Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has all but booked a spot in the Hall of Fame, despite still being the youngest active NBA head coach. In just four years in his role, he became an NBA All-Star Game head coach in 2023, then won the NBA title in 2024 and got the Coach of the Year award in 2026.
Outside of basketball, the 6-foot-2 former point guard also finds time to train various martial arts. Interestingly enough, the 38-year-old likened his recent Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) blue belt promotion
to his biggest career achievement in basketball.
“I don’t apply the grappling as much (in coaching) as I apply the mindset, and exposing myself to myself. It’s funny, we were fortunate enough to win (an NBA title) in 2024. I had the same feeling the day I got promoted to my blue belt as I did when I won the championship,” Mazzulla said in an interview with Daniel Cormier.
“Oh c’mon!” the former UFC champion responded with a chuckle.
The first step after white belt seemed trivial compared to an NBA world championship, after all. But Mazzulla, who was once described by NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown as “a psycho in a good way,”continued to explain why he was dead serious about his statement.
“It was a feeling of like, what the f— am I going to do now? Now I got to figure out how to do this again,” Mazzulla explained. “There’s such a small space between genius and insanity, there’s such a small space between champion and ultimate failure… I’ll never forget the day I actually got promoted.”
After getting badly worked in a training session, Mazzulla described a common feeling people get while progressing through the ranks in jiu-jitsu.
“I’m getting the s— kicked out of me… I’m like ‘well, today is not the day. I’m not going to get it.’ (but) I get it,” Mazzulla said about receiving his blue belt. “Then I look around the gym. Now I’m stuck in this space of like I could lose at any time to a white belt, and I’m so far away from the best blue belt.
“That day that I got (my blue belt), I wasn’t happy,” the NBA coach said. “I was more like ‘now I got to figure out how to do this.’ Fear came, anxiety came, paranoia came. Like now I’m not good enough anymore. Literally it was just one change and it changed everything.
“I feel like that’s where I am as a coach. I have a taste of what it’s like (to be a champion), but now I’ve lost and I could go back to this… the (opposite) side of greatness,” he explained. “So I use that same perspective to push myself to hopefully take that into the team.”
Mazzulla also reportedly tries to train around his busy NBA travel schedule, finding a gym on the road to train in the morning, before having a game in the evening. Apart from grappling, Mazzulla was also recently seen working on his striking recently at the famed Xtreme Couture gym.
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