Copyright New York Post
There are plenty of war analogies used in the sports lexicon, but Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla took it to another level during training camp. Mazzulla had the team practice earlier this year to the sounds of machine guns, which star Derrick White described as sounding like a “war zone.” “It was me and Payton (Pritchard) and we’re going and then Joe’s like, ‘Play the music. And next thing you know it’s just like machine guns going off, duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-duh. What is going on?” White said with a laugh on the “White Noise” podcast released Friday. “The entire time we did this drill, the machine guns were going off and that’s how we started practice. Zig-zags, defense, like picking up full and stuff like that. The soundtrack was insane. … And he’s like, ‘Play the music,’ and next thing you know, you’re in a war zone, for real. It was unbelievable.” White acknowledged that the unconventional soundtrack did not help the situation. “I think that makes everything like 10 times harder,” White said. “I don’t know why. You just feel like a lot is going on.” Mazzulla, 37, is in his fourth season guiding the Celtics and he certainly has revealed some interesting quirks that make him stand out compared to other coaches. He previously said he wished the NBA would allow players to fight like other sports. “The biggest thing that we rob people of from an entertainment standpoint is you can’t fight anymore. I wish we’d bring back like fighting,” Mazzulla said in October 2024. “You want to talk about robbing the league of entertainment, that’s more entertaining than a little scuffle? How come in baseball they’re allowed to clear the benches? How come in hockey they’re allowed to fight? I don’t understand. “I just don’t get why some sports are allowed to clear the benches. They have bats and weapons (in baseball). We don’t. We have a ball. The other sport (hockey) has like one of the hardest playing surfaces in a puck and a stick, yet we’re not allowed to throw down a little bit?” Mazzulla also showed his team clips of a UFC fight before Game 3 of the 2024 NBA Finals, a series his team would win in five games over the Mavericks. The Celtics’ coach certainly is going to need to pull out all the inspirational tricks he can find this year while guiding a team that lacks championship upside. With Jayson Tatum possibly missing the year after suffering a torn Achilles during the second-round loss to the Knicks, Boston retooled its roster for salary cap reasons, with several veteran stars exiting. Boston is 4-6 after Friday’s 123-110 road loss to the Magic.
