Boston Celtics
“We all got to be on the same playing field … The only thing that would have made it better is if we all went out for a beer afterwards.”
Joe Mazzulla offered the reporters who cover his team a unique opportunity to get to know his coaching staff better on Tuesday.
Instead of just having the media members play against each other in their annual pick up game at the Auerbach Center, he decided to have the media play against the coaches.
Mazzulla and his assistants showed no mercy. The coaches won 57-4. The media could barely get the ball over halfcourt. It was 12 minutes of straight-up pedal-to-the-metal full-court pressing. With multiple former professional players on the court, the coaches had a significant talent advantage.
The Celtics coach explained the motivation behind the match-up during a radio appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub Wednesday afternoon.
The media game was a promotion for the Jr. Celtics Academy, which is the team’s official youth basketball platform. When he heard that the media was going to be playing after practice, Mazzulla saw a rare opportunity to see the writers in a different light.
“It’s kind of the world we live in today where one tweet doesn’t tell the whole story, or you miss the context and the point of what something like that is,” Mazzulla said. “The intention of it wasn’t to get out, but that’s kind of the world we live in. It’s something I want to do more.”
“The truth behind it is there’s very few times — it’s like with you guys and me,” the coach added. “We go out to eat, we level the playing field, we’re all on the same page, everyone’s guard is down and there’s not a distance. Again, it’s unfortunate that people don’t get the whole context of the day, but we all got to be in a competitive environment together.”
Make no mistake, Mazzulla wanted to crush the media team. But, the game was put together with the spirit of building camaraderie in mind, he said.
“The coaches played the first game, and the point was to win. Absolutely,” Mazzulla said. “Then they played each other for two quarters and then the staff got to coach, and we all got to be on the same playing field. You know how it goes. The only thing that would have made it better is if we all went out for a beer afterwards.”
The environment wasn’t as tense as his post-game press conferences, the coach said.
“We could have our guard down and be on a level playing field,” Mazzulla said. “I learned so much about all the beat writers, and it was a lot of fun because I got to see a side of them that you really don’t get to see.”
“I saw that they really love the game and they’re way more competitive than you would imagine. It was cool watching them be in that competitive environment and then we had a 20-minute hangout session after the game. It was like we were all the same.”
Relationship building goes beyond just showing up for a job, Mazzulla said.
“Too much of the interactions that we have with the beatwriters is a postgame [press conference],” Mazzulla said. “Where they’re not being their competitive selves because they’re trying to do their job and we just got out of and are sometimes still in a highly competitive mindset and there’s a friction there.
“Yesterday, there was no friction because we were all in it together. It was really cool, we should do it more.”
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