Jrue Holiday Reveals Joe Mazzulla’s Message To Celtics Before Title Defense

BOSTON — The Joe Mazzulla experience is unlike any other provided by an NBA head coach, and that’s regardless of whether it’s Opening Night, Game 5 of the NBA Finals or the first day of training camp with the 2024-25 Celtics.

Jrue Holiday, entering his second season with the team, is well aware of the unique edge that comes with Mazzulla. Film sessions consisting of watching killer whales, UFC fights or diligent note-taking while catching a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park all make Mazzulla a one-of-one basketball aficionado. So as the team returned to its practice facility just three months removed from its Banner 18 clincher back in June, Mazzulla fired off his first official message to the reigning champion Celtics.

“Joe’s message? Joe being Joe,” Holiday said during Tuesday’s media day at Auerbach Center. “I think he just pointed out that people are gonna say that we’re really good and at times, people are gonna say that we suck — no literally. I think that was word for word. People think that we’re gonna be really good. People think we’re gonna suck, but none of that matters. All that matters is that we take care of each other and we go out there every day and do what we can for the person next to us.”

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Mazzulla worked to gain Boston’s trust and successfully did so in a matter of two seasons. Stepping in for a dismissed Ime Udoka in 2022, and on extremely short notice before training camp that year, Mazzulla was granted a paper-thin amount of time to leap from assistant to interim head coach. Doing so for an organization that already underwent its rebuild dog days, drafted the correct cornerstones (in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) and isn’t hesitant to invest wherever needed, comes with an outpour of pressures that coaches seated behind the clipboard director on the sidelines don’t have to navigate each night. Now, Mazzulla is facing an opportunity to lead the Celtics to their first title repeat since 1966 — over five decades ago.

Trusting in Mazzulla’s vision for the team, Holiday doesn’t intend to change much. The roster is mostly intact and aside from missing out on Kristaps Porizingis to start the season, but not much should change in terms of roles. Holiday will remain a starter in Boston’s backcourt with Derrick White as his right-hand man, working to give opposing teams hell defensively while also keeping a red-hot 3-pointing shooting hand warm for whenever Holiday ends up with the ball from either corner — shooting a league-best 61.5% on corner threes and averaged 12.5 points in 69 games last season.

“I am here and I know what my role is and what I’m going to do,” Holiday added. “I feel like we have a lot of the same team. We know that we’re gonna build chemistry. We’re gonna do it through training camp and through most of the season and Joe’s probably gonna have us do some new crazy drills or whatever. So super excited about that.”