Joe Mazzulla is on record about his feelings about the Coach of the Year award.
“I don’t need it. I think it’s a stupid award,” the Boston Celtics head coach said last month. “They shouldn’t have it.”
Mazzulla is one of three finalists for the award, along with Detroit Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff and San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. He has since taken a softer approach to the topic, acknowledging the honor but emphasizing the players are the reason why he’s having any success.
“I haven’t made one basket all year. Our staff hasn’t made a basket,” he said at the Auerbach Center on Monday. “We haven’t got a block. We haven’t ran back on defense. We didn’t play a back-to-back. We didn’t have to play hurt. We haven’t really done s–t.”
Making sure the players are mentioned first is something that’s appreciated in the locker room, but those guys understand the intertwined nature of everything.
“I think he just understands that he can’t do without us, he can’t do without his coaching staff, he can’t do it without everybody in this building,” Derrick White said. “So he kind of feels weird to get all the credit for it. I think that’s like for a lot of us. I understand that it takes everybody in this building, everybody in this organization, to make us successful, to make us go out there and play the way we do.”
Still, Mazzulla sets the tone.
“Joe just does an excellent job of holding everybody to a high standard and work ethic and showing up every day and just putting that time in,” Payton Pritchard said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s training staff, weight room. Everybody knows their job and they come in on a high level and they produce every day. Even like the player development staff, they’re on-court probably more than us working their butt off. It definitely starts with Joe and the expectations he has and the standard that he holds people to.”
Mazzulla opened up about his attitude about this award this week, making it clear that he’s not trying to disrespect the concept of it. Instead, this is more about his own lessons learned in life, and carrying himself a certain way.
“I think being a division one basketball player, you grow up with this sense of entitlement, as if the whole world revolves around you,” Mazzulla said. “I had to, inherently, if I wanted to be a better husband, a better father, a better coach, I had to get rid of that type of entitlement …
“We all battle with pride in some capacity, and learning how to navigate that. It’s not something that you just get better at. I think it’s something that we all battle in our own way, of pride in some capacity, and you’re always looking to just be better.”
Mazzulla has worked hard to maintain a certain perspective. It might be summed up in his famous “nobody cares” quote, but it’s mostly a grounding understanding of just how much goes into succeeding in this job. Yes, his own hard work is part of it, but it also requires a heavy dose of other people’s work, some luck, and some historical inspiration.
“At the end of the day, we work for the Celtics. We’ve got the best job in the world,” he said. “It’s bigger than you. This place was around before me, it’s going to be around way after me, and I hope they’re much better in the future than we are right now. We have great coaches. We have great players. You just need to have a sense of gratitude and a perspective and understanding that you’re just a part of something bigger than yourself …
“This is all just a short-term thing. It’s going to last a few years, and then 10, 15 years from now, no one’s going to talk about you, so it really doesn’t matter.”
Mazzulla may soften further over time, but it will change how he feels about the award. He doesn’t want it for himself because he doesn’t want that kind of attention for an accomplishment that involves so many other people.
“I would like to see that changed to staff or organization [of the year], for sure. I think those things are important,” Mazzulla said. “If you don’t have the guys to be able to put you in position, it doesn’t really matter. I’m just grateful. The greatest gift to have is I get to coach a bunch of guys that care about winning and being a part of the culture that we have.”
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