Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said he owns a religious artifact made from part of the Boston Garden, the team’s former home field.
Mazzulla was speaking with Zach Lowe on the ESPN podcast fresh off his team’s win over the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals.
Rowe said he saw Mazzulla walking around before the game and pulled something out of his pocket. The reporter recalled Mazzulla showing it to him and thought it was a funny story so he asked the coach if he could tell it to the crowd.
“My assistant, Carla, also works on the team. She knows what is important to me in my faith,” Mazzulla recalled.
The coach has not been shy about expressing his faith, even wearing a shirt during the NBA Finals celebration that read, “But First I Want to Thank God.”
He also famously said in the documentary that if his team won, he would “fly to Jerusalem,” and even walk “from Jericho to Jerusalem.”
“I carry it everywhere I go and I take it to home games.”
Mazzulla told host Rowe that his assistants acquired old parquet flooring from the historic Boston Garden, home to the Celtics from 1928 to 1997, including the team that featured the legendary Larry Bird, and that the flooring was then transformed into religious beads.
“She took some old parquet flooring from the garden and used it to make rosary beads, so I go in the garden every day and make a prayer circle and use the rosary. [beads]” the coach said.Low Post“
It has been widely reported that one of Mazzulla’s pregame rituals is to walk around the empty arena (currently TD Garden) with rosary beads. In hand.
“Obviously, there’s a religious component to it, but it’s made out of wood and just holding it and knowing what the coaches, players, front office, everyone involved has been through … it just gave me a connection to Celtic history and a connection to my faith,” Mazzulla continued.
“I carry it with me everywhere I go and I bring it to every home game so I’m really grateful for this gift.”
Mazzulla’s track record includes rejecting the prevailing political narrative that is often imposed on professional sports through the media.
This came to light when Yahoo Sports senior reporter Vincent Goodwill asked a racially biased question before Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
“For the first time since 1975, there are two Black coaches in the NBA Finals. Given the struggles that Black head coaches have sometimes had in the NBA, do you think this is an important moment, are you proud of this, how do you feel about this, or do you not feel at all about it?”
Mazzulla responded by asking, “How many of those were Christian coaches?”
The reporter took issue with Mazzulla’s denial of his premise and wrote a lengthy piece on the subject in response to the question.
The headline of the article was “Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla doesn’t want to discuss race, but it’s a complicated issue.”
In it, he said, “Race is one of the defining issues in our country and talking about it is not easy, but avoiding it only adds fuel to an already complicated issue.”
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