Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla doesn’t vibe with the phrase ‘defending a title’ and has compared the challenge of another title in 2025 to the animal kingdom.
“The phrase ‘defending a title’ is a very passive-aggressive term,” he said on Locked on Celtics. “If you look at the animal kingdom, some of the strongest animals don’t defend, they’re the most aggressive, and they attack the most. Whether you’ve won or haven’t won, your mindset can’t change. You have to understand what goes into winning and losing, commit to the details on a daily basis, and remain aggressive. You’re not defending something, you’re attacking a new goal.”
Sounds like Mazzulla has been watching a whole bunch of Animal Planet and maybe even some action movies, after his next line.
“People are gonna say the target is on our backs, but I hope it’s right on our forehead in between our eyes,” the head coach said.
Elsewhere, Mazzulla’s star player Jayson Tatum was asked about balancing his MVP aspirations with another run at a title.
“Yeah, winning takes precedence over everything,” Tatum told Bobby Krivitsky of Sports Illustrated. “Winning a championship is the most important. Playing the right way. But it’s been done. It’s possible. You can play the right way, you can dominate the game, you can strive for a championship, and be an MVP of the league. So, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. You can do both.”
Tatum was sixth in the NBA voting for MVP last season and the season before was placed fourth and the season before that in 2022 was placed sixth once again.
No doubt the whole team will be wanting to emulate a super successful season like the one they just had.
Boston were one of the few NBA teams to make no trade moves over the summer. but why would they make any changes after last season?
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