Joe Mazzulla’s path to move coach of the Celtics was 15 years within the making, and it might have been seen coming from Morgantown, West Virginia.
The 12 months is 2007. Mazzulla, then a sophomore level guard at West Virginia, was a part of a Mountaineers program going by way of change. John Beilein left to turn out to be the top coach at Michigan, and WVU employed Bob Huggins to switch him.
Early on that preseason, Huggins wanted some assist from his gamers – and he enlisted Mazzulla to take action.
Despite the teaching change, many of the WVU roster stayed. And Huggins wished to play to his new group’s strengths. Under Beilein, the Mountaineers performed a 1-3-1 zone protection that was profitable and Huggins wished to maintain it round, however he wanted to find out how their system labored.
Enter Mazzulla. During the primary week of preseason practices, Huggins requested for a tutorial from his gamers. Mazzulla and fellow sophomore Da’Sean Butler have been his lecturers, and the previous made a powerful impression.
“(Huggins) says, I’m going to be like a player, I want you to teach me this zone defense,” recalled Billy Hahn, then an assistant coach below Huggins. “So these guys put it in they usually taught ‘Huggy Bear’ and our workers that zone. …
“I’m seeing that and going, ‘Joe Mazzulla can really coach.’ I can see that then. I said, ‘This guy’s going to be a coach some day.’”
It was a primary impression of many throughout Mazzulla’s time at West Virginia, which was instrumental, for a number of causes, in paving his path to Boston. And whereas it might have come as a shock to many when the Celtics elevated him from assistant coach to interim head coach final month within the wake of Ime Udoka’s season-long suspension, it was no shock to those that knew him greatest in Morgantown.
“The Boston Celtics have a grand slam home run with Joe,” Hahn stated.
Humble roots
One of Huggins’ first experiences with Mazzulla concerned the purpose guard performing some self-coaching.
During a preseason exhibition recreation towards Virginia in 2007, Mazzulla was turning the ball over at a excessive stage and was understandably annoyed.
“He comes over to me and says, ‘Take me out. I suck,’” Huggins recalled. “And I said, ‘Joe, I knew you sucked before we even started. Just go out there and try to get it all out of your system. Just throw it anywhere you want and get it all out of your system.’ And he just looked at me, shook his head and went back out there and turned it over a few more times.”
Instances like that helped Mazzulla’s West Virginia coaches be taught extra about him. They described him as an unimaginable competitor and hard-nosed participant who introduced a ardour for the sport and left all the pieces on the courtroom. “This guy hates to lose,” Hahn stated.
Mazzulla’s 2009-10 season appeared to outline the on-court competitor that he was. The level guard suffered a separated left shoulder that ended his 2008-09 season and began a protracted restoration after surgical procedure. But simply because he was sidelined didn’t imply his work stopped. The left-handed Mazzulla taught himself methods to shoot together with his proper hand.
“Instead of practicing, he would practice on the sidelines shooting free throws with his right hand,” Hahn stated. “I’m speaking the complete apply. I imply, he by no means stopped. It was superb. And then he comes again when he’s (wholesome), he’s so a lot better right-handed than he was earlier than. It was loopy.
“But that’s how Joe was.”
When Mazzulla returned, he initially wasn’t the identical participant however he nonetheless performed a key function for the Mountaineers of their run to the Final Four that included an sudden twist after they reached the Sweet 16. Darryl “Truck” Bryant, WVU’s start line guard, suffered a damaged foot, which out of the blue thrust Mazzulla again into a serious function.
Mazzulla didn’t disappoint. After coming off the bench within the Mountaineers’ Sweet 16 win over Washington, Mazzulla began towards top-seeded Kentucky, a group that boasted future No. 1 decide John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.
Mazzulla’s teaching from a number of years earlier than got here to fruition. Knowing they might haven’t any likelihood towards a extra gifted Kentucky in the event that they performed man-on-man protection, Huggins re-installed the 1-3-1 zone, and had Mazzulla and different gamers come to his workplace earlier than the matchup to debate their strategy. The trick? Huggins trusted Mazzulla to play on the again line of the 1-3-1, which meant guarding the a lot bigger, 6-foot-10 Cousins.
“He went down there and wrestled that bear for 40 minutes,” Huggins stated.
And he gained. Not solely did Mazzulla rating 17 factors, however his protection helped neutralize Cousins, who scored 15 factors and dedicated 5 turnovers, because the Mountaineers celebrated a visit to the Final Four.
