Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla was awarded the Coach of the Year title on Tuesday night, bringing an end to the NBA Postseason award season, Yankee Scores reports…
During the 2025-26 season, Coach Mazzulla was able to win 56 games and place the Boston team in second position of the Eastern conference despite missing Jayson Tatum for almost the entire season because of a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Boston was defeated in seven games against Philadelphia in the opening round of the playoffs.
Mazzulla Reacts to the Feat
“It’s two-fold. At the end of the day, regardless of what happens in the offseason or what moves may be made or what it is, the process towards a championship is the No. 1 goal, and sticking to that process,” Mazzulla said ahead of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. “That’s a credit to the players and it’s a credit to the entire organization.
“In one of our first meetings this year, we met our entire building and said we are going to stick to the process of winning and not get caught up in the external thing. I thought the commitment from the entire organization to sticking to the process … we obviously fell short of that, but I thought throughout the regular season our guys came in every day with a chip on their shoulders. They came in wanting to stick to that process and getting better every day.”
Joining the Legends
Mazzulla, who turns 38 on June 30, is the youngest Coach of the Year honoree since Phil Johnson in 1975, as per the NBA.
Through four campaigns with Boston, Mazzulla is 238-90 in four seasons with Boston, which is the best in the league for this period, and has led the Celtics to win the 2024 NBA title.
He becomes the fourth Celtics coach to win Coach of the Year honors after Bill Fitch (1979-80), Tommy Heinsohn (1972-73), and Red Auerbach (1964-65).
In Debt to the Staff
He thanked his coaching staff for allowing him to take the award.
That means everything to me,” Mazzulla said of honoring his staff. “I think a lot of times the long nights, the trips, the game plans, the video guys that are clipping up the film and coding it, and the assistants that are putting it together, there’s so much that goes into winning one game, and it starts with the players, but it goes to our staff. I feel bad that they are not here, but I’m forever indebted to the guys that we have that give up time with their families and time to win every day.”
