Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, a devout Catholic, is already planning what he wants to do after the NBA finals, and he is proud to say that it all revolves around his deep Catholic faith.
With just one more game to go to clinch the first NBA title since 2008, the Celtics are already gearing up to celebrate. And Mazzullo has the perfect plan for his post-finals travel.
“If we win the championship this year, we’re flying to Jerusalem, and we’re walking from Jericho to Jerusalem,” Mazzulla told Sports Boston NBC.
He said, “And it will be kind of like just our reconnect. But we went last year, and we stopped right along this mountainside of the Kidron Valley, and you could see a path in between the mountains… [and] during the time, the only way that [Jesus] could have gotten from Jericho to Jerusalem was through this valley. And right there, I was like, ‘We have to walk that.'”
“Most people go to Disney World or whatever, but … I think [the Holy Land is] the most important place to go back and recenter yourself,” he added.
Joe Mazzulla, head coach of the Boston Celtics, poses for a portrait during NBAE Media Circuit Portraits as part of the 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend on Friday, February 17, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Michael LeBrecht/NBAE via Getty Images)
In the same video, Mazzullah spoke about his morning “prayer walks.”
“I like to do a prayer walk around the court at the Garden. I like to be in the Garden when there’s not a lot of people there, just because it’s the Garden. So I get there at like 11-12, do a 20-minute walk around the court and just kind of take in how cold it is. I love that, the smell of it, just the banners obviously, taking all that in,” he said.
He also commonly carries his Catholic rosary during his walks, with beads made from the flooring of the original Boston Garden.
“And so it just ties two of the three most important things in my life, [which] is the job that I have for the Celtics, my faith, and the tradition of the Celtics; it’s just a really cool gift,” he said.
“I also love collecting rosary beads just because it tells a story of kind of where you were at,” he said.
This is not a new phenomenon. Mazzulla has been open and vocal about his faith. Just this week, for instance, he countered a journalist who wanted to turn the meeting of two black coaches in the NBA finals into a racial issue. Still, Mazzulla turned it around and asked if it was more historic if two Christian coaches went head-to-head.
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Mazzulla has spoken about his Christian beliefs many times, so it is no secret that he is a committed Christian.
In Dec. of 2022, for instance, he chided the media for talking about the British “royal family.”
When a member of the media asked his impression of the royals’ visit, he responded, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph?” The reporter added that he was talking about “The Prince and Princess of Wales.”
“Oh no, I did not,” Mazzulla replied. “I’m only familiar with one royal family. I don’t know too much about that one.”
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