Celtics Legend Takes Swipe at Joe Mazzulla After Playoff Flop

At 97 years old, legendary Celtics point guard Bob Cousy is not all that worried about offending folks. He's always been an honest analyst, especially when it comes to the state of his former team, and he was less than impressed with the way they comported themselves in this year's postseason.

After winning the NBA championship in 2024, the Celtics came back uninspired in the 2025 playoffs, losing to the Knicks in six games in the East semifinals. The loss included two massive blown leads, first in Game 1 (20-point lead blown in the second half) and again in Game 2 (16-point lead blown in the fourth quarter).

Cousy, in an interview with the Boston Globe, gave credit to coach Joe Mazzulla for the team's overall performance, but pinned the Knicks series loss to Mazzulla's unwillingness to go away from the 3-pointer.

Celtics Can't Explain 'Collapse'

Here's what Mazzulla said, via the Globe:

"You have to be there to have a sense of what’s going on, and I’m not. I get the impression that [coach Joe] Mazzulla did a good job and had their attention. But in the playoffs, in my experience, the best team wins. There are upsets occasionally, but I have no understanding of how the Celtics could collapse, especially against the [expletive] Knicks. As the Knicks proved in the next round, they were not a legitimate contender."

New York lost the conference finals to the Pacers.

The Celtics took an average of 46.2 3-point tries against the Knicks and made 35.0% of them. The Celtics had taken just 31.2 3-pointers against Orlando in the first round of the playoffs.

“I like the three as a weapon, but not as the first [expletive] option,” Cousy says. “It’s always going to be there for you. It’s not something you have to create. You’re going to have it when you want it. So why eliminate the other options?"

Cousy is a Hall of Famer, with six NBA rings, an MVP trophy and 13 All-Star selections in 13 seasons. Yet he, like most Celtics fans this spring, felt a certain frustration with Mazzulla for the way the Celtics hoisted 3s as the Knicks pulled the upset.