ESPN’s Legler a voice of reason regarding Mazzulla

I admit I’ve been cheering for Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla more than most.

He played hoops for my alma mater, WVU, and led the Mountaineers to possibly the biggest upset in school history – against that 2010 Kentucky team with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, Darius Miller, etc. – into the Final Four.

Also, I’ve gotten a chance to know Joe over the years. While a writer in Charleston I used to do a live Q&A show on the side, and he was kind enough to visit a couple times. After one I went to the state basketball tournament with him to scout a player. At the time he was coaching Fairmont State.

So when the Celtics went down 0-3 to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals, I was down. When Boston won three straight to force a Game 7 at home, I was up.

Then, of course, Monday’s unexpected Celtic blowout loss at home was the ultimate downer. Mazzulla had received criticism throughout the playoffs, and I knew more was coming down the pipe.

Of course, it did, which is to be expected. Coaches always bear most of the brunt. (Heck, I was even mocked by ESPN personality Chris Carlin on Twitter for sticking up for Mazzulla. Carlin apparently bookmarked a tweet from earlier in the series. Crazy, right?)

And who knows? My guy Mazzulla may keep his job. He may not. We saw coaches like Doc Rivers, Mike Budenholzer, Monty Williams and Nick Nurse lose jobs after this season. Most of those were crazy firings.

Now Joe is a talking point. At 34, he coached the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals, one game short of where they were last season under Ime Udoka, who lost his job amid scandal. Mazzulla was the NBA All-Star coach of Team Giannis. He finished second in Coach of the Year voting.

Yet, we know how cutthroat the NBA is toward coaches. “It just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra recently. “It really has been disturbing.”

Bringing us back to Mazzulla. I listened to the criticisms of him. Then I heard one voice of reason among national talking heads: ESPN’s Tim Legler, who played for Golden State and Washington in the NBA and was the league’s 1996 3-point contest champion.

While at lunch I heard him stump for Boston to keep young stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown together. I heard him talk about having patience in winning a championship. And then I heard him talk about Mazzulla.

It was the most measured, thought-out take I’ve heard.

“Much like the players I just mentioned, you look at Joe Mazzulla and the situation he found himself in,” Legler said. “First of all, he didn’t really even get an entire off-season. When most guys get hired it’s in April or May. Now you have an entire summer to get ready to implement what you want to.

“That’s not what happened with Mazzulla. He took this job on the fly when everything went down with Ime Udoka.

“He took over a team that went to the Finals, so it was ready-made to win. That carried over from last season, the first couple of months. It was great. But as you got deeper into the season and you started to see this roller coaster ride, I think Joe Mazzulla was learning on the fly as well.

“He’s a very young guy. There are things you could point to that I really liked about his job performance and there are some things he needs to do better. Mainly, he needs to be better offensively in the moment when you’re dealing with a defense that’s causing you problems, the way the Heat’s zone did in this series. I didn’t see a whole lot different from game to game that allowed them to be more efficient. And some of the late-in-the-game stuff they ran in the postseason, he needs to be better in the moment.

“But there’s a lot there to like,” he summed up. “I think with a full off-season at his disposal I think he’ll be ready to make a big impact in Year Two. So, I’m not ready, again, to give up on Joe Mazzulla either. I think let’s be a little bit more patient with this corps that they have.”

Anyone who knows the story behind Miami’s Spoelstra, who grew into perhaps the NBA’s best coach, will agree. Patience, as Legler preached, can certainly be a winning virtue.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.