Explicitly Awkward: Joe Mazzulla Wins the “Stupid” Award He Loathes
Explicitly Awkward: Joe Mazzulla Wins the “Stupid” Award He Loathes
Joe Mazzulla would really appreciate it if you didn’t congratulate him today.
On Tuesday night, the Boston Celtics head coach became the franchise’s first recipient of the NBA Coach of the Year award in 46 years. He should be popping champagne. Instead, he’s probably staring at a wall, deeply annoyed that the league went against his explicit wishes.
You see, back in March, Mazzulla made his feelings on the honor crystal clear:
“Don’t need it,” Mazzulla told reporters. “I think it’s a stupid award. They shouldn’t have it. And it’s more about the players. It’s more about the work that the staff puts in... It’s just that dumb.”
Well, Joe, the voters listened to your complaints, looked at your resume, and handed it to you anyway. Mazzulla absolutely dominated the ballot, vacuuming up 62 first-place votes to comfortably beat out Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff (29) and San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson (9).
Even in his official acceptance statement, Mazzulla refused to give in to the hardware, suggesting a complete corporate rebrand: “This award should be named Staff of the Year.”
Turning Water Into No. 2 Seed Wine
While Mazzulla thinks the award is dumb, the job he did this season was downright genius.
Expectations were, let’s say, tempered heading into the year. The Celtics front office underwent a massive summer garage sale, parting ways with foundational veteran pieces like Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis, and Al Horford. Oh, and superstar Jayson Tatum casually missed the first 62 games of the season.
Mazzulla was handed a roster that resembled a group of strangers assembled in a YMCA lobby and told to go win an NBA game. They dropped their first three contests, and the panic buttons in Boston were being mashed.
Instead of folding, the 37-year-old—the youngest COTY winner in 51 years—turned the TD Garden into a basketball laboratory. He gamified accountability. During the preseason, if a player gave up an offensive rebound, Mazzulla yanked them faster than a bad comedy act getting the hook. He rotated guys like Luka Garza based on pure merit, keeping the bench hungry and perpetually ready.
The result? A 56-26 record, the second-best home record in the league, and an offense and defense that both finished in the top four in efficiency.
The Voting Landslide
The NBA media didn’t care about Joe's feelings. Here is how the voting shook out for the league's top whistle-blowers:
Coach Team 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Total
Joe Mazzulla Celtics 62 39 2 431
J.B. Bickerstaff Pistons 29 31 2 240
Mitch Johnson Spurs 91 3 3 87
Charles Lee Hornets 0 3 1 10
Jordan Ott Suns 0 1 1 4
Historic Company, Bittersweet Ending
By capturing the trophy, Mazzulla joins a sacred row of Celtics coaching royalty. He is just the fourth coach in the storied history of the franchise to win it, pulling up a chair next to Bill Fitch (1979-80), Tommy Heinsohn (1972-73), and the legendary Red Auerbach (1964-65).
Unfortunately, regular-season trophies don't protect you from playoff heartbreak. Despite Mazzulla's coaching masterclass over the 82-game grind, the Celtics' season came to a grinding halt in a disappointing, first-round collapse against the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston blew a 3-1 series lead, capped off by a 109-100 Game 7 loss where a returning Jayson Tatum was sidelined yet again with knee stiffness.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a guy who coached this team to Banner 18 just two years ago. But if we know anything about Joe Mazzulla, he’s already forgotten about the first-round exit, threw his Coach of the Year trophy directly into a dumpster, and is currently watching film on how to defend an inbound pass in mid-July.
