As the duck boats made their way down Boylston Street in front of more than a million Celtics fans who gathered to celebrate Banner 18, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla jumped out of the window of his boat and began high-fiving and hyping fans up. The response was deafening.
Mazzulla, who’s been called a “Sicko,” “Crazy,” “Weirdo,” and even a “Psycho” by fans, and even his own players, had just earned a new title: “Legend.”
At just 35 years old, he became the ninth-youngest coach to win a title and the youngest since Bill Russell won one with Boston as player-coach in 1969, an achievement so significant the state of Rhode Island declared June 21, 2024, as “Joe Mazzulla Day.”
Born in Johnston, Rhode Island, the honor was the perfect tribute, given that Mazzulla’s basketball journey began there, sparked by his father, Daniel Mazzulla.
Humble beginnings
Dan Mazzulla was a revered figure in Rhode Island. A lifelong Johnston resident, he led Johnston High School to two state title games as a player before moving on to Bryant University. At Bryant, he guided the Bulldogs to two NCAA tournament appearances and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2007. After five years playing professionally in Chile, he returned to Johnston to serve as Parks and Recreation Director and coach for boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ soccer, and track.
“Danny really groomed Joe and his other brother Justin from a young age, teaching them how to play the game the right way,” said Jamal Gomes, Joe Mazzulla’s high school basketball coach and a close friend of Dan Mazzulla, in an interview with WEEI.com.
“A lot of his communication skills, his drive, his toughness, physically, and mentally, that came from his family. That came from his father, really grooming him at a very early age and pushing Joe to be the best that he could be. I still have vivid memories of his father sitting in the stands. He would let Joe know when he didn’t play well or play up to the standards he needed to play at, and then he’d also let Joe know when he did pretty good. We all need that in our lives, especially if it’s coming from our family, our parents. We need that constant feedback. And Danny was that feedback for Joe growing up.”
As the Parks and Recreation Director, Dan had a key to Rainone Gym, where Joe fell in love with basketball. Joe spent hours each day working out with his dad, often ending their sessions with a no-rules game of one-on-one.
“Joey would always have access to a gymnasium. He lived in a gym,” Gomes recalled. “When he wasn’t at home, he was in a gymnasium, playing or learning basketball.”
All those hours in the gym laid the groundwork for Mazzulla’s basketball success. By the time Joe arrived at Bishop Hendricken High School in the fall of 2002, it didn’t take Gomes long to recognize Mazzulla’s exceptional talent. As a freshman, Mazzulla made the varsity team and had an immediate impact.
“At a very, very early age, we could see a lot of special things in Joe. But for me, it was his understanding and knowledge of the game at a young age. It’s not a surprise he’s doing what he’s doing at the level in which he’s doing it,” Gomes said. “I remember games where he would be in the game during a timeout or during a free-throw situation. He’d come up to me, communicate with me what was going on on the floor, and be able to make adjustments on the fly. You don’t see too many high school freshmen and sophomores doing that.”
Mazzulla went on to lead the Hawks to three consecutive state titles (2004, 2005, 2006) and earned Gatorade Player of the Year honors in both his junior and senior years. In addition to his basketball achievements, he was also a member of the track and field team, where he won four state championships.
“He’s always been a detailed guy. But the thing about Joe is he is a fierce competitor. He is one of the toughest players that I’ve ever coached. Toughest mentally, toughest physically,” Gomes said. “He never backed down from a challenge and was always the type of player, even back in high school, where he made everybody else better around him because he was a team player. In high school, he could have scored 30 points a game easily, but he also knew that for us to win and be successful, everybody had to be a part of the success.
“I remember the state championship game of his senior year. He was coming off of an injury. He got in a car accident. He was able to play in the championship game. And I saw him basically put the team on his back. He finished with something along the lines of 32 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, three or four steals, and the game-winning shot. That was the final game of his high school career and he did that while making everybody else better around him. So you see, when he’s with the Celtics, he doesn’t take any credit, right? He’s humble. He knows; he understands the game. He knows what he needs to do, and he does it. And he doesn’t like or expect the fanfare that goes around it. He’s just there to make everybody else better around him. And it was beautiful to see. I mean, I’m watching the Celtics play well all season long, but especially in the playoffs and what he was able to do with that team to get all of those players, some of the best players on the planet, all on the same page, at the same time, playing their best basketball in the biggest moments, that doesn’t just happen. Anybody who’s a coach out there knows that sometimes the more talented team you have, the more difficult it is to win and succeed.”
