Joe Mazzulla’s offseason trips reveal the coach behind the caricature

Joe Mazzulla could have been anywhere.

He could have been back home in Rhode Island, decompressing after a Celtics season that started with everyone lowering expectations because of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear and ended with everyone furious because those lowered expectations had somehow turned into 56 wins and a blown 3-1 lead to Philadelphia.

Advertisement

He could have been holed up in the Red Auerbach Center, watching film of a missed weak-side rotation from February with the emotional urgency of a man solving a murder. He could have been in Costa Rica again, walking barefoot through the jungle with a chess prodigy, because apparently the rest of us have been going about vacation all wrong.

Instead, he was in Portugal with Neemias Queta.

Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston wrote a great piece this week on Mazzulla’s offseason travel, reporting that the Celtics head coach was spotted in both Omaha, Nebraska, and Lisbon, Portugal during the first week of June while spending time with Baylor Scheierman and Queta. Forsberg noted that the trip from Omaha to Lisbon is roughly 4,400 air miles, with no direct flights.

Advertisement

That is not a “swing by if you’re in the area” itinerary. That is multiple flights, time zones, airport coffee, stiff necks and at least one moment where you wake up in a hotel room with no idea what continent you’re in, let alone country.

And yet, there he was.

The more you look at these trips, the harder it becomes to treat them like irregular offseason moments. The point is not that Joe Mazzulla owns a passport or knows how to find Terminal B. The point is that connecting with his players on a human level seems to be an integral part of how he coaches.

The version of Joe we see is not the whole person

For most fans, Mazzulla is still understood through the strangest parts of his public personality.

Advertisement

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu practice with his sensei in the depths of the Celtics practice facility. The seemingly strong desire to one day execute a bank heist (either as the mastermind or safecracker). The refusal to answer simple questions in a simple way.

It’s funny, and a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/joe-mazzulla-offseason-trips-reveal-093700755.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-06-13 09:37:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.