{"id":768613,"date":"2022-12-16T00:52:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T05:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=768613"},"modified":"2022-12-16T00:53:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T05:53:00","slug":"boston-soundbites-joe-mazzulla-on-his-relationship-with-brad-stevens-and-jayson-tatums-kiss-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/boston-soundbites-joe-mazzulla-on-his-relationship-with-brad-stevens-and-jayson-tatums-kiss-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Soundbites: Joe Mazzulla on His Relationship With Brad Stevens and Jayson Tatum&#8217;s &#8216;Kiss of Death&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At just 34-years-old and with only a few years of NBA coaching experience, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/joe-mazzulla-celtics-faith-nba-head-coach\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/joe-mazzulla-celtics-faith-nba-head-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Joe Mazzulla<\/a> was thrust into the head coaching role in Boston. After the suspension of former coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/celtics-decision-on-ime-udokas-future-will-be-made-later-date\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/celtics-decision-on-ime-udokas-future-will-be-made-later-date\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ime Udoka<\/a>, Celtics President of Basketball Operations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/brad-stevens-promoted-to-celtics-president-of-basketball-operations\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/brad-stevens-promoted-to-celtics-president-of-basketball-operations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brad Stevens<\/a> called Mazzulla <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/brad-stevens-on-replacing-ime-udoka-as-head-coach-joes-the-best-choice\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/brad-stevens-on-replacing-ime-udoka-as-head-coach-joes-the-best-choice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cthe best person for the job\u201d<\/a>. Mazzulla has heeded and surpassed Steven\u2019s praise, leading the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/jaylen-brown-says-competing-in-the-legendary-celtics-lakers-rivalry-is-an-honor\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/nba\/jaylen-brown-says-competing-in-the-legendary-celtics-lakers-rivalry-is-an-honor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Celtics<\/a> to 22-7, the best record in the League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While we are less than halfway into the NBA season, Mazzulla and the C\u2019s are thriving. Mazzulla credits Brad Stevens, who coached the Celtics from 2013-2021, for supporting him this season and being his \u201csounding board\u201d per the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2022\/12\/15\/sports\/jayson-tatum-joe-mazzulla-celtics\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2022\/12\/15\/sports\/jayson-tatum-joe-mazzulla-celtics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Boston Globe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJust constant communication as far as where we think the team is, where we think we can go, what we can get better at, and what we\u2019re doing well,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cHe\u2019s always done a good job as a coach of homing in on what we\u2019re doing well and what we could do better. So for him to be on the outside and seeing it from a different perspective has helped me narrow in on what\u2019s important on both ends. As a first-time head coach, to have a guy who\u2019s coached in the NBA, has coached in a lot of big games, and has coached this team and has a great feel for what\u2019s going on, it\u2019s priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Joe Mazzulla talks about the strong endorsement he received from Brad Stevens for interim head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Celtics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Celtics<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hCuynuUdoR\">pic.twitter.com\/hCuynuUdoR<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSCeltics\/status\/1574435350465990657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 26, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Stevens has had Mazzulla\u2019s back since day one, so it\u2019s no surprise he\u2019s continued to offer his guidance as the C\u2019s look to maintain their spot at the top of the League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>The &#8216;Kiss of Death&#8217;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Tatum dagger is almost always followed by a kiss to the crowd, a celebration he calls the \u201ckiss of death\u201d. On Dec. 7, Grant Williams sank a 3-pointer in the first half and tried out the celebration for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Marcus Smart on Jayson Tatum\u2019s new blowing kisses celebration: \u201cThat kiss of death is deadly.\u201d<\/p>&mdash; Boston Celtics (@celtics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/celtics\/status\/1502491997483016199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Goofy and loving, Williams has become a \u201clittle brother\u201d figure in the Celtics locker room. Tatum essentially rolled his eyes at Williams celebration and said \u201che was too excited, too hyped\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe was jumping. I was like, \u2018Grant, it\u2019s still the second quarter.\u2019 So I pulled him aside and said, \u2018You can do it, but I\u2019m cool when I do it. I look cool. You didn\u2019t look cool. You looked like a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tatum on Grant taking his kiss of death celebration: <br><br>&quot;He was too excited, too hyped. He was jumping. I was like, \u2018Grant, it\u2019s still the 2nd qtr.\u2019 So I pulled him aside &amp; said, \u2018You can do it, but I\u2019m cool when I do it. I look cool. You didn\u2019t look cool. You looked like a kid.&#39;&quot;<\/p>&mdash; Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamHimmelsbach\/status\/1600736143787495426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Celtics start a seven-game homestand on Friday, and armed with a Tour player, muscle milk God, and the kiss of death, hope to keep their streak rolling in Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At just 34-years-old and with only a few years of NBA coaching experience, Joe Mazzulla was thrust into the head coaching role in Boston. After the suspension of former coach Ime Udoka, Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens called Mazzulla \u201cthe best person for the job\u201d. Mazzulla has heeded and surpassed Steven\u2019s praise, leading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":768625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62695,18,63826,62493],"tags":[173,91,4268,63355,9931,64645,64843,11437,64756],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-768613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boston-celtics","category-nba","category-news","category-newswire","tag-blake-griffin","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brad-stevens","tag-grant-williams","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-joe-mazzulla","tag-luke-kornet","tag-payton-pritchard","tag-sam-hauser"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768687,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768613\/revisions\/768687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768613"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=768613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}