At Hendricken, Mazzulla was the epitome of a coach’s dream—precisely the type of player Gomes had always envisioned coaching.
“As a player in high school, he was like another coach on the court,” Gomes said. “Any coaches out there know how important it is to have somebody that you can count on on the court, especially if it’s your point guard. Someone who will relay the message, do what is expected of them, and pull that out of their teammates. Having that coach on the court who’s playing the game, it’s a beautiful thing. That’s how you can succeed.”
When Mazzulla arrived at West Virginia University in the fall of 2006, it didn’t take long for the coaches to tap into that unique trait.
Off to the Big 12
Following his freshman year, the Mountaineers underwent major changes. After five seasons, head coach John Beilein left to become the head coach at Michigan, and the university hired Bob Huggins as his replacement.
With 71% of minutes played and 71.4% of scoring returning from the 2006-07 roster, Huggins and his staff aimed to capitalize on their existing strengths. They were particularly interested in retaining Beilein’s 1-3-1 zone defense and turned to the players for guidance, with Mazzulla and fellow sophomore Da’Sean Butler leading the charge.
“We always knew Joe Mazzulla had a high basketball IQ,” recalled Erik Martin, then an assistant coach under Huggins. “We were very, very enamored with Beilein’s 1-3-1, and he and Da’Sean took the lead in explaining it to the coaches and breaking it down. One day at practice, Huggs kinda stepped back, and those two guys put them in their 1-3-1 and went through, ‘Hey, this is how this slide is, this slide, and so on.”
This was Mazzulla’s first impression of being the “coach on the court” that Gomes had described from high school. On the floor, he was the same rugged, hard-nosed player who thrived in big games.
“The bigger the game, the better Joe played. I mean, he might not score two points against Louisville at Louisville on a Thursday night, but if it was an NCAA Sweet 16 game, Joe was probably gonna put up, if not a triple-double, his numbers would be like, ‘Damn, I wish we could get this from him every night,’” Martin said. “He just always played big in those NCAA games, those Big East Tournament games. He was always the guy in at the end. Joe is going to make winning plays.”
Jerrod Calhoun, another former assistant under Huggins, echoed a similar sentiment. “Every big game. We came in after John Beilein; obviously, he was recruited by Coach Beilein’s staff, so we inherited this team and ended up going to the Sweet 16. In the game against Duke in Washington, DC, he nearly had a triple-double. He was the MVP of the East Regional, and we beat Arizona and Duke. He was a huge key for that. He was always a big game player.”
After a promising tournament run in 2008, headlined by the aforementioned Tournament win over Duke, in which Mazzulla had 13 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists off the bench, Mazzulla was forced to redshirt for a year after undergoing shoulder surgery.
During his recovery, the left-handed Mazzulla taught himself how to shoot with his right hand while also serving as a key mentor to Darryl “Truck” Bryant, a freshman guard at the time, who took over the starting point guard role when Mazzulla went down.
“Joe really took Truck under his wing and tried to teach him things even though he knew when he came back the next year Truck was going to be the guy he was fighting to get his [starting] spot back,” Martin recalled. “I thought that showed maturity.”
When Mazzulla returned for the 2009-10 season, he had lost his starting role and posted career-low averages of 2.7 points, 2.4 assists, and 1.8 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game. However, he stayed ready, and when Bryant broke his foot before West Virginia’s Sweet 16 matchup against Washington, Mazzulla seized the opportunity.
After coming off the bench in the Mountaineers’ Sweet 16 win over the Huskies, Mazzulla started against top-seeded Kentucky, a team with a couple of future NBAers in John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, and DeMarcus Cousins.
