The draft defeated the current champion to win the championship, but this identity is a bit strange

It's only about basketball

2024-06-20 11:32Posted in Beijing Sports Creators

Losing the draft and beating the current champion to win the championship is certainly something that has happened more than once in the long history of the NBA. But what if this undrafted pick won the championship as a coach?

In the 2011 draft, Duke University's Irving played just 11 games to secure the top spot. Despite the lack of a squad due to injury, Irving's creative talent allowed him to beat all of his opponents in his class, including Mazzulla.

Mazzulla is nearly four years older than Irving, who played in college for five years, compared to Irving, who ran in just 11 games. His original junior year was reimbursed early due to injury, so he applied for a one-year postponement of graduation, and his senior year officially began his third season in college.

This year, Mazzulla became the captain and centerpiece, and eliminated the Kentucky led by the 10-year champion Wall in March Madness, and Mazzulla had 17 points, 3 assists and 2 steals in that game, ending Wall's college career by himself.

Mazzulla led West Virginia University to the final four of the Mad 3 tournament. The last time West Virginia University made it to the semifinals was back in 1959, and the man who led them to the semifinals was Jerry West.

In the end, Mazzulla's West Virginia University was eliminated by the mighty Duke in the semifinals, and Duke defeated Butler University in the finals to win the championship. It was the first time in the history of the obscure school of Butler University that the team had reached the Crazy Three Finals, and that year their head coach was called Stevens.

The following year, in his "Big Five" season, Mazzulla didn't make the crazy three, and they were eliminated by Butler's Marquette University. Twelve years later, Butler eliminated Mazzulla again on the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Mazzulla ran and lost in 2011, there was no suspense, and he himself did not have much hope. He didn't continue to struggle in training camp and summer league like other undrafted picks, and became an assistant coach at a college just a few months later.

In this year's playoffs, Mazzulla said of his coaching job: "I coached because I wasn't really good at anything else. In 2016-17, Mazzulla came to the Development League as an assistant coach for a Celtics-affiliated team.

Not long after, in March 2017, Mazzulla received an offer from Fairmont State University to become a college basketball head coach at the age of 29. The job didn't last long, as Mazzulla received an offer for a job that would be better for him to become Stevens' assistant coach.

Mazzulla joined the Celtics coaching staff in 2019 and was instrumental in his previous experience with Celtics. Stevens saw the move, and it changed Mazzulla's career. Of course, the events that really changed Mazzulla's life were yet to come.

In 2021, Stevens was promoted to management, Udoka took over, and Mazzulla remained on the Celtics' coaching staff. A year later, the promising Udoka ate the grass and blew up his future with the Celtics, and Mazzulla managed to take over the team that had just reached the Finals a few months earlier.

In February 2023, the Celtics officially announced Mazzulla as the team's head coach. Leading the team to the Eastern Conference finals in his first year is a reasonable report card, but the poor on-the-spot command in the first three games of the Eastern Conference finals still put Mazzulla under tremendous pressure.

He inherited a "full division", and the record of reaching the division finals is far from satisfying the discerning Celtics fans, although some have not reached a single division finals until now. Fans questioned Mazzulla's slow pace and the team's overall reliance on three-point play.

Stevens once again stepped forward to give this disciple absolute power, and the coaching staff during Mazzulla's time was all cleaned up, and Mazzulla really formed a coaching team of his own. He then led the team to a 64-18 league finish in the regular season.

In a real test of coaching like the playoffs, Mazzulla delivered a 16-3 record. He's got a five-out lineup, he's got a lot of variety, he's got everybody involved, he's got everybody touched, and the ball goes smoothly.

Space and three-pointers are Mazzulla's philosophy. The Celtics are always questioned for shooting too many threes, but the championship always takes all doubts away. In five games of the Finals, the Celtics scored 22 more three-pointers than the Mavericks.

"Anytime you want to develop a new philosophy or a new style, it takes time to understand and execute," Mazzulla said. Of course, if the Celtics only shoot threes, they will never touch the trophy of the 18th crown.

Mazzulla added a lot of low-post singles to the offensive system, he made Holiday forget about his previous role and start more rushing rebounds to ambush in the restricted area, he made Tatum willing to do coolies, he was steadfast in letting White play the starting point guard, White said he would do anything for Mazzulla.

At 35 years and 353 days, Mazzulla became the youngest championship head coach in history since Russell, and he was even two years younger than Horford. Before winning the championship, Mazzulla earned the trust of the players, and that was the foundation of everything.

The Celtic youth and the equally young Mazzulla were questioned along the way, experiencing failures together, starting all over again, until they reached the top.

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