July 31, 2026, 3:12 p.m. ET
Even before videos of a ripped Joe Mazzulla sparring in the ring made the rounds on social media, the Boston Celtics head coach had a reputation as a tough character who commanded the respect of his players. But you might be surprised by his own definition of what mental toughness means to him, at least as he described it in a recent interview with the “No Show Dogs” podcast.
“I don’t have like a clinical definition,” said Mazzulla. “There’s really just my own experiences, essentially, of how do you quickly eliminate emotion and feeling from result, and from your environment.”
“How quickly can you get to the facts of what’s really going on, and then how quickly can you get to the solution of what you need to do in that next moment,” continued the Celtics coach.
“I think that’s … how I looked at it – you can go through life and situations emotionally, and operate by feeling and you end up on autopilot,” suggested Mazzulla.
“Or you can eliminate those two things and have a clear, factual understanding of your environment. But then, okay, based on those facts, what’s my next step of action? And I think constantly doing that. And I don’t even know if it’s a definition, but I think the other part of that is, I think you have to reach a real level of vulnerability to be mentally tough. I think, or (to) work on mental toughness. I think there’s a level of vulnerability that you have to get to. I think there’s a level of weakness that you have to have as a person. I think there’s a level of surrender that you have to have. And when you can be honest about those things, you can actually use them to your advantage.”
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“And so it doesn’t mean being tough,” he said. “I think it means being present in the moment and being as solution-oriented as you can while just going through the things that life brings ahead of you.”
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