Mazzulla finished with 17 points and four three-pointers, but it was his earlier role in implementing the 1-3-1 zone defense that proved crucial, effectively neutralizing Kentucky’s high-powered offense.
“He had an unbelievable game against Kentucky. But I would say his competitive spirit and intelligence factor were just incredible,” Calhoun said. “He taught Coach Huggins, our staff, and the team the 1-3-1 zone defense that literally beat Kentucky. We don’t beat them without that defense. He was just a coach on the floor from day one.”
As a senior, Mazzulla started 16 games, averaging 7.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, recording 139 assists before going undrafted in 2011, which led to his first coaching gig at Division II Glenville State.
Finding himself
When Mazzulla became an assistant at Division II Glenville State in rural West Virginia, his passion for the game quickly became apparent.
“When he got here, the thing that I saw the most in Joe was his work ethic. It's more than passion. Joe loves this game more than anything I can imagine,” then head coach Stephen Dye said. “It's almost like an obsession. His attention to detail in every aspect of the game and his ability to work with the players were so impactful, even as a first-year assistant just out of college. I was truly amazed by that because he just really had that obsession with the game. If you told him to do anything, he was going to do it obsessively. I think that's why he's so great—he really does put everything he has into it.”
Living in a trailer park, Mazzulla dedicated his free time to breaking down film and preparing materials for Rob McClanaghan, a renowned skills trainer who worked with stars like Stephen Curry, John Wall, Kevin Durant, and Derrick Rose.
“I mean, you hear it all the time. People up there in Boston talk about it all the time. He's a sicko. And that's the truth. I mean, he's just obsessed with it,” Dye said. “Sicko is a perfect word. I mean, it really is. He gets so wrapped up in it, and he's always been that way.”
Mazzulla’s competitiveness extended throughout the organization, pushing everyone, from players to coaches, to perform better.
“Joe is probably the most competitive human being,” said Dye. “For example, our staff was trying to drop some weight. One morning, I was getting up at 6 am, coming up and working outside of our office. The next morning, I got there at 5.30; Joe was out in front, making sure I saw him. He was working out. The following morning, I got up at 5.15 to try to beat him, and he beat me again. I mean, everything you do with Joe, he wants to win. He just competes in every aspect. He increased my competitiveness. Having him around was truly awesome.”
In his role, Mazzulla handled a variety of tasks, from driving the van to road games and booking motels to washing uniforms and preparing team meals. He also contributed significantly to the offensive system and excelled in player development, working extensively with players both on the court and in the film room.
“We didn't really have specific titles. We were a Division II program, so we really just take what we can get,” Dye said. “He helped with all aspects of the program. Recruiting, he was great with player individual instruction. I still think to this day that's where Joe is amazing; his ability to train and develop players at their skill level and increase them is off the charts. He spent a lot of time with our guys in the film session, even on top of what we required. He did additional film study with probably each and every player.”
Mazzulla used his two years at Glenville State to lay the foundation for his coaching style before moving about 75 miles north to Fairmont State. Like his playing career, his coaching approach was built on being the hardest-working individual in the room.
“He puts everything he has into it. His players call him a sicko because he will take anything he possibly can and try to apply it,” Dye said. “He will read and read and read and study and study and study. He watches more game film than probably any human being there is. He puts everything he has into it. To me, that is his biggest quality. He’s brilliant, smart, intelligent, and everybody knows that. But he works so hard at it. His intelligence makes it even better.”
Heading north
Having seen Mazzulla's work ethic as his coach at West Virginia, Calhoun had always wanted to work with him.
“Coaching him and seeing his work ethic, he's just somebody I always wanted to work with and have on my staff,” Calhoun said. “At that time, we didn't know s—, to be honest with you. We were two coaches who thought we knew a lot. We didn't know anything, but I think as you get into the business and get started, we learned a ton of stuff together. We pushed each other. He made me better. He made our program better.”
The two shared a small office where they brainstormed ideas and strategies to advance the team. Much like Glenville, Mazzulla took on various roles but excelled at assisting with offensive concepts and player development.
