Former WVU basketball stars Deuce McBride and Joe Mazulla will meet in the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals, beginning on May 4.
Mazulla’s second-seeded Celtics, the reigning NBA champions, breezed past the No. 7 seed Orlando Magic in a 4-1 first-round series victory. In just his third season as Boston’s head coach, Mazulla, who starred for the Mountaineers from 2006-11, has a 182-64 record with two trips to the conference finals and last year’s NBA championship victory. The Celtics are 31-13 in the playoffs under Mazulla.
McBride’s New York Knicks clinched their opening-round series with a 116-113 victory over Detroit Thursday evening, clinching the series 4-2. McBride, who played in Morgantown from 2019-21, scored just three points in the series-clinching game and averaged 6.4 points per game in throughout the series against the Pistons.
McBride, a former second-round pick of the Knicks, averaged a career-high 9.5 points this year, his fourth season in the NBA.
let’s keep it rollin ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/tfeNA5y56T
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) May 2, 2025
This second-round series will be the first playoff meeting between the former West Virginia standouts.
Find more coverage of WVU basketball greats Joe Mazzulla and Miles McBride at WV Sports Now.