Boston Celtics
It was media vs. the Celtics coaches on the Auerbach middle, and the sport went about how you’d count on.
COMMENTARY
I believed Joe Mazzulla was joking.
On the finish of his press conference Tuesday afternoon, Mazzulla introduced that he was placing a twist on the Celtics media’s choose up basketball recreation.
Normally, we play towards one another. It’s a cool alternative for us to expertise a slice of the glory that Celtics gamers expertise virtually every single day, working up and down the ground on the Auerbach Heart and getting just a few pictures up with the Celtics’ championship banners hanging over our heads.
However, this was not a traditional Tuesday at work. The Celtics coach had a distinct matchup in thoughts.
“I don’t need to break it to to you,” Mazzulla stated. “However, you’re not enjoying towards one another. You’re enjoying towards the coaches.”
Mazzulla appeared round at us and walked off with a straight face. Not even a touch of a smirk. His face ought to have advised me that he was critical, but it surely appeared laughable that he would even assume to do one thing like this.
Not solely was it a shock, it was additionally a severely lopsided matchup when it comes to expertise.
Celtics assistant Amile Jefferson is a former McDonald’s All-American who performed at Duke with Jayson Tatum. Maine Celtics coach Phil Pressey is a former Celtics level guard. God Shammgod Jr. is the son of the legendary God Shamgod. Mazzulla as soon as helped West Virginia attain its first Remaining 4 since 1959.
It was a set of former NBA gamers and excessive DI-level athletes of their thirties towards a mean group of sportswriters.
For sure, the outcomes have been about what you’d count on in such a matchup. Mazzulla, being the savvy coach/level guard that he’s, knew that we couldn’t deal with a full-court press.
Our media staff had respectable measurement measurement. I’m 6-foot-6, Boston Sports activities Journal’s John Karalis is round my top. CLNS Media’s Bobby Manning is lanky and all the time performs with vitality on the glass. The Athletic’s Jay King can also be a very good participant, the most effective in our little Boston media bubble, due to his exterior capturing means.
However, we have been no match for the pace and size of the coaches. They swarmed us and jumped out to a 22-0 lead. It was like watching a pee-wee staff that couldn’t get the ball over half courtroom. They made steal after steal, resulting in simple appears down low and from 3-point vary. Mazzulla was main the cost, hounding our guards and being vocal about how he needed this recreation to be a shutout.
It virtually occurred. The coaches beat us 57-4, and our two baskets got here by way of a mixture of hustle and luck. Forbes contributor Bobby Krivitsky scored on a layup, and I scored on a putback off of a missed 3-pointer. That was all of the offense we may muster.
Normally, when a staff is overmatched bodily, the 3-point shot is a weapon that may preserve issues comparatively aggressive. However, NBA vary is sort of a bit completely different from the 3-point traces at different gyms, and our shooters struggled to regulate, lacking all their pictures from past the arc.
As a giant man, there wasn’t even time to put up up. I had to assist attempt to break the press. We couldn’t even get the ball close to our basket more often than not.
The funniest second of the day, to me, was once we gathered at halfcourt after the sport. I heard a voice from above the courtroom yelling “Does anybody need to do media?”
It was Jaylen Brown giving us a style of our personal drugs. He and Jayson Tatum caught round to observe the sport. We’ve all requested Brown powerful questions after losses; he gleefully took the chance to point out us what it felt like.
Happily, nobody took it critically sufficient to carry us accountable and truly reply questions. It might have been laborious to explain what occurred within the quick aftermath of a loss like that.
Mazzulla was an excellent sport. He shook everybody’s hand after the sport. We performed a media vs. media recreation afterwards and he hung round to observe. Our recreation got here all the way down to the wire, and my staff, the white media staff, defeated the inexperienced media staff 25-22.
The inexperienced staff had the ball with 1.8 seconds remaining with an opportunity to tie, and Mazzulla pushed the refs to place an additional 5 seconds on the clock, giving them virtually seven seconds to attempt to pull off some buzzer-beater magic.
I suppose the coach was pulling for an thrilling ending. Our protection held up, although, because the inexperienced staff was unable to get a shot off earlier than the ultimate buzzer sounded.
Brad Stevens made an look after the sport, too. The Celtics actually made our little recreation really feel like an occasion. We had entry to the scoreboard. There was a 24-second shot clock and referees. It felt official.
Effectively, we formally acquired whooped by the coaches. It was to be anticipated. I watched a bunch of these guys play high-level basketball rising up. It was an honor to take the ground with them and to have the ability to say I scored.
One request for subsequent time, Joe. If you happen to’re going to pit us towards your crew, a minimum of give us slightly little bit of time to gameplan.
I need a rematch and a while to recruit. The media staff actually may have used some extent guard and a talented wing to assist break that press. Too dangerous NBC Sports activities Boston’s Brian Scalabrine and Eddie Home weren’t round.
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