Joe Mazzulla’s path to head coach of the Celtics was 15 years in the making, and it could have been seen coming from Morgantown, West Virginia.
The year is 2007. Mazzulla, then a sophomore point guard at West Virginia, was part of a Mountaineers program going through change. John Beilein left to become the head coach at Michigan, and WVU hired Bob Huggins to replace him.
Early on that preseason, Huggins needed some help from his players – and he enlisted Mazzulla to do so.
Despite the coaching change, most of the WVU roster stayed. And Huggins wanted to play to his new team’s strengths. Under Beilein, the Mountaineers played a 1-3-1 zone defense that was successful and Huggins wanted to keep it around, but he needed to learn how their system worked.
Enter Mazzulla. During the first week of preseason practices, Huggins asked for a tutorial from his players. Mazzulla and fellow sophomore Da’Sean Butler were his teachers, and the former made a strong 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 under Huggins. “So those guys put it in and they taught ‘Huggy Bear’ and our staff 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 first impression of many during Mazzulla’s time at West Virginia, which was instrumental, for several reasons, in paving his path to Boston. And while it may have come as a surprise to many when the Celtics elevated him from assistant coach to interim head coach last month in the wake of Ime Udoka’s season-long suspension, it was no surprise to those who knew him best in Morgantown.
“The Boston Celtics have a grand slam home run with Joe,” Hahn said.
Humble roots
One of Huggins’ first experiences with Mazzulla involved the point guard doing some self-coaching.
During a preseason exhibition game against Virginia in 2007, Mazzulla was turning the ball over at a high level and was understandably frustrated.
“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 learn more about him. They described him as an incredible competitor and hard-nosed player who brought a passion for the game and left everything on the court. “This guy hates to lose,” Hahn said.
Mazzulla’s 2009-10 season seemed to define the on-court competitor that he was. The point guard suffered a separated left shoulder that ended his 2008-09 season and started a long recovery after surgery. But just because he was sidelined didn’t mean his work stopped. The left-handed Mazzulla taught himself how to shoot with his right hand.
“Instead of practicing, he would practice on the sidelines shooting free throws with his right hand,” Hahn said. “I’m talking the entire practice. I mean, he never stopped. It was amazing. And then he comes back when he’s (healthy), he’s so much better right-handed than he was before. It was crazy.
“But that’s how Joe was.”
When Mazzulla returned, he initially wasn’t the same player but he still played a key role for the Mountaineers in their run to the Final Four that included an unexpected twist after they reached the Sweet 16. Darryl “Truck” Bryant, WVU’s starting point guard, suffered a broken foot, which suddenly thrust Mazzulla back into a major role.
Mazzulla didn’t disappoint. After coming off the bench in the Mountaineers’ Sweet 16 win over Washington, Mazzulla started against top-seeded Kentucky, a team that boasted future No. 1 pick John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.
Mazzulla’s coaching from a few years before came to fruition. Knowing they would have no chance against a more talented Kentucky if they played man-on-man defense, Huggins re-installed the 1-3-1 zone, and had Mazzulla and other players come to his office before the matchup to discuss their approach. The trick? Huggins trusted Mazzulla to play on the back line of the 1-3-1, which meant guarding the much larger, 6-foot-10 Cousins.
“He went down there and wrestled that bear for 40 minutes,” Huggins said.
And he won. Not only did Mazzulla score 17 points, but his defense helped neutralize Cousins, who scored 15 points and committed five turnovers, as the Mountaineers celebrated a trip to the Final Four.
“Tough as nails,” Hahn said. “The big fella didn’t want any part of Joe Mazzulla by the end of the game.”
‘A changed guy’
Mazzulla’s West Virginia career wasn’t without its share of adversity.
In addition to his injuries, Mazzulla got into some trouble off the court. In 2008, he was charged with underage drinking and fighting with police at a Pittsburgh Pirates game, and in 2009, he was arrested for domestic battery after he allegedly grabbed a woman by the neck at a bar, which Huggins suspended him for.
“Joe was a pretty wild guy back here at WVU,” Hahn said. “He got in trouble a couple of times, he was sort of a pain in the butt for us coaching staff.”
Mazzulla, though, has been accountable for those actions. And when questions about his past came up after he became the Celtics’ head coach last month, he said those situations allowed him to grow.
“I’ve made mistakes,” Mazzulla said. “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 around him can attest to that.
“He is a changed guy from when he was a player here,” said Hahn, who said he’s gotten much closer with Mazzulla since he left WVU.
Hahn said he noticed a change in Mazzulla after he married his wife Camai, who he met when he coached at Fairmont State as he saw a “different man” for the better, someone loving, caring and under control.
Then, two years ago, Hahn was in awe of who Mazzulla had become. After Mazzulla’s father Dan, a legendary basketball coach in Rhode Island, died of cancer in April 2020, he gave the eulogy. Both Huggins and Hahn expressed that Mazzulla’s father was extremely influential in shaping his son – “Everything about Joe had a lot to do with his dad,” Hahn said – and that was apparent that day.
“You talk about an unbelievable eulogy,” Hahn said. “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 big goals.
“He said, ‘I’m going to coach in the NBA,’” Huggins said. “I’m like, ‘It’s not that easy, brother.’ He went after it.”
Mazzulla’s promotion to Celtics head coach may have come under unexpected circumstances and earlier than expected, but his road seemed inevitable, especially after he interviewed for the Utah Jazz opening this summer.
“When he interviewed for the Utah job I’m going, ‘Man, Joe must be highly respected within the NBA’,” Hahn said. “He’s going to interview already. I said, ‘He’ll be a head coach someday. It’s just a matter of time.’”
Hahn was confident, too, because of what he saw more than a decade ago. When he was an assistant at WVU, Hahn was in charge of the guards and Mazzulla would routinely stop by his office to watch tape and talk about game plans, and it was clear he had a coach’s mind.
“I could just tell Joe was going to be a coach,” Hahn said. “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 last month, he called Huggins first thing in the morning. The call woke up a groggy Huggins, who was on a recruiting trip, and Mazzulla started 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 said. “Like he does with everything else, he took it and ran.”
While tough challenges and tests certainly await him – starting with Tuesday’s regular season opener against the 76ers – Mazzulla’s first training camp went smooth and successful, especially given the circumstances. Virtually every Celtics player has issued praise for Mazzulla, lauding how natural of a fit he’s been.
His West Virginia coaches aren’t surprised.
“He loves coaching,” Huggins said. “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 great teachers – his dad, Beilein and Huggins, among others – and armed with plenty of lessons learned through the years, Mazzulla seems ready for his moment. Down in Morgantown, they’ve already seen it, already even experienced his coaching. They know he’s prepared. But before they let him go, they left him with one more piece of advice.
“Just be Joe Mazzulla,” Hahn said. “I said, just be yourself and be nobody else. Being Joe Mazzulla got you where you are today. Don’t change. Just be yourself.”
