Joe Mazzulla reacts to Michael Malone’s firing in unsurprising fashion

NEW YORK CITY — After the firing of Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, Joe Mazzulla turns into one among simply two NBA head coaches who’ve received a championship previously decade — and nonetheless have their job with the crew they received it with.

Forward of the Celtics’ sport towards the Knicks on Tuesday, Mazzulla mirrored on the second NBA coach firing of the final month — Malone’s gorgeous firing, which got here with simply 4 video games left within the common season.

“You enroll realizing that. Once more, he was what, ten years there? That’s loads,” Mazzulla stated Tuesday. “You hope for stuff like that — you hope for a scenario, stability to be someplace so long as you may have, and when it’s your time, it’s your time. You focus extra on the actual fact he was capable of be there for ten years — not many coaches get to try this.”

Mazzulla additionally identified that solely Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, and Erik Spoelstra have coached for at the very least ten years with the identical group.

“I get up daily saying this could possibly be my final day,” Mazzulla stated. “It’s important to have that kind of perspective. It offers you gratitude. It additionally retains you hungry. It’s important to have a wholesome steadiness of — you need this for so long as you may, however on the similar time, you’re additionally replaceable. That’s simply the way it works. Day by day I remind myself of my very own mortality.”

It’s the same tune he’s sung all yr when it’s come to the firing of head coaches.

“All of us get employed to get fired,” he stated after the Boston Bruins fired head coach Jim Montgomery in November.

Successful an NBA title doesn’t present job safety for head coaches

Lately, it’s develop into more and more clear that main a crew to an NBA championship doesn’t essentially spell long-term success for head coaches.

The Toronto Raptors received the 2019 championship and noticed Nick Nurse get fired 4 years later. Frank Vogel led the Lakers to a title in 2020 — and was let go simply two years later. Mike Budenholzer equally coached the Bucks to a championship in 2021, and was fired two years later, too.

All three coaches have been re-hired by different NBA groups shortly after, however nonetheless discovered they’d misplaced their jobs just some years after main their groups to the highest of the mountains.

However, most coaches have accepted that that’s simply the best way issues go.

Knicks head Tom Thibodeau, now the fourth-longest tenured coach within the NBA, additionally mirrored on the firing of each Malone and Nuggets basic supervisor Calvin Sales space, whose contract wasn’t renewed.

“Simply disappointment,” he stated. “It’s the unlucky a part of the enterprise. I’ve recognized Michael for many years. Unbelievable household, nice coach.”

Joe Mazzulla is rapidly changing into one of many NBA’s extra tenured coaches

Mazzulla is in his third yr because the Celtics’ head coach and is already the NBA’s fifteenth most-tenured coach.

This season alone, he’s seen three coaches (Taylor Jenkins, Mike Brown, and Malone) lose their jobs, successfully making up 10% of the teaching workforce.

Mazzulla has at all times made clear that he understands the ruthless nature of the enterprise — and acknowledges that coaches are employed to get fired.

“You do the perfect you may,” he stated Tuesday, “for so long as you may.”