Overview
- Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was named one of three finalists for NBA Coach of the Year, joining Detroit’s J. B. Bickerstaff and San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson.
- Mazzulla has called the award “stupid” and said he does not want to discuss it, later explaining he shed a player’s sense of entitlement to become a better coach, husband, and father.
- Boston won 56 games and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference despite being without Jayson Tatum for much of the season as he recovered from a torn Achilles tendon.
- Developing contributors, including Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh, stepped into meaningful roles that supported Mazzulla’s candidacy.
- BetMGM listed Mazzulla as the favorite at the end of the regular season, and the NBA plans to announce the Coach of the Year winner during the postseason.