Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has been quite vocal about his disdain for the Coach of the Year award. He’d rather see the Red Auerbach Trophy go to entire coaching staff, not just one person. But, in spite of these complaints, Mazzulla was named the Coach of the Year for the 2025-26 NBA season.
Prior to the regular season, the Celtics were largely expected to fail. Many pundits and fans thought the C’s would decline without star forward Jayson Tatum healthy and because the Green Team lost so many starters during the offseason. And although the odds were stacked against them, the undermanned Celtics overcame low preseason projections and ended up with a 56-26 overall record — just 5 wins off their total from last season.
Mazzulla has now been at the helm for four consecutive 50-plus win campaigns. There will always be those who detract from his accomplishments for inheriting a talented team in 2022 that features Tatum and fellow Celtics star Jaylen Brown, yet he was able to get them to a title in dominant fashion in 2024.
Of course, the 2026 NBA Playoffs didn’t go how he wanted them to, as the Celtics fell in seven games to the rival Philadelphia 76ers. That postseason blunder doesn’t change the fact that Coach of the Year is a regular-season award, or that Mazzulla is now just the fourth Celtics coach ever to receive the prestigious honor and the first since 1980.
Whether or not Mazzulla feels honored by the award remains to be seen, but it feels likely that he’ll be back with Boston next season and eager to get a healthier Celtics roster back to the promised land.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Joe Mazzulla becomes first Celtics coach to win Coach of the Year since 1980
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