When the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau earlier this year, they were swinging for the fences, so to speak, on his successor.
Although Thibodeau led the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals berth in a quarter of a century, following a six-game series loss to the Indiana Pacers, Thibodeau was relieved of his duties. That set off a flurry of reported attempts by New York to hire one of the top coaches in the NBA, including the Boston Celtics' Joe Mazzulla, according to insider Marc Stein.
In addition to formally requesting (and being denied the chance) to interview the Dallas Mavericks' Jason Kidd, Minnesota Timberwolves' Chris Finch, Chicago Bulls' Billy Donovan, Houston Rockets' Ime Udoka, and Atlanta Hawks' Quin Snyder, the Knicks considered Mazzulla, who won an NBA championship in his second year as a head coach in 2024, before settling on recently fired Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown.
“Yet it has also been whispered that the Knicks likely did some backchannel exploration to determine if there was any pathway to pursue Boston's Joe Mazzulla. There obviously was not … and then the Celtics extended Mazzulla's contract in August,” Stein wrote on his newsletter, The Stein Line.
“Terms were not formally announced on Mazzulla's new pact beyond the Celtics terming it a multiyear contract extension, but there is a belief in coaching circles the new deal is a six-year pact, along the lines of the six-year pact that current Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens initially signed to be Boston's coach when he left the college game in July 2013.”
Mazzulla, among the youngest coaches in NBA history to win a championship, became the Celtics' interim coach shortly before the 2022-23 season after then-Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was suspended by the team for the entire year. Although he was often maligned for his decision-making, Boston won 57 games and earned the second seed in the Eastern Conference. Following wins against the Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers, the Celtics lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat.
The following year, after having the interim label removed, Mazzulla led the Celtics to a league-best 64 wins, the No. 1 seed in the East, and a swift run through the playoffs. With 16 wins in 19 games, the Celtics made quick work of their opponents, including Kidd and the Mavericks, to win the NBA championship.
Despite suffering an upset to the Knicks in the second round this past spring, Mazzulla, only a few years removed from frequent criticism, has been touted as one of the best coaches in the NBA.
The Celtics open the season tomorrow night vs. the 76ers before making the short trip to New York to play the Knicks on Friday. Before their matchup with the Celtics, the Knicks host the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night.
