DALLAS — Joe Mazzulla, the once-upon-a-time second-row assistant who is now the second-year head coach of the Boston Celtics, didn’t just wake up one day and start saying things that bounce around from quirky to off-beat to head-scratching to comical and back again.
He’s been his own NBA Entertainment subdivision since the day he was named head coach going into training camp for the 2022-23 season. It’s just that you have to win, as in win it all, to become one of those coach/managers whose musings could fill a book. Think Bill Parcells in football, or Earl Weaver in baseball. Was does all that mean? It means get ready, world: With their 106-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center, Mazzulla’s Celtics are one step away from completing a four-game sweep of this fast-sunsetting NBA Finals.
Once it’s over, the jockeying by the late-night talk shows to get Mazzulla on their couch is going to be intense. Certainly more intense than this series has been.
And speaking of intense, let’s take you to what Mazzulla had to say early Wednesday night before Game 3. Now this cat is just 35 years old, too young to be too old-fashioned, and yet he’s got it in him to reach for outside-the-box gimmicks to motivate his players. It’s been noted that he’s been sneaking into the world of UFC for news Joe can use, and he expanded on that before Wednesday’s game.
