Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla believes that the group did a great job handling both winning and losing this season (defeated the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 Monday night at home in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to become 2024 champions).
(via Boston Celtics):
Jay King: “You got the job under pretty crazy circumstances last season. You faced criticism. You had calls for your job even at times last year. So, how have these two seasons challenged you? How have they changed you? And how have they rewarded you?”
Mazzulla: “I feel like it’s going to be like that for the rest of my career, as it should be. I think just having an understanding that praise and criticism are both just as dangerous if you don’t handle them well, and I think we talked about that as a team this year like, ‘Winning is just as dangerous as losing if you don’t handle it well.’ I think our guys handled winning the right way by, whether we won or lost, we just moved on to the next game. And it’s Boston, we wouldn’t want it any other way. I think the ownership and the responsibility to give back to the franchise, give back to the city, that’s just part of it. But you need it, you need that. You need criticism. You need praise. You need expectations. All those things go into making who you are as a person, making who you are as people, as an organization. So just having an understanding that they’re never going to go away. If someone tells you, ‘Good job.’ That’s just as dangerous as someone telling you, ‘You suck.’ But you need both of them in order to get to where you want to get to, and there’s no place else I’d rather be.”
