Boston Celtics Promote Former WVU Point Guard to Interim Head Coach

With the Boston Celtics in need of a head coach following the organization’s suspension of Ime Udoka, former West Virginia Mountaineer point guard Joe Mazzulla is stepping in to fill the role.

Mazzulla has a lengthy history in West Virginia athletics, dating back to his freshman season back in 2006 where he played under former coach John Beilein at WVU. The remainder of his time as a Mountaineer, which consisted of four more seasons due to a redshirt year, was played under current Hall of Fame head coach Bob Huggins.

He averaged 4.8 points and 2.6 assists per game during that span, before graduating in 2011. The highlights of his WVU career included a 13 point, 11 rebound, 8 assist game in an upset over Duke, along with his performance against Kentucky to help propel a run to the Final Four in 2010.

His West Virginia legacy doesn’t end with WVU. After going undrafted in 2011, Mazzulla became an assistant coach for Glenville State University’s basketball program, a division two college in West Virginia. He then went on to be an assistant coach at Fairmont State University, another division two university in West Virginia.

Mazzulla got his first professional coaching experience in 2016, when he was hired as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics G-League team, the Maine Red Claws. Following a season with the team, Mazzulla returned to Fairmont State as head coach, his first ever head coaching position. This position is Mazzulla’s only experience as a head coach going into the new role as head coach for none other than the Boston Celtics, one of the most storied and successful franchises in NBA history.

Mazzulla’s career with the Celtics began back in 2019 when he was hired as an assistant coach by former head coach and current general manager Brad Stevens.

Following Steven’s replacement as head coach, Boston players pushed to keep Mazzulla as part of the new coaching staff. Now, he will lead said players as the head of the coaching staff, much to the excitement of some, including All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

“He’s gotten so much more knowledgeable and more detailed and just more vocal and more comfortable in his role as a coach. He’s helped me out tremendously as a player and as a person. I can’t say enough good things about Joe and everybody appreciates what he brings to this team,” said Tatum.

Brown added similar confidence in his new leader.

“I believe in Joe. Joe believes in me. I’ve had conversations with him, I don’t think he sees a limit. I think he’s coming in excited, so I’m optimistic.”

At 34 years old, Mazzulla is the youngest coach to lead the Celtics since the late Bill Russell, and is tied for the current youngest head coach in the NBA along with Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy, who won the position in Utah over Mazzulla this previous summer.

Mazzulla is faced with the tough task of leading a star studded Celtics team back to the NBA finals in his first season ever as an NBA head coach. The last time a coach as young as Mazzulla took over a team coming off an NBA finals run, he was still in high school. Former college coach Bob Huggins expressed his faith in Mazzulla to succeed in the role, however.

“For people to think Joe’s gonna walk in there and know everything, he’s not. But he’ll learn,” said Huggins.

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