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Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla and guard Derrick White spent the primary of their two nights off at TD Backyard — however not for basketball. As an alternative, the pair sat ringside for WWE’s Monday Night time Uncooked.
“I identical to studying,” Mazzulla instructed reporters at Tuesday’s follow, per CLNS Media. “Anytime you possibly can step into another person’s enviornment and study from them, I believe you possibly can at all times take one thing.”
Throughout the dwell present, Mazzulla and White have been launched to the gang. White greeted Boston with a wave, whereas Mazzulla sneak-attacked him with just a few playful, wrestling-style punches. The second shortly went viral on social media, as what was meant to be a household outing for the Mazzullas and Whites became an unexpected heel flip.
“It’s all a part of the storyline,” White instructed reporters, per CLNS Media. “WrestleMania’s arising quickly, in order that’s when our massive battle will likely be.”
For Mazzulla, an MMA fanatic who often trains on the crew’s follow facility, watching the world’s largest skilled wrestling stars is correct up his alley. Rising up in Rhode Island with deep household ties to basketball — his father, Dan Mazzulla, coached at Johnston Excessive Faculty — Mazzulla didn’t restrict himself to the game. At instances, he’d flip on WWE as an alternative.
So with the Celtics off till internet hosting the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder on Wednesday night time, the timing was good to revisit that childhood curiosity and spend time outdoors basketball with White and their households.
“I grew up as a child watching it,” Mazzulla shared with reporters. “I used to be capable of have a household night time, take the youngsters there, hang around with D. White. It was a very good time.”
Through the years, White has watched Mazzulla’s curiosity in blended martial arts evolve from a interest into an outlet for classes he brings into the Celtics’ locker room. White is joyful to pay attention, although he retains his distance, each time Mazzulla fits up for a coaching session.
“I attempt to keep away,” White added. “He was doing all that MMA stuff.”
Sitting beneath the rafters the place the banner they helped elevate hangs, Mazzulla and White loved an evening the place basketball took a backseat. Their bond comes from a real friendship, not a compelled office relationship. And as an authority determine in White’s skilled life, Mazzulla doesn’t see himself as a boss or supervisor. He sees White as an alternative as a good friend and the Celtics as a household — not only a assortment of coworkers.
“I don’t contemplate myself a boss, and I don’t contemplate Derrick an worker with all due respect,” Mazzulla clarified. “It’s not how we function. I believe it’s extra about relationships and the folks that you’ve got.”
White, too, shares Mazzulla’s sentiment.
“It was a number of enjoyable,” White instructed reporters. “I believe simply spending day off the court docket and his household was there, my household was there, so simply bonding. I believe that goes deeper than basketball. So it’s at all times cool to do issues like that.”
It’s been over 4 years for the reason that Celtics acquired White in a commerce from the San Antonio Spurs, and in that point, his relationship with Mazzulla has solely grown stronger. White has progressed from backup to one of many league’s most elite two-way guards. Mazzulla has gone from assistant to move coach, serving to the Celtics preserve their excessive normal, all whereas growing expertise at a fast tempo.
“For probably the most half, I believe yearly, the longer you’re with him, the larger the bond grows,” White instructed reporters. “I don’t know if we did something our first 12 months he was teaching, however I believe yearly we do some stuff like that, and I simply occurred to be on nationwide tv.”
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