Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is not one to hide his Catholic faith. Known to make Gospel references during press conferences, have special seats reserved courtside for Catholic priests, and carry a gargantuan Rosary around, the NBA coach just revealed the biggest news of all: his desire to become a Catholic deacon.
Speaking to Dominican Father Joseph Anthony Kress on the Godsplaining podcast, Mazzulla was asked, “What would you say is your next professional goal?”
And instead of talking about another NBA title or the playoffs, the daily communicant surprised listeners: “So I just became eligible to be a deacon, which I’ve always wanted to do. There we go. I’ve been thinking about that.”
The young coach didn’t share any more on this exciting news, but speaking more to what his professional goal would be when it comes to coaching, Mazzulla shared:
“I think winning has been scarier for me because I am like wrestling with God. Like, do I get greedy and want more? How do you find the space of wanting more, yet being grateful for what God has given you? Because my biggest fear is, 10 years from now, I wake up and I am the rich young ruler. And life has passed me by, and I am not willing to give up my treasures on this earth because I have given everything I had to a worldliness.”
The interview brings Mazzulla’s Catholic faith into the light in so many unique ways. Speaking about his own upbringing, he recognized how much his faith shaped him.
“I was very fortunate, mainly because I just grew up in an environment where faith and Catholicism was a normal part of life. I grew up half a mile down from a church. I went to church on Sundays and went to Catholic school, K-12th grade.”
As we know, Mazzulla has become quite an influencer within the Catholic sphere with his outspokenness about his faith, including viral moments, such as when he is asked about meeting the royal family and quickly responds, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph?”
In that same exchange, the sports reporter reiterates, “The prince and princess of Wales,” and Mazzulla again for the win: “I’m only familiar with one royal family. I don’t know too much about that one. But hopefully they’re Celtic fans.”
But as Father Joseph Anthony Kress asks Mazzulla who influences him, the NBA coach said, “I’m very grateful to have relationships with current and former players. And some are people of strong faith, and some aren’t. I don’t really think that matters, but the types of relationships you can build with people are why I’m really in all of this.”
He also mentions his long-time priest and friend, Father Marcel Taillon, whom he’s known since the 8th grade (a priest also very dear to my family), and the many fruits of that friendship.
“To be able to have a consistent priest, consistent teaching but also accountability, for him to be there in all different phases of my life, phases of going into high school — we developed our faith through so many different experiences and through high school, the recruiting period, what college you’re going to choose, going to college, the ups and downs of college, starting your career, moving your family,” he said. “And it all culminates in moving back to where we started together, which is here in New England, and then taking on the faith journey together is something. I’ve had people along the way, but Father Taillon is one that’s been there for a long, long time, and has really helped me in every phase of my life.”
“If we all look at our life as a testimony,” Mazzulla continued, “I think there are two different types. I think God puts people into your life for particular moments, whether it’s one day, one year, whether it’s three to five years. And so, how can you impact that person in the time that you have with that person? How can you use the gifts that God has given you for the time that you have? So I think then you have a few relationships that are long-lasting and go beyond time. You never want to take for granted the time you have to invest in someone.”
Living intentionally does really seem to be the coach’s modus operandi. And he said the decision to live this way came when he realized the hard truth that we are asked to understand as Catholics.
“For me personally, it’s believing what God says about you is true. Something so simple, but it’s so difficult. And I would say for a long time, I didn’t always believe what he said about me was true. When you neglect that and you don’t believe it, you go and look for false truths. So they come into the things that are a little bit easier to believe. As a kid, it’s easier to believe that your identity is in basketball than it is that someone who died for you and gave up their whole life for you. You have this grace, and you can’t earn it, and it’s just given to you. And all you have to do is accept. And that’s hard to accept.”
“How do I accept that?” Mazzulla asked. “How do I believe it? And how do I live it?”
Mazzulla also talked about keeping his wife and family close to him during the season, ruled by the verse, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
“Throughout the season,” he said, his wife often travels with him, “because I think it’s important to work on your marriage just as much as it is to work on your coaching. Throughout the playoffs, she’s at every single game,” and they attend daily Mass together and every Sunday.
Father Kress pointed out that many people live like “this life happens to us instead of ‘I am going to live this life with this person this way.’“
And Mazzulla said for him, “It’s a conscious effort and it’s a mindset. This is who we are going to be. We are going to interpret the things that happen to us through the lens of Christ.”
“The struggle of being a person of faith, Mazzulla admitted, “is you’re going to let people down,” and he strives to live like Christ, but there are some things that baffle him in this digital age. “Obviously, God is omniscient, and Jesus was who he was on this earth, but I have a hard time saying, okay, how would Jesus handle Instagram?”
Coach Mazzulla also shared his pre-game ritual that includes praying the Rosary with beads he had made from the old Boston Celtics’ parquet floor.
“I think it’s important to have a perspective of God gave me my dream job at a very young age, so how can you live it to the fullest but also try to be as present as you can. Just combining my favorite things: basketball, Rosary, the Celtics, just having that pregame ritual keeps you centered and grounded on the opportunity and responsibility that God has given you.”
“It’s something that I cherish doing,” Mazzulla shared, saying his love for the Marian prayer came at an early age, seeds planted at Catholic school.
“In St. Mary’s, we would do the Living Rosary, and we’d represent a bead. When you pass the microphone and everyone was a bead? That’s kind of how it started.”
Mazzulla wondered if they are still doing the Living Rosary, and I can assure you all that Catholic schools are, including here in New Jersey, where my daughter will represent her bead by wearing blue tomorrow. And I will say a prayer today that the experience might have the same impact on her as it did on Coach Joe.
God bless Joe Mazzulla — and may we all learn to live as intentionally as he does!
