{"id":714824,"date":"2026-04-20T21:22:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714824\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:22:44","slug":"how-joe-mazzulla-reacted-to-becoming-coach-of-the-year-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714824\/","title":{"rendered":"How Joe Mazzulla reacted to becoming Coach of the Year finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLocal News\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cI would like that to be changed to staff or organization [of the year], for sure,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think those things are important.”<\/p>\n

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\n\tCeltics coach Joe Mazzulla was named one of three finalists for NBA Coach of the Year on Monday. Barry Chin\/Globe Staff\t<\/p>\n

Though he called the award stupid<\/a> and said he didn\u2019t want to be asked about it, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is one of three finalists for NBA Coach of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NBA announced Sunday that Mazzulla, Detroit\u2019s J.B. Bickerstaff, and San Antonio\u2019s Mitch Johnson are the top three candidates for the award.<\/p>\n

Mazzulla said coaching talented players who care about winning is the \u201cgreatest gift\u201d of showing up to work for the Celtics. He\u2019d prefer if entire coaching staffs were recognized for the award instead of just one coach, but he also said that no one impacts an organization\u2019s success more than the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like that to be changed to staff or organization [of the year], for sure,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cI think those things are important. Again, I think if it were Staff of the Year it\u2019s different than if it were Organization of the Year, but at the end of the day I haven\u2019t made one basket all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff hasn\u2019t made a basket. We haven\u2019t made one block. We haven\u2019t ran back on defense. We didn\u2019t play a back-to-back. We didn\u2019t have to play hurt. We haven\u2019t really done [expletive]. If you don\u2019t have the guys to put you in position, it doesn\u2019t really matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Celtics guard Derrick White is used to coach Joe Mazzulla trying to give credit to his players. \u2013 Danielle Parhizkaran\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Mazzulla\u2019s efforts to deflect attention from the recognition he is getting are no surprise to Derrick White, who said it\u2019s just part of who the coach is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s changed much since I met him,\u201d White said. \u201dI think he doesn\u2019t like the attention on him, and he doesn\u2019t make it about himself. Obviously he\u2019s done an amazing job this year and when he wins it will definitely be well deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payton Pritchard said Mazzulla\u2019s impact is felt throughout the organization. He sets the tone for how the team prepares.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Joe just does an excellent job of holding everybody to a high standard of work ethic and showing up to work every day and just putting that time in,\u201d Pritchard said. \u201cI\u2019ve talked about it before, but everybody just comes in. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s training staff, weight room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely starts with Joe and the expectations that he has and the standards that he holds people to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying sharp <\/p>\n

After a 32-point blowout win<\/a>, nothing guarantees the avoidance of a Game 2 letdown. Mazzulla said the process for winning remains the same as it was during the regular season and preseason.<\/p>\n

Focusing on winning the margins and maintaining a high effort level will be key as the Celtics attempt to take a 2-0 series lead Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a humility aspect of what it looks like when we\u2019re at our best playing a certain type of way,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cFrom a physicality standpoint, an effort standpoint, which we try to bring every single night and then there\u2019s just possessions that you have to get better at regardless of whether you win or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

White said the energy feels different now that the playoffs are here, especially with other Boston sporting events<\/a> contributing to the atmosphere this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to the arena and they\u2019ve got the pictures of you on the streets and saying it\u2019s playoffs everywhere,\u201d White said. \u201cYou definitely feel it, and I think every game it just kind of goes up a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that you look forward to, and I think the fans have been looking forward to it. There\u2019s that energy around the whole city at the time of the playoffs, so it\u2019s a pretty exciting time around here and we\u2019ll go out there and perform our best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local News \u201cI would like that to be changed to staff or organization [of the year], for sure,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-714824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116439140731723591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714824","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=714824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}