Joe Mazzulla has tried to keep away from reflecting on the Celtics’ 2024 NBA championship because the group reconvened for coaching camp final month.
However earlier than Boston tipped off its new season Tuesday night time with a 132-109 throttling of the New York Knicks, it loved one final well-deserved celebration.
The opening night time festivities at TD Backyard featured the hoisting of the Celtics’ 18th championship banner to the TD Backyard rafters and the presentation of the group’s championship rings.
Gamers wore gold-accented warmup jackets with 18 Larry O’Brien Trophies down the left sleeve and “NBA Champions” emblazoned on the again.
“The Boston Celtics at the moment are the winningest franchise in NBA historical past,” commissioner Adam Silver introduced earlier than presenting rings to Celtics co-owners Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca and Bob Epstein.
The rings, designed by a small, Grousbeck-led committee and produced by Jason of Beverly Hills, are lined in white and emerald diamonds and have the motto “No matter It Takes” on the aspect, together with a number of different nods to final season’s championship squad.
The crown of every ring is removable, hiding a compartment that homes a chunk of the Backyard ground emblazoned with the ultimate rating of Boston’s Finals-clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks.
“The statistics don’t lie,” Grousbeck declared. “You’re taking a look at one of many most interesting groups ever assembled within the historical past of the NBA.”
When it was Mazzulla’s flip to obtain his ring, he knelt down and kissed the Backyard parquet. What did it style like?
“Blood. Or I want it did,” he mentioned, a quote that may sound insane if it got here from every other NBA coach.
Regardless of his insistence on trying ahead, the top coach doesn’t disguise his reverence for Celtics historical past. Earlier than the ceremony, Mazzulla paid his respects to those that helped the franchise dangle its first 17 banners. Amongst those that have been in attendance Tuesday: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Bob Cousy.
“We’ve been entrusted with the custom of this group by the gamers, by different workers, by the entrance workplace, and have a duty and an possession to town and to the those that got here earlier than us,” Mazzulla mentioned. “This job isn’t what it’s if the folks earlier than us didn’t put the time and the hassle into making it what it was. Due to them, we’re in a position to type of go after stuff and be part of this.
“It’s a way of gratitude. Not solely to town and to the those that got here earlier than us. I feel that second is cooler than the rest as a substitute of simply watching what you’re part of. It’s one thing a lot greater than one yr or two years. It’s a life-style. I feel the quote that Pink (Auerbach) mentioned, ‘The Celtics are a lifestyle,’ is true. And that’s one thing I don’t take flippantly.”
Mazzulla would know. The Johnston, R.I., native was uncovered to the Celtics mystique at an early age. Now, the 36-year-old is coming into his third season because the C’s head coach, armed with a loaded roster that’s practically similar to the one which steamrolled its method to the title final season.
“(I) love approaching Storrow (Drive) and simply being grateful for the chance that I’ve to teach this group, to work with the fellows and the workers and the gamers and the group and also you get to work for the Celtics,” Mazzulla mentioned, reflecting on his drive to the world forward of Tuesday’s opener towards the New York Knicks. “It’s the perfect metropolis. It’s the perfect group. There’s no query about it. What’s higher than that?”
Jaylen Brown known as it “an unimaginable night time.”
“Simply the aura within the enviornment was superb,” the NBA Finals MVP mentioned. “Having the legendary Celtics simply within the constructing – Bob Cousy, KG, Paul, Cedric Maxwell, all the guys who’ve gained. And it’s virtually like they have been passing the torch. I used to be combating (tears) again at the beginning of the sport. It was superb. That is what we set out on the journey to do. My rookie yr, once I received drafted, that is what I mentioned I’d do: I’d go to conflict for this metropolis. And it’s nice to observe that banner get raised.”
The Celtics now try to perform one thing that hasn’t been finished by a Boston group since Auerbach was the final supervisor and Invoice Russell was the player-coach: win back-to-back championships. The Celtics’ final profitable title protection was in 1969.
Repeating has grow to be more and more troublesome within the trendy NBA, as every of the final 5 title-winners didn’t even attain the convention finals the next season. The final group to win two straight championships was the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.
“The aim is to do it each single yr,” Mazzulla mentioned. “That’s simply the aim. However it’s specializing in the method of what goes into that. There’s quite a lot of selections it’s a must to make each day about the way you’re going to compete on the highest stage, and so long as you have a look at it from a process-oriented strategy, I feel it places you able to go after that.”
Jayson Tatum was the ultimate participant to obtain his ring.
“I can actually say,” the Celtics celebrity instructed the gang, “to the perfect followers on this planet, let’s do it once more.”
