful year and 19 unsuccessful ones?”
Mazzulla, who has an outstanding 238-90 record as a head coach, isn’t attaching his identity to that title he won after the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the 2024 NBA Finals. The 38-year-old also emphasized that the triumph was a team achievement, not something he is going to go out and take all the credit for.
“I think from a competitive standpoint, when you are fortunate enough to win, it tests your willpower,” Mazzulla said. “It tests your willpower of like, okay, how are we going after more? And I kind of compared it to, like, after the first one, you’re kind of in purgatory because now you have a sense of what it’s like, but you might not get back, and how bad do you really want it to get back to the top of that, and it may take years.
“It may take one, it may take 10, and you just don’t know,” Mazzulla added. “But along the way, if you’re not in it for the right reasons and super competitive, then you’re not going to make it. And you got to be there for something bigger than that. So I think those are the two biggest things, the story you tell yourself about the journey is much bigger than you, and it tests are you in it for the right reasons. Because it may never come back around, but you still got to show up every day.”
That is all quite fascinating. Mazzulla sure is a rarity in this day and age.
Joe Mazzulla Thinks Coach Of The Year Is A Stupid Award
The 2025-26 NBA season might have been Mazzulla’s best until the playoffs. He led the Celtics to 56 wins despite Jayson Tatum being out for much of the campaign and was named Coach of the Year for 2026. While most would be proud of that, you’d imagine Mazzulla couldn’t care less. He believes the COTY award shouldn’t even exist.
“I think it’s a stupid award,” Mazzulla said. “They shouldn’t have it. It’s more about the players. It’s more about the work that the staff puts in. It’s that simple, and I don’t ever want to be asked or talk about it again.”
You’d notice that Mazzulla is all about giving credit to everyone else. It’s no wonder then that despite being an eccentric character, his players are willing to run through a brick wall for him.
Mazzulla’s mindset and approach aren’t commonly seen among people who reach the top of their profession at a young age. He might just be one-of-one, and the Celtics are lucky to have him.