Celtics ‘sicko’ coach Joe Mazzulla one game away from proving critics wrong
NY Post
DALLAS — The difference between weirdo and genius is winning.
Joe Mazzulla, after enduring a firestorm of criticism, is now experiencing the positive part — the praise of his basketball acumen as the 35-year-old sits one win away from breaking Bill Russell’s record as the youngest coach ever to win an NBA title.
Think about that turnaround for a second. Only a year ago, Bostonians wanted him fired. He was their interim coach at first following the shock suspension of Ime Udoka, who engaged in “an intimate relationship with a female staff member,” according to ESPN. Udoka was popular among the players. He brought a defense-first identity that carried the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals.
So when Mazzulla’s Celtics bombed in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, the vultures quickly circled. It must’ve been Mazzulla’s fault, right? The players didn’t change, just the coach. The blame went straight to the sideline to the easy target, Mazzulla, who was an unpolished public speaker with a cold demeanor and looked, from a distance, unapproachable.
How could the players connect with a coach like that?
If suspending Udoka was the right thing for protecting the organization, it was the bad move for basketball.
It was only a three-second glimpse, but Matt Rempe, finally, showcased offensive strides. The ones he started talking about in the preseason — after a summer’s worth of work — and kept doubling down on, even when he fluctuated in and out of the Rangers lineup and shuttled back and forth to AHL Hartford.
Jesse Winker got to a Mets team in late July that had been hovering around .500 for most of the season.
It was Kevin Durant’s trade request that officially ended the Nets’ most recent window of contention.
The Jets landed their head coach on Wednesday, hiring Aaron Glenn as the 19th head coach in team history.
Former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson departed for the division rival Chicago Bears on Monday, and while Detroit will miss its offensive coordinator dearly, that won’t stop star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown from competing with him.
NFL officials were heavily scrutinized for some of the flags they threw in the four divisional-round games that saw the Chiefs, Bills, Eagles and Commanders advance to next weekend’s conference championships.
It is a classy class. It was already a classy class because Dave Parker and Dick Allen were a part of it, after the veterans committee righted a few decades of wrongs by welcoming them to Cooperstown back in December.
Other than Karl-Anthony Towns around the paint and Josh Hart’s big rebound, there wasn’t much impressive about the way the Knicks performed Tuesday.
First in a three-part series on the Giants quarterback issue. Coming tomorrow: Examining Sam Darnold and other proven or semi-proven requests.
I’d never quite seen anything like the 19-game stretch bridging November and December in which the Rangers won four and lost 15 in regulation.
In a different time, in a season to come, we may be inclined to wax poetic about the way this one played out. In a different time, in a season to come, the Nets will be seeking to stack wins and not losses, will be fighting for playoff seeding and not for a few extra ping-pong balls in the draft lottery this spring.
The Jets spent Tuesday huddling with their top choices for their head coach and general manager openings but still had not closed a deal with them as of Tuesday night.
Entrenched in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, the Rangers are making their push.
It was a long time coming, but Billy Wagner finally closed it out.
The NBA has an All-Star Game problem. Despite Adam Silver’s efforts to inject juice into the February showcase — including a format alteration to the 2025 game that is too confusing to attempt to understand before it’s inevitably changed again — there’s little interest in watching teams eschew defense for a series of layup line highlights. That also means the most entertaining part of the NBA All-Star Game is just like the Pro Bowl — debating over who should get a spot.
Boomer Esiason sees the Jets doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Four Chilean nationals have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the burglary of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s Ohio home last month, according to WLWT in Cincinnati.
Which came first: stability within the lineup or stability on the ice?