BRIGHTON \u2014\u00a0The Boston Celtics don\u2019t have much time to practice once the season gets underway, but Tuesday afternoon provided one of those rare opportunities. These were some of the main stories to come out of the Auerbach Center:<\/p>\n
1. Joe Mazzulla and Derrick White take WWE<\/p>\n
Everyone saw the clip. It was everywhere. Monday Night Raw came to TD Garden on Monday night, and Derrick White was in attendance. He was shown on the Jumbotron, but right alongside him? Joe Mazzulla.<\/p>\n
When the camera panned to Mazzulla, there was a huge grin on his face. He immediately stood up and began \u201cpunching\u201d White, mimicking the likes of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s all part of the storyline,\u201d White said at practice. \u201cWrestleMania is coming up soon, so that’s when our big fight will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that situation, White was the good guy. The baby face, as they say in the wrestling injury. And Mazzulla was the heel. At least, that\u2019s how White sees it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was the baby face in that situation. Just waving. Doing what I was supposed to do,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I think he’s the heel, technically. I’ll stay baby face, though. It’s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
White took the miniature sparring session like a champ, though he was sure to stay away from Mazzulla when there was an actual chance that the two could step inside a ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to stay away,\u201d White said when jokingly asked if Mazzulla had beaten him up when he first got to Boston. \u201cHe was doing all that MMA stuff. The one yesterday was much more my speed than the MMA one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday was an important opportunity for Mazzulla.<\/p>\n
For the same reason that the Celtics don\u2019t have much time to practice once the season starts, they don\u2019t have much time to do anything.<\/p>\n
So, when the opportunity arose to join White and his family at a WWE event, Mazzulla jumped at it. Especially since it was at TD Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust wanted to have a nice night with the family,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cNice night with D-White and his family. And a chance to learn. And any chance I can go to the Garden and watch other people do stuff, it\u2019s important. So, I had a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
And his underlying long-time WWE fandom didn\u2019t hurt, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrew up as a kid watching,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cWas able to have a family night, take the kids there. Hang out with D-White. It was a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Coach and player bonding<\/p>\n
Attending Raw was merely a product of a bigger goal for Mazzulla. An organizational philosophy that has defined his tenure as head coach in Boston.<\/p>\n
Hardwood Houdini\u2019s Sam LaFrance began to ask him a question along the lines of, \u2018You don\u2019t see many bosses go out and hang out with their employees, what makes that a possibility in this situation, and why is it important?\u2019<\/p>\n
But Mazzulla never let him finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a boss, and I don\u2019t consider Derrick an employee, with all due respect. It\u2019s not how we operate,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think it\u2019s more about just relationships and the people that you have. Not to cut you off, but I just don\u2019t look at it that way, and I don\u2019t consider myself in that situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more, we\u2019re in this together. We\u2019re an organization. And my family is a part of that organization, other assistant coaches are a part of that family, and anytime we can do stuff together, I think it\u2019s important to try to do that. It was more about that, but I didn\u2019t mean to cut you off on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the year, before the regular season even started, Anfernee Simons said that one of the first things he noticed about Mazzulla was that he didn\u2019t want to be called \u2018coach.\u2019 Just \u2018Joe.\u2019<\/p>\n
By breaking down the wall between coach and player, the Celtics have been able to build a culture that breeds togetherness.<\/p>\n
Because their jobs are anything but normal. It\u2019s not like an everyday 9-to-5. It\u2019s not even college basketball, where the coach is often 20 or more years older than the players.<\/p>\n
Mazzulla is 37 years old. White is 31. Mazzulla is younger than Al Horford, whom he coached for three seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we’re all adults here,\u201d White said. \u201cI feel like [in] college is, I guess you’re kind of adult, but you’re still figuring things out. And so, I think that’s a big difference for college. And then, [we] spend so much time together. You’re basically seeing them every day. And so, there’s going to be ups and downs, and you just kind of have to have that bond on and off the court that allows him to coach you hard, allows you to listen, to learn, to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, I think Joe does a good job of finding that balance. Obviously, it’s not very easy, or there’d be a lot more coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the very moment he started, Mazzulla has made an effort to connect with everyone in the organization, players included.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for the most part. I think every year, the longer you’re with them, the bigger your bond grows,\u201d White said. \u201cAnd so, I don’t know if we did anything the first year he was coaching, but I think just every year, we always do some stuff like that, and I was happy to be on national television [on Raw].\u201d<\/p>\n
And though it may not seem like much, it\u2019s this type of philosophy that distinguishes the Celtics from a lot of other organizations around the league.<\/p>\n
Jayson Tatum hasn\u2019t been perfect since returning from his Achilles injury. He would be the first person to tell you that. And the frustration has seeped in at times. But that\u2019s just a part of the journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s frustrating,\u201d White said. \u201cYou want to come back and instantly get back to yourself, but that’s not how the game works. So, I just think he’s just doing a good job of just, every day, being consistent. I think it was the same thing with his rehab and his recovery. So, there’s good days and bad days in this game, and [you] just got to continue to try to figure out different ways to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, even if he was 100% healthy, you’d still be frustrated if you weren’t your best self,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI mean, that happens even if you have a bad game when you are the best version of yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, I think, at the end of the day, when we’re between those lines, there’s no grace. These are the things that you have to do. When you step out of those lines, here’s the stuff that you’re doing well, here’s the stuff that we have to get better [at], here’s the stuff that’s going to come with time. And you just keep it to that. And I think he does a really good job of processing that, and we just have to go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRIGHTON \u2014\u00a0The Boston Celtics don\u2019t have much time to practice once the season gets underway, but Tuesday afternoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6,66376,66682],"class_list":["post-677074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-nba","tag-top-celtics","tag-top-story-2"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116286290966436768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}