Getty Image
Anyone who’s kept tabs on Joe Mazzulla during his time as the head coach of the Celtics knows he has an almost fanatical devotion to the game of basketball, and a story about his obsession with game film only confirms that reality.
Last month, the Boston Celtics secured an NBA title for the 18th time in franchise history under the watch of Joe Mazzulla, the 36-year-old coach who has already cemented himself as one of the most talented skippers in the league after just two seasons at the helm in Beantown.
Mazzulla—who has posted a 121-43 record in the regular season over the course of his first two campaigns—spent a couple of years coaching at Fairmont State before the Celtics hired him as an assistant in 2019, and he didn’t waste any time working his way up the ranks after arriving in Boston.
One of the biggest keys to Mazzulla’s success has been his undying passion for the sport he’s devoted his life to, and there are plenty of anecdotes that highlight the incredibly intense personality that’s allowed him to thrive as much as he has.
The newest one comes courtesy of God Shammgod Jr., the son of the man with the greatest name in the history of basketball who served as an assistant coach for Mazzulla during his time at Fairmont State and was recently hired to help the Celtics with player development.
On Thursday, longtime Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy dropped a new tidbit from an interview he conducted with Shammgod after Mazzulla was named interim coach of the Celtics in 2022, which concerns the intervention his supporting staff was forced to hold after they got worried about the amount of game tape he was consuming:
Mazzulla watched so much game film that Shammgod and the other assistants began to have concerns about his mental health. So they convinced him to sit down with them after long days of work and watch an hour of regular television.
Normal stuff.