Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla recently pitched a strange new side hustle.
Mazzulla initially was enlisted to serve as an assistant coach for then-head coach Ime Udoka on the 2021-22 Celtics. That team went all the way to the NBA Finals, falling in six games to the Golden State Warriors.
When Udoka was fired that summer for behavioral issues beyond the basketball court, Mazzulla was installed as the team’s interim head coach. Boston fell in a seven-game Eastern Conference Finals playoff series to the Miami Heat that spring, and Mazzulla was criticized for some of his decision making during the postseason.
Team president Brad Stevens made some major renovations to the roster in the summer of 2023, trading to acquire six-time All-Defensive Team guard Jrue Holiday and one-time All-Star center Kristaps Porzingis. With that dynamic duo joining Boston’s established prior core of six-time All-Star All-Star power forward Jayson Tatum, four-time All-Star wing Jaylen Brown and two-time All-Defensive Team guard Derrick White, Boston became the class of the NBA.
The Celtics posted a league-best 64-18 record in 2023-24, then went an intimidating 16-3 in the playoffs en route to a five-game NBA Finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Last year’s Celtics were plagued by injury issues, and ultimately could not defend their crown, falling in the second round to the lower-seeded New York Knicks. Stevens traded Holiday and Porzingis away to dip under the NBA’s punitive second luxury tax apron.
This year, as Boston awaits the recovery of Tatum from an Achilles tendon tear (which may not fully resolve until 2026-27), Mazzulla’s job security is no longer a question. He has earned his place as one of the league’s top coaches, even if the Celtics are anticipated to take a major step back from their 61-win run in 2024-25.
Having a longer summer than usual has afforded Mazzulla an opportunity to think about some stuff beyond basketball, prompting a strange business proposal on former New England Patriots Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman’s “Games With Names” podcast.
Mazzulla pitched a “Situation Room” interactive game, where intense scenarios could be recreated.
“So during the playoffs, I was watching the [Osama] bin Laden documentary,” Mazzulla said. “You know how they have… Escape Rooms? They should have a business where you have, like, ‘Situation Rooms.’ You can sign up and go in and re-enact different things,” Mazzulla said.
Mazzulla went on to riff about a hypothetical conversation about a potential situation worthy of reenacting.
“Like, ‘Hey, what are you doing tonight?’ ‘Ah, we’re gonna go grab dinner and then we’re gonna go reenact the bin Laden raid,’” Mazzulla said. “I think the Escape Room is just the beginning.”
“That’d be a sick first date idea,” said an Edelman co-host who perhaps was unfamiliar with what happened during the bin Laden raid.
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