Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla Uses Jiu-Jitsu To Train For Day Job

August 18, 2023 admin Boston celtics 0

 

The Boston Celtics locker room will no longer be home to pregame wrestling matches between Joe Mazzulla and Marcus Smart.

That doesn’t mean Mazzulla has stopped training, though.

 

 

 

In all seriousness, the Celtics’ pregame tussles between Mazzulla and Smart weren’t why the 35-year-old trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Instead, he views

it as a way to not only help him improve as a coach, but as a human being.

“When you become a coach, you spend so much time leading others and helping others that you almost neglect yourself,” Mazzulla said in an

interview with ESPN’s Michael Eaves. “The question I had was, ‘Who’s coaching you?’”

Mazzulla started training back in 2017, but let jiu-jitsu take a back seat when he started as an assistant coach with the Celtics in 2019. He decided to

pick the discipline back up when he was elevated to head coach prior to last season.

“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve done. What the art really gives is the study of transitions, and that really helps me because in a game — in a season,

there’s transitions and decision making. You’re actually learning how not to fight. You’re learning how to handle situations. You’re learning how to

problem solve.”

In training, Mazzulla has built relationships with UFC fighters Zhang Weili, Daniel Day and Brad Tavares, as well as MMA coach Eric Nicksick. The

Celtics head coach will even be walking Weili to the octagon for her title fight at UFC 292 in Boston.

Those at TD Garden might want to stay out of his way, on Saturday or during the Celtics season.

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Why Celtics have one of the best schedules in the 2023-24 season

Creating a perfectly balanced NBA schedule is pretty much impossible, so some teams are going to get more rest than others. And in the upcoming

2023-24 season, it seems the Boston Celtics got a lucky break.

Over the course of 82 contests, the Celtics have 16 games in which they’ll play after an off day while their opponents will have played the day before,

per Positive Residual. The C’s have more of these games than any other team in the league, meaning they’ll be better rested than who they face more

often than not.

Ironically though, Boston seemed to play better with no rest at all last season. During the 2022-23 campaign, the C’s went 10-3 in the second games

of back-to-backs. Conversely, in games after they had exactly two days of rest, they posted a mediocre 6-6 record.

In the new season, the Celtics will have 11 games in which they’ll be at a rest disadvantage. Plus, before they take on the rival Los Angeles Lakers on
Christmas Day, they’ll play three road games (against three 2022 playoff teams) on the West Coast in five days.

But before we think too far ahead, the Celtics will open their season up at Madison Square Garden versus the New York Knicks on Wednesday,

October 25. Two days later, they’ll try and exact revenge on the Miami Heat in Beantown, as the scrappy squad from South Beach knocked them out

of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.

Unfortunately for Celtics fans, these showdowns are all two months away. In the meantime, Boston will gear up for training camp and its first

preseason game on Sunday, October 8 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

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