On Wednesday evening, the Boston Celtics will kick off their 2025-26 NBA season with a home game against the divisional rival Philadelphia 76ers. It's been a tumultuous offseason for the Celtics, who were forced to part ways with multiple key pieces, including both Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, and now enter this season without Jayson Tatum, sidelined due to injury.
Recently, NBA reporter Marc Stein shed light on the New York Knicks' reported interest in Joe Mazzulla as their next head coach in the wake of firing Tom Thibodeau; however, Mazzulla himself has since shot down those rumors.
“That never reached me. There is only one team that I want to coach: it’s the Boston Celtics. I’m going to be here for however long ownership and the city will have me. There is no other team that I’m coaching, it’s here or I’m going to coach my kid’s soccer team or something like that,” said Mazzulla, per Brian Robb of MassLive on X, formerly Twitter.
Celtics fans have grown to love Joe Mazzulla over the last few years after they got off on the wrong foot in some ways back in 2022-23.
A strange time for the Celtics
Entering this season, not many expect the Boston Celtics to be legit contenders due to the Tatum injury as well as the trades of both Porzingis and Holiday.
While the Celtics do still employ both Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, there isn't much depth on this roster, especially in the frontcourt, as the team also recently watched Al Horford walk out the door to join the Golden State Warriors.
Mazzulla will likely have to do the best coaching job of his career to keep this Boston team above water, although the weak state of the Eastern Conference should help them out a bit as they look to stay competitive.
In any case, the Celtics and 76ers will kick off their respective seasons against one another on Wednesday evening at 7:30 PM ET from Boston.
