Joe Mazzulla has developed a reputation for his out-of-the-box approach to coaching. However, his methods led the Boston Celtics to their first championship in 16 years, thus proving that his methods provide value and resonate with his team. Furthermore, Mazzulla has quickly established himself as a fan favorite among the fan base due to his intensity, fierce competitive nature and his tendency to provide exceptionally funny quotes.
That tendency has led Reddit user “entrity_screamr” to develop a simple ‘Joe Mazzulla quote generator,’ where fans can click through a string of quotes from the Celtics coaches two years leading the team. That generator led the “How ‘Bout Them Celtics?” podcast hosts to live stream their experience with the tool, and explore the sourcing and context of each quote provided.
As you would expect, hosts Jack Simone and Sam LaFrance found the humorous side to most of the generated quotes from Mazzulla, and failed to run out of material during the segment. After all, Mazzulla’s unique outlook on competitive sports and coaching has ensured he provides new quotes after every game, all of which give a deeper insight into how he views the crossover between life and sports.
Always draft the best player, regardless of position, then figure out the rest later. Always.
That brings us to Vlade Divac, the Hall of Fame basketball player who spent five years as the Sacramento Kings general manager. As he has done before and will have to until his dying days, Divac defended his 2018 choice of drafting Marvin Bagley III over Luka Doncic with the No. 2 pick (the Suns took Deandre Ayton No. 1 that year). This time, Doncic did it to Croatian online newspaper Index (hat tip Hoopshype).
“At that position, I already had De’Aaron Fox, whom I had drafted a year earlier. At the time, I believed Fox was a player who could become a franchise star in the coming years. Time will tell if I was wrong. As things stand now, it seems I was, but I still have faith in Fox having a great career.”
We shouldn’t diminish Fox, an All-NBA player who has won the Clutch Player of the Year award, and averaged 26.6 points and 5.6 assists a game last season. However, he’s no Doncic, a top-five player in the league and a perennial MVP candidate. Why not play them next to each other, like Doncic and Kyrie Irving do now, a combo that took the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals a season ago?
“No. Irving is a classic scorer, just like Luka. Fox isn’t; he’s a playmaker who needs the ball, just like Luka. I could’ve taken Luka, but then I’d have had to trade Fox. Interestingly, Phoenix also passed on Luka, and at the time, their coach was Igor Kokoškov, who had coached Luka in Slovenia. Atlanta drafted Luka, but they traded him away. It was Dallas that eventually took him. I love watching Luka; I really enjoy his style of basketball. I had my own reasons for making that decision. Maybe I made a mistake, but time will tell.”
Time has told. Fox is an outstanding player, a top-10 point guard in the NBA right now, but Doncic is on top of that list—a future Hall of Famer.
Divac made clear that one of “my own reasons” for the pick was not a feud with Doncic’s father, a rumor he has shot down before. Divac believed Bagley’s ceiling was higher than Doncic’s, and to be fair at the time other scouts thought that as well (they didn’t anticipate the shift in the NBA away from traditional bigs). There was a segment of the scouting community that did not buy in on Doncic pre-draft (and a segment that emphatically did).
Phoenix drafted Ayton No. 1 because then owner Robert Sarver ordered it, believing in the traditional center and that taking the Arizona standout and keeping him in the state was good for the box office, according to league sources. Many teams were high on Ayton at the time, while Doncic suffered from the outdated mindset of “Sure, he dominated the EuroLeague, but this is the NBA, and it will be different.” Atlanta was betting on Trae Young in that trade.
Which brings us back to the opening paragraph of this story: Always draft the best player, regardless of position, then figure out the rest later.
For Kings fans, this will always sting. Divac’s decision will be remembered in the same category as the Trail Blazers drafting Sam Bowie in front of Michael Jordan because Portland had Clyde Drexler and didn’t need a wing player. Divac missed and the franchise continues to pay the price.
