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.

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.

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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.

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.

Nakase recently talked about how Mazzulla has helped her as a head coach, especially in this first season for the Valkyries.

“I 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.”

Nakase talked about how she was grateful that Mazzulla was able to give her time to learn from him.

“Just 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, ‘Who’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.”

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Mazzulla knows what it’s like to be a young coach with a team that has high expectations. He is happy to help any other young coach who is looking for help on how to navigate things.

With the Celtics, Mazzulla has already shown that he has lived up to the expectations thrust upon him and even more. Nakase is hoping that Mazzulla’s wisdom can help her as her team competes in the playoffs in the coming days.

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