SportsCenter on Twitter:
At 35 years old, Joe Mazzulla is the youngest coach to win the NBA title since Bill Russell won it at the same age in 1969
Link to SportsCenter tweet on Twitter
More context: Yesterday on June 17, 2024, the Boston Celtics won the NBA Finals. Head coach Joe Mazzulla was 35 years old at the time, as evidenced by his June 30, 1988 birthdate. On May 5, 1969, player-coach Bill Russell led his team to a championship. He was 35 due to the fact he was born on is February 12, 1934. Bill is still the youngest coach to win an NBA championship since 1969. This is due to the fact that Bill was only in his third month of age 35 whereas Joe was in his 11th month of age 35 at the time of their championships. John Kundla holds the record as the youngest. He was 33 years 9 months 20 days when the Minneapolis Lakers won the 1950 NBA Title.
Edits: they happened
by Tasty-Performance275
28 Comments
Not bad for Boston’s first-ever Black head coach
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r/bostonceltics wanted this dude fired like 45 days ago. Never seen a dumber collection of basketball minds.
Until I found r/nba, but still! r/bostonceltics after a loss is up there!
>Bill still holds the record as youngest coach to win a championship
That would be Buddy Jeanette (30) if you count the BAA and John Kundla (33) if you don’t count the BAA.
Is he the youngest Christian to win a championship?
Great run of coaches for Boston, Brad had the X’s and O’s, Ime made them tough, Joe seems to have taken the egos out of the game.
People talk a lot about Brown vs Tatum but I honestly don’t think that group gives a fuck, they know it isn’t important.
so he’s the youngest single titled NBA coach
I want Kendrick Perkins to apologize to this man and admit he has no idea about basketball.
youngest first black christian head coach who gets drunk and chokes women at bars to win a title
Who is the youngest coach-coach and not player-coach?
35? Bron is 40 😂
I really wish we had a documentary for the Celtics these past few years. I’d love to see how/when they decided to move Brad Stevens upstairs, how the entire Ime situation evolved, and then the rise of Joe Mazzulla.
lol for some reason I always envisioned a 40+ year old Russell as a player coach. Being a player coach at 35 is nuts
With a torn meniscus* lol
Because Joe is the balls. Really though I’ve been a Mazzulla fan since day 1 last season. His mindset, his care for his players, his honesty – he helped build a team around shared purpose, individual responsibility, and sacrifice. Literally what more could you ask for from a coach? (The title, but now he got that now soooooo 🍀). How easy would it be for Tatum or Brown to be divas on the team, or media limelight hogs, or pure stat chasers? Everyone would go ‘yeah, that’s him ughh’ but instead they grew and they sacrificed. The whole team begins at gratitude and ends at responsibility – individual and shared. Power in that – more than most realize.
I manage a couple businesses and sometimes I wish it was a sports team because sports are somewhat clearly built around ambition, accountability, teamwork, and sacrifice where the average person’s relationship to their job is often decidedly not about those things. Respect on that – I am also one to work to live and not live to work. But I try to be honest with my employees that ambition and drive are important to me – not for recognition but because life is short and anything worth doing is worth doing well. I’m not satisfied with mediocre work, or with everyone’s existing wages, or a B+ outcome. I treat them with gratitude+respect and I have high standards.
I knew from Day 1 that Mazzulla was my guy.
Not super relevant but that Joe is a New England native makes this championship cooler. He kind of gets what it’s like to compete in and win for Boston.
Idc. He will forever annoy me for not getting called for being over half court during that wolves game two years ago.
Good coach tho.
Maybe I should get into religion…
If Joe Kundla was the youngest to do it why does media refuse to mention him rather than a footnote
What’s wild is Bill Russell averages 42 minutes and 19 boards a game coaching his team to a title
I wonder if Bill Russell was a Christian coach.
Well done let’s go b: do the right thing now
Brad Stevens good basketball ops
Is nobody else surprised at the fact that bill Russel was 35 when he won his first as a coach? Or was this one of the player/coach rings.
What I’m thinking is, how many did he win before age 35???
> He was 35 due to the fact he was born on is February 12, 1934.
Bill Russell was truly one-of-a-kind.
Man what the hell, he’s younger than I am.
And he did it with a torn meniscus.
Since when are birth dates proof of age?
Now The Town will have re runs everywhere. “…whose car are we gonna take??”