Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, a devout Catholic, is already planning what he wants to do after the NBA Finals, and he proudly says it all revolves around his deep Catholic faith.
Now one game away from winning their first NBA title since 2008, the Celtics are already preparing to celebrate, and Mazzullo has the perfect plan for post-Finals travel.
“If we win this year, I’ll fly to Jerusalem and walk from Jericho to Jerusalem,” Mazzulla told Sports Boston NBC.
He said, “And it will be kind of a reunion for us. But we went last year and we stopped along this mountainside in the Kidron Valley, and we saw a path between the mountains… [and] In the meantime, the only way [Jesus] “The only way to get from Jericho to Jerusalem was through this valley. So I thought, ‘I have to walk through it.’
“I think most people go to Disney World or something… [the Holy Land is] It’s the most important place to go back and re-examine yourself,” he added.
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla poses for a portrait during NBAE Media Circuit Portraits as part of the 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Michael Lubrecht/NBAE via Getty Images)
In the same video, Mazrullah spoke about his morning “prayer walk.”
“I like to pray and walk around the courts at the Garden. It’s a garden, so I like to be in the Garden when there aren’t many people there. So I get there around 11 or 12 o’clock and I walk around the courts for about 20 minutes and just feel the cold. I love to feel the smell and of course the banners and everything,” he said.
He also frequently carries a Catholic rosary with beads made from the original Boston Garden flooring on his walks.
“And it brings together two of the three most important things in my life. [which] “This is the job I have for the Celtics, this is what I believe in, this is the tradition of the Celtics. It’s truly a great gift,” he said.
“I like collecting rosary beads because they tell me a story about my situation at the time,” he said.
This is not a new phenomenon: Mazzulla has been open about his faith, for example, when he pushed back against journalists this week who tried to frame the matchup between two black coaches in the NBA Finals as a racial issue. Still, Mazzulla countered that it would be more historic for two Christian coaches to go head-to-head.
Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla silences the crowd with a slam dunk response
I became a Boston Celtics fanpic.twitter.com/RQMuKuNFGm
— 1775 (@Mar50cC5O) June 10, 2024
Mazura said, Christian Faith He has done so many times, so it’s no secret that he is a devout Christian.
For example, in December 2022, he criticized the media for talking about the British “Royal Family.”
When a media reporter asked him about his impressions of the royal visit, he replied, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph?”, adding that the reporter was talking about “the Prince and Princess of Wales.”
“No, I didn’t,” Mazura replied, “I only know of one royal family, and I don’t know much about them.”
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