“He was a great motivator to the players, a great relationship builder, and really good at skill development at that time—I thought he was one of the best I’ve ever been around at taking a young man, getting them to believe in the process of getting better, and holding them accountable,” Calhoun said. “That's his biggest strength, is his leadership. He gets guys to follow him. He has processes for everything he does, and he has a plan.”
One of the traits that makes Mazzulla such an effective leader is his authenticity, which was evident to Calhoun early in his coaching days.
“I think he's authentic. He's going to be himself. I think the best leaders have to adjust to the times, those sorts of things. Each team is different, and their personalities are different. But he has an authentic way about him,” said Calhoun.
“I've only met two or three people like that in my lifetime. Obviously, It'd be him, Coach Huggins, and Jerry West, guys who have all gone on and had great success. He is right in that book or right in that category.”
But again, all roads led back to his work ethic: “But at the end of the day, what made him who he is was the foundation of his work ethic,” said Calhoun. “As he grew into who he is now, I think now he has such good systems and processes that he puts these guys through, and he knows the temperature of the team, and he's got great relationships, and I think he's got all the attributes to be one of the best ever to do it.”
After three years as an assistant under Calhoun with the Fighting Falcons, it became apparent that Mazzulla was ready for his next challenge.
“It was almost like he outgrew his role,” Calhoun recalled. “He either needed to go be a head coach or do something different. The great ones, when they're in assistant roles, that time comes right where they got to expand. And that's when he made the decision to go to the G-League.”
Back to the northeast
For a young coach who excelled in player development, an assistant gig with the Maine Celtics was a perfect fit for Mazzulla.
“It goes back to his ability to make connections. The players love him,” said Dan Wendt, who served as an assistant with Mazzulla in Maine. “He did an amazing job of making sure that the players got the truth from him. And I think they really respected him for that. That was my biggest thing. He certainly had a great mind for the game. And he's crazy like a fox, but his biggest thing was, he was just so good with the players.”
During his first meeting with the players, Mazzulla had them write down three things they needed from him on a note card. In turn, he shared three things he needed from them. Mazzulla believed that if it was important enough for the players to write down, it was important enough for him to ensure he met their expectations.
“It was a two-way relationship where it went kind of beyond just basketball. It was relationships between men,” Wendt said. “Joe is a selfless leader. He's somebody who leads by example. He wouldn't ask somebody to do something that he wasn't fully on board with doing himself. I couldn’t speak enough about who he is as a person.”
While in Maine, Mazzulla's passion for continuous learning remained evident—something everyone who worked with him consistently highlighted.
“Joe was always really curious. I think he was a guy who, he would say, probably didn't necessarily have the right answer. He was always curious enough to try and find a good correct answer,” said Wendt. “He was just a guy that people wanted to be around. Really charismatic. Again, there'd be moments where you would think, like, he's a little bit off his rocker, but then it's like, oh, this is why. You discover the reason later.”
Mazzulla’s time in Maine was short – lasting just one season – before he got a call from Coach Calhoun with an offer to return to Fairmont State, this time as the head coach.
Taking over
After falling short in the Division II National Championship to Northwest Missouri State, Jerrod Calhoun had a phone call to make when he got back to his hotel room. He had decided to accept a head coaching position at Division I Youngstown State University and knew exactly who he wanted to be his successor.
“I went outside my room, and my wife was like, what are you doing? I said, ‘I have to call Joe,’” Calhoun recalled. “I said, I'm taking the Youngstown State job. I got offered it before the game. I already had it in my mind, and without question, I knew he was the guy. So when I approached the team, Joe had already told me he would take it. We pretty much named him the coach without the AD and the president really signing off on it because we were such a tight-knit group.”
Bringing Mazzulla in was a no-brainer. Not only had Calhoun seen what he was capable of as a coach, but Mazzulla had also helped Calhoun recruit many of the players on the roster time, making it more of a “passing of the torch” rather than a drastic change.
“I didn't want to take the job if he wasn't going to take it because I felt so bad about leaving,” said Calhoun. “But it made me feel a lot better when I knew he was coming back.”
When Mazzulla and his staff arrived, they had the chance to leave their mark and build their own culture—a culture focused on leaving the jersey in a better place than they found it, trust, and creating buy-in from the players through relationship-building, both on and off the court.
