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Let’s Enjoy Some Posts of Celtics Fans Turning on Joe Mazzulla
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Joe Mazzulla has long been lauded by the national media and Celtics fans alike for being a mad genius. His methods are nontraditional… He says all kinds of weird stuff… He likes The Town… that must mean he’s a basketball savant. The proof is in the pudding! The Celtics are always good in the regular season. Boston won a championship in 2024. Joe’s a finalist for the 2026 Coach of the Year. It all adds up. Everyone agrees: the guy is simply great at what he does…
Until he absolutely bungles a 3-1 series lead against the Sixers and lands the Celtics in a Game 7, and you begin to ask yourself: “Wait… wasn’t every team that the Celtics beat in their ‘24 championship run extremely injured? Haven’t the Celtics lost in spectacularly embarrassing fashion in every other postseason since Joe took over? Wasn’t he out-coached in the 2025 playoffs by Tom Thibodeau, weeks before Thibs got fired? Is Joe merely the new Mike Budenholzer – a very flawed, not-that-great coach who doesn’t know how to make adjustments, and is making a career by coasting on the talented roster he inherited?”
These are the kinds of questions that seem to be on the minds of Celtics fans today:
Just brutal. You can’t read through this stuff without feeling for Celtics fans. I wish for nothing more than a Sixers win in Game 7, so Boston fans everywhere can accept the truth with an open heart: Yeah, Joe Mazzulla is a bad coach.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)