Boston Celtics educate Joe Mazzulla used to be the talk of the basketball world Thursday night, however no longer for his X’s and O’s or outspoken tendencies. Instead, Mazzulla went viral for stepping onto the courtroom and contesting a shot attempt from Suns ahead Royce O’Neale after the whistle.
The incident took place when the Suns referred to as a timeout with much less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter. O’Neale, who was once 0 for 7 from the field, tried to strive a three before heading to the bench — a everyday exercise when a player hears the timeout whistle. However, Mazzulla decided to block his shot, causing the Arizona Family Sports broadcast team to react in shock.
“You’ve acquired a head teach who stepped on the floor making an attempt to block a player? I’m no longer positive I’ve ever seen that,” stated Suns announcer Kevin Ray.
After the game, Mazzulla stated he did not want O’Neale to flip the script on his bloodless capturing night.
“I noticed a man attempting to make a shot when he hadn’t made one. I did not prefer him feeling correct about himself going to the bench,” Mazzulla instructed reporters.
Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were now not greatly surprised to see their train taking part in mind games.
“That sounds like Joe Mazzulla. He’ll take it as some distance as he desires to,” Brown said after the game.
Elsewhere, the “Inside the NBA” crew on TNT cautioned Mazzulla against getting on the awful aspect of a player with his brave tactics.
“Somebody have to have knocked the hell out of him,” Charles Barkley joked. “Stop that, man. That’s like a fan coming out of the stands.”
The neighborhood Celtics broadcast team, however, gave props to Mazzulla for taking the stance he did.
Celtics beat reporter Chris Forsberg referred to Mazzulla as “a maniac” but “in the great feasible way.”
Mazzulla, in his second 12 months as Celtics’ head coach, is one of the favorites to be named the NBA’s Coach of the Year. OKC coach Mark Daigneault and Timberwolves teach Chris Finch are also in the strolling for the award.