Sam Cassell, a three-time NBA champion (including one with the Boston Celtics in 2008) and a former assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers, joined the Celtics coaching staff under second-year head coach Joe Mazzulla, and recently described how it came about, and how he hoped to support his new boss on a very familiar bench via MassLive’s Brian Robb.
“Right after the playoffs were over, we got together, (had a) couple phone conversations,” said Cassell on how the process began. “(He) asked me, first of all, if I was interested in coming here, (to) join his staff, the Celtics”
“I just told him it’d be an honor,” he continued. “I hadn’t heard from anybody else. … I think Joe’s an amazing coach. I’m here to just help him just let him enjoy that we have a great team. I won’t change his mentality, that’s who he is. But I’m going to help him enjoy it a little bit more.”
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“I’ve been every player from the best player to the 15th man on the team,” he noted, hinting at his championship pedigree. “I know how each player feels so I can relate to each and every one of them. The guy who gets the ball all the time, the guy who doesn’t get the ball.”
“I won a championship in Boston and I was maybe the eighth or ninth man. Some nights I played, some nights I didn’t play, but I was always in the game plan and that’s my message to them. You got to be in the game plan, you got to be in the moment to seize the moment.”
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