Joe Mazzulla Uses Another Bizarre Animal Metaphor to Describe Celtics' Title Defense

The head coach loves the animal kingdom.

Mazzulla is entering his third year as Celtics head coach / Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

Once the Boston Celtics reached the NBA Finals this past June, the NBA world became aware that head coach Joe Mazzulla is a bit of an odd duck who is guaranteed at least one strange quote every time he spoke to the media. Thus, the Rhode Island-born coach's off-kilter personality became a storyline during his team's championship run. At one point a quote of his even became a bit of a rallying cry for the roster: "Nobody cares," which Derrick White shared was Mazzulla's reaction to winning his first Coach of the Month award.

It was also revealed that Mazzulla absolutely loves a good animal metaphor. Sam Hauser, for example, told the media Mazzulla showed the team how killer whales take down their prey in order for his players to understand a hunter's mindset. A little weird, but hey— many title-winning coaches are a little weird.

In a recent interview with John Karalis and the Locked On Celtics podcast, Mazzulla pulled out another bizarre animal metaphor, this time to describe Boston's title defense this upcoming season.

"The phrase ‘defending a title’ is a very passive-aggressive term," the Celtics head coach said. "If you look at the animal kingdom, some of the strongest animals don’t defend; they’re the most aggressive, and they attack the most.”

The animal kingdom was actually a regular topic during this particular interview. Earlier Mazzulla explained why animals have the "purest form of hierarchy" in nature and everyone has to stay in their lane. Otherwise they get killed. Which is obviously where the comparison to NBA life stops. But you can kind of see what he's saying!

To quote a famous beer commercial, it's only weird if it doesn't work. And Mazzulla's off-beat way of thinking definitely worked. So the Celtics are probably going to be better off if they embrace the "attack" mindset Mazzulla describes above.

---

More From Around the NBA

feed