The deadpan comedy from Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla is quickly making him one of the most entertaining postgame interviews in the NBA.
Boston took a commanding 3-1 lead in their playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks with a 129-121 win on Sunday. After a slow start to the series and the game, All-Star shooting guard Jaylen Brown ditched his protective face mask during the second quarter and proceeded to dominate. Prior to Sunday, Brown wore the mask in every game since suffering a facial fracture in February.
During Mazzulla’s postgame press conference, he was asked about seeing a different Jaylen Brown on the court after he ditched the mask.
What did Joe Mazzulla see from Jaylen after he ditched the mask?
“I saw his face” pic.twitter.com/UkfXX4fFar
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) April 24, 2023
“I saw his face,” Mazzulla said with a deadpanned look on his own face.
This wasn’t the first time Mazzulla (in his first year as Boston’s head coach, a role he got on an interim basis in September after Ime Udoka’s supension, and on a full-time basis in February) had a sarcastic response during a press conference. Just last week, Mazzulla sarcastically claimed he was “very concerned” after a reporter asked about the Celtics allowing Atlanta back into a game that Boston still won by double-digits. But Mazzulla’s most famous postgame comment from this season may have been when he stunned reporters with his lack of appreciation for coaching a game with the British royal family in attendance.
The quick sarcastic answer on Sunday was great. But the way Mazzulla deadpanned and stared at the reporter after giving his answer elevated the response to another level. It was very Gregg Popovich-esque, mirroring his bluntness, but Mazzulla manages to do it without being insulting to the media. Even after Mazzulla highlights why a question might be trivial, he still follows it by giving the insightful answer the reporter was hoping to elicit.
[Celtics on NBC Sports Boston]
