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Joe Mazzulla (l) and Jayson Tatum (r)
Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is not only the youngest coach in the NBA at 36 years old â younger than Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy by 160 days â he is also the weirdest. Mazzulla, by his own account, sleeps with his mouth taped shut to âoptimize his REM cycle.â He gave up chewing gum because it was âwas messing up my heart rate variability and I wasnât getting the breaths that I needed to be as focused as I was.â
In his first season as Celtics coach, Mazzulla missed two games with an eye injury he suffered in an overly intense pickup basketball game with his assistant coaches. He says he watches the 2010 Ben Affleck movie The Town four times per week to absorb the movieâs âBoston mindset.â
Celtics 38-year-old, 18-year veteran Al Horford describes the coach as âwacky.â But Celtics players say they love Mazzulla. And in 2024 at age 35, Mazzulla became the youngest coach to win an NBA championship since another Celtics coach, Bill Russell, did it as a player-coach at age 34 in 1968.
Tatum Reveals Bizarre Mazzulla Incident Last Week
Now, with the Celtics at 55-19 and holding a lock on the NBAâs Eastern Conference No. 2 seed, the teamâs franchise superstar Jayson Tatum has revealed perhaps the weirdest Mazzulla story yet â and the tale involves NFL star Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. In fact, Tatum told the story directly to Kelce and Kelceâs brother Jason, a retired center for the Philadelphia Eagles, on the Kelce brothersâ podcast New Heights last week.
After Travis Kelce asked him what it was like to play for Mazzulla, Tatum replied, âJoe is crazy!â
The 27-year-old three-time All-NBA first-teamer then launched into his latest Mazzulla story, telling Kelce that he is the one who prompted the new example of the coachâs âcrazyâ behavior.
According to Tatum, Mazzulla told said he wanted his star player to be suspended for accumulating too many technical fouls â then said that he wanted Tatum to punch him and brought up an incident during Super Bowl 58, in which the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers. But in that game, Kelce appeared to angrily bump Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
âWe actually talked about you,â Tatum told the Chiefâs future Hall of Fame tight end. âWe played Portland the other day. I had got a tech. The game was basically over. I ended up getting a tech with like 30 seconds left. Joe, he comes up to me after the game. If you get like 16 or 17 texts. You get suspended for a game. So Joe was like, âYo, can you just get four more so you can get suspended?â And Iâm like, âJoe, I think Iâm done.â Heâs like, âI would much rather you just come punch me. I wanna fight. Heâs like, âWhen Travis Kelce ran into to Andy Reed, do that to me!’â
Celtics Star Also Addresses Ankle Injury
The tale caused both Kelce brothers to break out laughing, and Travis Kelce concluded by saying, âShout out to Coach Reid for being the man.â
Also on the podcast, Travis Kelce asked Tatum about the ankle injury he suffered during a March 24 Celtics win over the Sacramento Kings. At the time, the injury looked severe, but Tatum shrugged it off on the Kelce podcast.
âIâm feeling good man. Thereâs a few benefits to being 27,â he told the Chiefsâ star. âYou know, you recover a little bit faster. Iâll be all right.â
After missing one game, Tatum returned to the Celtics starting five on Saturday against the Spurs in San Antonio. He played nearly 36 minutes and scored a game-high 29 points in the Celtics 121-111 victory, the defending NBA championsâ eighth win in a row.