Why Joe Mazzulla Anticipated Midseason Firing From Celtics

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla isn’t one to blindly wish for the best with his fingers crossed. In fact, he’s the exact opposite.

When the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets relieved Taylor Jenkins and Mike Malone of their head-coaching duties just a few weeks before the playoffs, respectively, Mazzulla was honest. His eyebrows didn’t raise in shock as the news reminded Mazzulla of everything he’s already known since pursuing a career in the NBA: It could be anyone at any time, any day of the week and for any reason.

Mazzulla embraced that perspective, even as the league’s reigning champion head coach, as soon as the Celtics tumbled amid a 10-6 slump in January.

“When we were in that stretch in January when we weren’t playing well, I woke every day telling myself, ‘I’m getting fired,’ if I didn’t turn this thing around,” Mazzulla told Barstool’s “Pardon My Take” podcast. “Like, I’m done. And I would tell the staff, too, like, ‘Guys, we’re done if we don’t figure this thing out.’ You know, we don’t deserve to coach here (if we can’t fix it).”

The Celtics weren’t playing up to their potential at the time, allowing teams like the Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks and Cooper Flagg-contending Toronto Raptors to edge them out. Mazzulla’s squad ranked 19th in 3-point percentage (36%), 13th in offensive rating (115.7) and first in turnovers (11.5). For the first time since the team acquired Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, two offseasons ago, the Celtics posed concerns, warranting the big-picture question: Would they leak into the playoffs?

Well, if the final 15 games of the regular season were any indicator, then the answer would be a resounding no.

Boston, even with a locked No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, never took its foot off the gas. Despite notable injury absences and load management DNPs, the Celtics won 13 of their last 15 games, a stretch in which they ranked first in 3-pointers made (17.4) per game, first in opponent scoring (103.0) and ranked fourth in rebounds (47.3).

It was a masterful turnaround that, if anything, demonstrated what the Celtics should’ve been from the first month of the new year. But still, it hasn’t changed Mazzulla’s perspective as the team begins its title defense run on Sunday against the Orlando Magic.

“You gotta be aware of your own mortality,” Mazzulla said. “The Celtics have been great before I was here, and they’re gonna be great whenever I’m done. You just have a responsibility and an ownership to be a part of the community, win as much as you can, and leave a little bit better than you found it, and then when your time’s up, it’s the next guy’s. That’s just kind of how I look at it. The coaching doesn’t really define me. If it happens, the next day I gotta take my kids to school and you just focus on the present.”

Mazzulla’s promotion from interim to full-time head coach two seasons ago received some backlash, which only ballooned once the Celtics were eliminated by the Miami Heat in the conference finals. Since then, the embracing of Mazzulla’s philosophy and outlook has elevated the Celtics to great lengths, keeping their championship window open.

If surpassing 60 wins in the regular season wasn’t enough for Mazzulla to feel secure about his gig in Boston, perhaps Banner 19 would, right? Probably not.