The Boston Celtics have locked up Joe Mazzulla for the future after he signed a contract extension this summer. They clearly are pleased with what he has brought to the organization.<\/p>\n
Mazzulla helped the Celtics win the 2024 title and will now have to prove he’s an elite coach with the Celtics replacing three starters from last year’s team.<\/p>\n
More news: Kristaps Porzingis Has No Idea How Celtics Will Replace Him This Season<\/a><\/p>\n Mazzulla is certainly respected by his players. He is also respected by other coaches around the league. In fact, he has become a mentor for one particular head coach in the WNBA.<\/p>\n Natalie Nakase is the head coach of the upstart Golden State Valkyries. They have qualified for the playoffs in their first season in the WNBA as an expansion team.<\/p>\n Nakase recently talked about <\/a>how Mazzulla has helped her as a head coach, especially in this first season for the Valkyries.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to pick Joe Mazzulla’s brain in the offseason. Just because he’s a young coach who had expectations of winning championships,” Nakase said. “Banners are the only thing that’s acceptable in Boston.”<\/p>\n Nakase talked about how she was grateful that Mazzulla was able to give her time to learn from him.<\/p>\n \u201cJust very lucky that he was able to give me the amount of time that he did. And the insight. Again, [what] I pulled from Joe Mazzulla was that his staff [is] connected,” Nakase added. “The first day watching practice, I was like, \u2018Who’s the bench coach? Who’s the [player development coach]? Who’s the video guy?’ I could not tell who was who because everyone took part in coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n