Joe Mazzulla named NBA Coach of the Year after Celtics overcame Jayson Tatum injury, numerous personnel changes to claim No. 2 seed

After multiple seasons near the top of the Eastern Conference, Joe Mazzulla’s Boston Celtics faced a potentially devastating reality last offseason. With Jayson Tatum out for an extended period due to a torn Achilles and the team up against the salary cap, there was some thought the Celtics should treat the 2025-26 NBA season as a rebuilding year.

But that term doesn’t appear to be a part of Mazzulla’s vocabulary. Despite trading Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, losing Al Horford to free agency and getting just 16 games out of Tatum, Mazzulla led the team to a 56-26 record, earning the Celtics the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

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That performance also earned Mazzulla the NBA Coach of the Year award on Tuesday.

Mazzulla beat out finalists J.B. Bickerstaff of Detroit and Mitch Johnson of San Antonio for the award, which is the first of Mazzulla’s career. Mazzulla earned 62 of 100 first-place votes.

Bickerstaff finished second with 29 first-place votes after leading the Detroit Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the East, and Johnson tallied nine first-place votes for leading the San Antonio Spurs to the second-best record in the NBA and the No. 2 seed in the West.

Mazzulla was revealed as the winner on NBC’s pregame showed ahead of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

Mazzulla credits coaching staff for success

Mazzulla deferred to the Boston Celtics coaching staff and his team in an interview with NBC after the award was announced.

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“There’s so much that goes into winning one game,” Mazzulla said. “It starts with the players, but it goes to our staff. I feel bad that they’re not here, but forever indebted to the guys that we have that give up their time with their families to give us a chance to win every day. …

“I truly want to thank my staff. I love those guys.”

Despite Mazzulla’s excellence — he has a .726 regular-season winning percentage in four years as a head coach — he had never finished higher than third in the Coach of the Year voting coming into Tuesday. After an excellent first season with the team, in which the Celtics went 57-25, Mazzulla…

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Author : Chris Cwik

Publish date : 2026-05-26 23:38:00

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