“When we were designing and coming up with a culture, he was really, really good at that,” said Jesse Wukasch, a former assistant on Mazzulla’s Fairmont staff. “We would have team meals together. We would have a ‘hands-free’ meal where no phones were being used, which I thought was great.”
“He's very methodical, calculated — and calculated, not just with practice playing, but also with people. Like, he is really, really calculated and predetermined about when he's going to have certain types of conversations with certain guys, whether it be players or staff. He almost had -- like, a roadmap in his head, a personal roadmap or a relationship roadmap, in his head of, alright, this is where the relationship is. Now we're at Stage C. Let's go, let's take it deeper, or take it on to the next stage of Stage D. And just really calculated and methodical in that way.”
At Fairmont, Mazzulla displayed an innate ability to put people in challenging situations that offered opportunities for growth, an approach Celtics fans are all too familiar with.
“He was really good at creating opportunities for people to be uncomfortable,” Wukasch recalled. “He's really good at that. And not uncomfortable in the sense of negative, but more in the sense of, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity to grow.’ So, reshaping and reforming the player's and coaches' mindsets around what it means, what can actually be, or what it can lead to.”
After finishing his first season at Fairmont State with a 21-8 record, Mazzulla received a call from then-Celtics President Danny Ainge, who offered him a player development job. However, Mazzulla decided to decline the offer.
Following a 22-9 finish in his second season, which included an NCAA Division II Tournament berth, Brad Stevens, impressed by Mazzulla's work in Maine, reached out with an offer for an assistant coaching position. This time, Mazzulla accepted.
Etching his name in history
Mazzulla's first season in Boston came during the COVID-impacted 2019-20 campaign. The Celtics finished with a 48-24 record and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA "bubble" at Walt Disney World.
After the shortened 2020-21 season, which ended with the Celtics' first-round playoff exit, Brad Stevens stepped down as head coach and appointed Ime Udoka as his successor. As Udoka shaped his staff, he kept Mazzulla on board.
“He was a guy that there was a consensus, yes," Udoka said in June of 2022. "Somebody that [the players] all worked with closely, believed in, and understood his upside."
By now, the story is well-known. The then-34-year-old was hired on an interim basis just five days before the start of training camp following Ime Udoka’s suspension. After leading the Celtics to an NBA-best 42-17 record at the All-Star break last season, Mazzulla was officially named the 19th coach in franchise history – a decision that has positioned the Celtics for long-term success.
From the beginning, Mazzulla faced skepticism. Many underestimated the immense challenge of stepping into the role on short notice, especially with a depleted staff and a team coming off an NBA Finals appearance.
After a full offseason to prepare, Mazzulla made a lasting impact on the Boston Celtics' culture—one that will live forever, etched into the legacy of Banner 18.
For those who have worked with Mazzulla, his success is no surprise.
“It's not a surprise. He's an extremely hard worker. He's extremely intelligent,” Gomes said. “I mean, he's a second-year head coach in the NBA and has an NBA title. And he's he's still learning. So I keep telling people the best is yet to come for Joey. And I think we're seeing the beginnings of what could be something very special with the Boston Celtics and maybe even beyond that.”
“This was a guy that never ever lost sight of where he was trying to go. He's probably the fastest riser ever in the history of the NBA,” Calhoun added. “He's the second youngest NBA coach to win a championship. You do need some breaks, there's no doubt about it, but at the end of the day, if you're not ready when those opportunities come, you're going to fail. He always stayed ready and I think that all starts and ends with his growth and his mindset. That's why I think he's a great coach. I think he's got all the attributes to be one of the best ever to do it.”
“Looking back and reflecting now, his work ethic, his obsession, I can see how he's done it,” said Dye. “It's an amazing story. It's almost it's a movie. It's so special how he did it.”
For those who’ve seen his journey unfold, Mazzulla’s success isn’t just earned—it’s a thrilling testament to his relentless dedication and talent. With Banner 18 now flying high, the story of Joe Mazzulla is only just starting to be told.
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