“Tough as nails,” Hahn stated. “The big fella didn’t want any part of Joe Mazzulla by the end of the game.”
‘A changed guy’
Mazzulla’s West Virginia profession wasn’t with out its share of adversity.
In addition to his accidents, Mazzulla received into some bother off the courtroom. In 2008, he was charged with underage ingesting and preventing with police at a Pittsburgh Pirates recreation, and in 2009, he was arrested for home battery after he allegedly grabbed a girl by the neck at a bar, which Huggins suspended him for.
“Joe was a pretty wild guy back here at WVU,” Hahn stated. “He got in trouble a couple of times, he was sort of a pain in the butt for us coaching staff.”
Mazzulla, although, has been accountable for these actions. And when questions on his previous got here up after he grew to become the Celtics’ head coach final month, he stated these conditions allowed him to develop.
“I’ve made mistakes,” Mazzulla stated. “I’m not perfect. I’ve hurt people, and I’ve had to use the situations I put myself in as a younger man, I’ve had to use (them) to learn from and to become a better person.”
Those round him can attest to that.
“He is a changed guy from when he was a player here,” stated Hahn, who stated he’s gotten a lot nearer with Mazzulla since he left WVU.
Hahn stated he observed a change in Mazzulla after he married his spouse Camai, who he met when he coached at Fairmont State as he noticed a “different man” for the higher, somebody loving, caring and below management.
Then, two years in the past, Hahn was in awe of who Mazzulla had turn out to be. After Mazzulla’s father Dan, a legendary basketball coach in Rhode Island, died of most cancers in April 2020, he gave the eulogy. Both Huggins and Hahn expressed that Mazzulla’s father was extraordinarily influential in shaping his son – “Everything about Joe had a lot to do with his dad,” Hahn stated – and that was obvious that day.
“You talk about an unbelievable eulogy,” Hahn stated. “It was absolutely tear-jerking. I listened to that and I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me. This is Joe Mazzulla?’ If anybody could see this now and know where he came from and know where he’s at right now, they wouldn’t believe this. But that’s what it’s all about.”
‘Just be yourself’
Mazzulla resigned from his head-coaching job at Division 3 Fairmont State in 2019 to pursue an assistant job with the Celtics, and he had massive objectives.
“He said, ‘I’m going to coach in the NBA,’” Huggins stated. “I’m like, ‘It’s not that easy, brother.’ He went after it.”
Mazzulla’s promotion to Celtics head coach might have come below sudden circumstances and sooner than anticipated, however his street appeared inevitable, particularly after he interviewed for the Utah Jazz opening this summer time.
“When he interviewed for the Utah job I’m going, ‘Man, Joe must be highly respected within the NBA’,” Hahn stated. “He’s going to interview already. I said, ‘He’ll be a head coach someday. It’s just a matter of time.’”
Hahn was assured, too, due to what he noticed greater than a decade in the past. When he was an assistant at WVU, Hahn was in control of the guards and Mazzulla would normally cease by his workplace to observe tape and discuss recreation plans, and it was clear he had a coach’s thoughts.
“I could just tell Joe was going to be a coach,” Hahn stated. “Joe was on top of everything. Joe was just brilliant with everything to a point where he would ask questions and his questions were great questions.”
When Mazzulla knew he had the job final month, he referred to as Huggins very first thing within the morning. The name wakened a groggy Huggins, who was on a recruiting journey, and Mazzulla began asking him some questions.
“I said, “Joe, I’ve never coached in the NBA. I don’t know anything about it. That’s all on you,’” Huggins stated. “Like he does with everything else, he took it and ran.”
While powerful challenges and exams definitely await him – beginning with Tuesday’s common season opener towards the 76ers – Mazzulla’s first coaching camp went clean and profitable, particularly given the circumstances. Virtually each Celtics participant has issued reward for Mazzulla, lauding how pure of a match he’s been.
His West Virginia coaches aren’t shocked.
“He loves coaching,” Huggins stated. “He’s just like a sponge. He sucks it all in like any good coach does, and then you take what you like and you forget about the rest.”
Molded by nice lecturers – his dad, Beilein and Huggins, amongst others – and armed with loads of classes realized by way of the years, Mazzulla appears prepared for his second. Down in Morgantown, they’ve already seen it, already even skilled his teaching. They know he’s ready. But earlier than they let him go, they left him with yet another piece of recommendation.
“Just be Joe Mazzulla,” Hahn stated. “I said, just be yourself and be nobody else. Being Joe Mazzulla got you where you are today. Don’t change. Just be yourself.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com