Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: Joe Mazzulla gets 'Pep' talk from his hero ahead of NBA Finals

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Jun 6, 2024 8:50 AM ET

The "never meet your heroes" expression doesn't apply to Joe Mazzulla, who seemingly benefits from every time he meets his.

In February, the Celtics coach traveled to the Etihad Campus in Manchester to pick the brain of his hero, Man City coach Pep Guardiola, to better understand his coaching philosophies.

After the visit, Mazzulla made his team watch hours of footage of Man City matches, explaining the philosophies that have made his idol, Guardiola, the best coach in the sport of soccer. The plan worked, as the Celtics steamrolled opponents en route to their fourth-best season in franchise history.

And now there's more.

As the Celtics coach prepares for the biggest two weeks of his life, he's been soaking in advice from his hero. According to Celtics beat writer Morey Hershgordon, Mazzulla and Guardiola had "an intimate conversation" at the TD Garden on Wednesday ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Joe Mazzulla is talking to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

Intimate conversation. Mazzulla has spoken about studying other sports and applying it to pic.twitter.com/K92xtzCVL2
— Morey Hershgordon (@MHershgordon) June 5, 2024

Following his chat with Guardiola in February, Mazzulla relayed to his team that, just like soccer, basketball is a continuum.

"That is what the game of basketball is about, to me, and what counterattacking in soccer is about," Mazzulla told The Athletic. "So I study a lot of Man City. I study Pep a lot. I think he's the best coach at any level, in any sport. It’s had a huge influence (on me)."

"Soccer and basketball, when I watch it, it's kind of the same sport from that tactical standpoint of how do you create advantages? How do you create two-on-ones? How do you recognize weaknesses in the defense and how do you take advantage of angles?"

Mazzulla, 35, is the youngest head coach to reach the NBA Finals since Celtics legend Bill Russell, who achieved the same feat as a player-coach in 1969. The Celtics beat the Lakers 4-3 to capture that title.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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