(Los Angeles) In two seasons, the young American head coach of the Boston Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, went from complete unknown to NBA champion, a triumph for this game theorist with claimed affiliation with the Spaniard Pep Guardiola, master tactician of soccer.
“Joe (Mazzulla) is a basketball genius,” summarized point guard Derrick White after Game 3 of the final brilliantly won by the Boston Celtics against the Dallas Mavericks, four wins to one.
At only 35 years old (36 on June 30), Mazzulla was able to build a high-quality squad that crushed the NBA, during the regular season (64 wins-18 losses), then during the playoffs, with 16 wins and Only 3 losses.
This former university player at West Virginia, coach since leaving school in 2011 due to lack of opportunity, has become the second youngest crowned coach in history, a few months older than the legendary Bill Russell, titled in 1967 in as a player-coach with the same Celtics.
The historic Massachusetts franchise surprised in the fall of 2022 by trusting this unknown to the general public, who joined the “C’s” staff in 2019, assistant coach at the time of the ousting of Ime Udoka.
Confirmed as a starter a few months later, Joe Mazzulla imposed a vision of the game and a refreshing management style praised by his players, even the oldest ones like interior player Al Horford… two years his senior.
“My favorite part of the job is seeing the game with an artist’s eye. To give the guys a white board, full of possibilities. Let’s explore them together,” he explained to The Athletic at the start of the year.
This basketball theorist admires the work of another great brain of world sport, Pep Guardiola, brilliant with FC Barcelona then Bayern Munich and Manchester City since 2016, present at the edge of the field during the first match of the finals.
“I study Manchester City and Pep a lot. I think he is the best coach in the world, in all sports and at all levels. He has a big influence on me,” Mazzulla says.
“We developed a great relationship. I wish I could say we are making each other better. He helped me greatly with space management. »
Mazzulla visited Manchester in February for an exchange of ideas and jerseys.
“We study your game systems, your transitions, and the way you defend the transitions,” explained the American to a small group of players (Ruben Dias, Jeremy Doku, Nathan Aké, Phil Foden) captivated on the sidelines of a training session, as shown in a video from the Premier League club.
“Football and basketball, from a tactical point of view, are similar, you have to learn to create an advantage,” continues this son of a former university player and then high school coach in Rhode Island.
Black hooded jacket, dark gaze, Mazzulla fights throughout press conferences the idea of two distinct phases, offensive and defensive, for a continuity made of transitions, all with an ultra-fast flow and without any punctuation.
To transmit and repeat his principles to the players, the technician, who passed through the universities of Glenville State and Fairmont State and the G-League with the Maine Red Claws, tries to surprise these professionals who play nearly a hundred matches per year.
“He talks to us about football, but also about ancient whale hunters, about their way of finding their prey, and connects that to basketball, it’s quite unique,” laughs Payton Pritchard.
Obsessed with the potentially fatal relaxation of teams that have taken the advantage, Mazzulla broadcasts to his players clips of mixed martial arts fights, including one where a strangled fighter ends up knocking down his opponent who has become too passive.
In Game 3, the Celtics nearly let a 21-point advantage melt away in 5 minutes.
“Joe hammers it at us, he’s probably happy that it happened to us so he can continue to hammer it on us. He’s crazy, he probably appreciated” the return of the Mavericks, smiled Derrick White.
So Mazzulla was right, as his NBA title proved.
