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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who played his collegiate ball at West Virginia University, was named NBA Coach of the Year. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics was asked a couple months ago about the possibility of winning the Coach of the Year award this season, and his answer was succinct.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t need it,\u201d he said back in March. \u201cI think it\u2019s a stupid award.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, Mazzulla won a stupid award.
\nMazzulla was announced as the NBA\u2019s top coach for 2025-26, after the Celtics earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference \u2014 despite playing most of the year without Jayson Tatum while he recovered from Achilles surgery and amid rebuilding expectations from many following the departures of players like Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
\nTo be very clear, Mazzulla\u2019s dismissal of the award in March was for one reason \u2014 he thinks it should be more of a \u201ccoaching staff of the year\u201d than a \u201ccoach of the year\u201d award, and that is a noble approach. He repeated that during Tuesday night\u2019s announcement of his win, beginning his remarks on NBC by thanking those who made it possible.
\n\u201cThe long nights, the trips, game plans, the video guys that are clipping up the film and coding it, the assistants who are putting in the game plan, I think there\u2019s so much that goes into winning one game,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cIt starts with the players, but it goes to our staff. I feel bad that they\u2019re not here \u2014 but forever indebted to the guys that we have that give up time with their families and their time to give us a chance to win every day.\u201d
\nThe 37-year-old Mazzulla is the youngest winner of the award since Phil Johnson in 1975, the NBA said.
\nFittingly, the Celtics coach will get the Red Auerbach Trophy \u2014 which is named for the legendary Celtics coach. Mazzulla becomes the fourth Boston coach to win the award, following Auerbach in 1965, Tom Heisohn in 1973 and Bill Fitch in 1980. Auerbach, a Hall of Famer, guided the Celtics to nine NBA championships, including eight in a row from 1959 through 1966.
\n\u201cThis is well deserved recognition and a testament to both Joe and his staff,\u201d Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens said. \u201cWith all of our unknowns entering the season, Joe did a fantastic job building and growing a team. He pours everything he has into competing at a high level, while helping players find the best versions of themselves within the framework of a team.\u201d
\nDetroit\u2019s J.B. Bickerstaff \u2014 for the second consecutive year \u2014 finished second, and San Antonio\u2019s Mitch Johnson placed third.
\nThe award is based on regular-season results only. Votes from the panel of 100 reporters and broadcasters who cover the NBA were turned in during the play-in tournament, which was more than a month ago.
\nThe Coach of the Year award \u2014 the one handed out Tuesday is separate from the one presented earlier this spring by the National Basketball Coaches Association, which Bickerstaff won \u2014 is the last of the major awards given out by the NBA to commemorate the best of the 2025-26 season.
\nThe rundown of awards:
\n\u2014 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City: Most Valuable Player and Clutch Player of the Year.
\n\u2014 Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio: Defensive Player of the Year.
\n\u2014 Cooper Flagg, Dallas: Rookie of the Year.
\n\u2014 Keldon Johnson, San Antonio: Sixth Man of the Year.
\n\u2014 Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta: Most Improved Player.
\n\u2014 Bam Adebayo, Miami: Social Justice Champion.
\n\u2014 Derrick White, Boston: Sportsmanship Award.
\n\u2014 DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans: Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year.
\n\u2014 Brad Stevens, Boston: Executive of the Year.
\n\u2014 Moussa Diabat\u00e9, Charlotte: Hustle Award.
\n\u2014 The All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who played his collegiate ball at West Virginia University, was named NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[293604,355,99,18068],"class_list":["post-673095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-mazzulla-named-nba-coach-of-the-year","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}