Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla on his Boston Roots & the Cost of Winning (Full Episode)

Celtics Coach Joe Mazzulla on his Boston Roots & the Cost of Winning (Full Episode)

I’m attracted to the dark side of greatness or the dark side of like the tugs of identity and love and the gap between a hero and a villain is much it’s it’s very similar to like the gap between winning and losing and and greatness to you know be good to great like that gap is so much closer uh than people think and it’s very small fundamental details that separate you that that’s the space that I like to like dive into a lot. What is it the saying you live long enough to the hero you die the villain or something? Dark Knight. Dark Knight. Need a dire hero or live long enough to be the villain. I mean that that’s as true as you can get. Welcome to Games with Names. I’m Julian Edelman. They’re Jack and Kyler. And we are on a mission to find the greatest game of all time. On today’s episode, we are covering game one of the 2022 NBA season. Sixers versus Celtics with West Virginia legend and New England native NBA champion and movie buff coach Joe Missoula. And we get into talking Joe’s first game as NBA head coach. Just don’t make this about your first game. Make this about how we can win the game. Coach also shows us a tattoo that has never been shown. This is the first time I mean since this so I have this. Wow. And what makes Boston such a great sports town? When I see people wearing Celtic gear and they don’t see me, I get goosebumps. And then we get into talking about what it’s like crossing paths with other pro athletes in this week’s Chill Zone presented by Kors Light. You got to stick around to the very end. Let’s go. Games with Names, a production of iHeart Radio. Special announcement. I repeat, we have a special announcement. We got plans on August 28th. Do you got plans on August 28th? No, they have plans on August 28th. We all have because we are doing another live show. Hell yeah. That’s gone. Just games with names. Dudes on Dudes. Grock’s going to be there. We don’t have a name yet. Well, regardless, we do have a place. Dudes with Games. Where is Where is the place? We have a place. Yeah. MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston. One night only. One night only. One show. Lot of people. Yeah. Scary. In Fenway. You basically I there I think you could take a door to We’re definitely going to Tickets are on sale today at ticketmaster.com. Use the promo code nutouse. If you’re listening, they’re live at 10:00 a.m. If you’re watching this on YouTube, they are live right now. Promo code nutouse. Nu tou. It’s going to be awesome. We learned a lot from last year. I like to call it nuth. Nthus. Nus I don’t know let’s get back to Joe Missoula October 18th 2022 TD got Boston Massachusetts two hopefilled campaigns kickoff on the parket the Missoula era is under way this one for Bill Bill Russell All [Music] Now, how many times do you think about the the Roman Empire a week? This is like a masculinity thing cuz it’s going around on the internet. What is like it men? If you’re such a masculine man, you probably think of like the Roman Empire like five times a week. Really? That’s on the I think about it at least once a day. I don’t want to come off as dark, but I think there’s a lot of lightness in the dark. But I I think a lot about the duality of like life and death and and the decisions that you make and the balance of, you know, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and how the rise and fall of dynasties, organizations, your yourself, your family, like all those spaces of like that go into I think about that probably 30 times a day, you know, of just the the duality of of competition and and what that means and your own mortality and and how to play your part in that and going after something and, you too. A lot of times when people pick a dream or pick a goal to go after, they only look at the positive side of that. They don’t look at like the dark side of going after a goal. Yeah. You know, and if you’re going to go after a goal, there’s probably just as much, if not more, dark side as there is light side, you know, and that’s that’s what comes with it. So, I think about that space probably all the time. Yeah. You can’t have one without the other. My dad used to say, “Goals without actions are just [ __ ] dreams.” Yeah. But at the same time, actions sometimes are the dark things that you have to do, the sacrifice, the accountability, the the [ __ ] that you have to run through to get to the top that you have to you have to experience the losing to get to where you have to go. And you know, the failure the failure because the pain, you know, you feel like life is all about failure. There’s like five or six times where you don’t fail. You just hoping that those five or six times are badass. Yeah. No question. Life really is just a a bunch of failures used to try to get as many successes as you can. Man, we’re getting we’re getting [ __ ] deep. Let’s let’s let’s welcome our guest. We have a very special guest. No, we got to welcome a very special guest today here in the nutouse Boston edition to talk about game one 2022 2023 NBA season 76ers versus the Boston Celtics in game one of coach Missoula’s coaching career. In one sentence, don’t get too ind depth. We’ll dive into the game in one sentence. Why this game? Um, I mean it’s the Celtics and uh, you know, it was the beginning of a journey that, you know, we’re now three years into and uh, you know, I think you can never you can never stop learning, but when you when it’s your first game and it’s your first opportunity and and you look back three years from now and the journey that you’re on, it’s always good to go back and kind of see like, man, that’s what I was thinking in that moment and and kind of where you’re at now, you know? Yeah. Is this the greatest game of all time? No, definitely not. No. All right. Hey, we I hope the greatest game of all time hasn’t happened yet. Yes. You know, let’s go. That’s a great answer. But hey, thanks for uh talking to the team this year and uh I’m happy to be here. So, I I appreciate the growth of our, you know, relationship. I, you know, I’m hoping my words meant something. Maybe not. It didn’t work, coach. Didn’t work. It didn’t work. So, I got a list. It didn’t [ __ ] work. So, maybe don’t call me next year. I won’t ever come talk to the team again. List of guest speakers that aren’t welcome back for next year. And I guess I’m on there on the no-fly list, bro. A no-fly list. Jesus, I feel like a soft now. Um, coach, talk to us about the offseason. How’s it going so far? Uh, I think your your buddy’s uh hoodie when I walked in today said it best. Happily miserable. Happily miserable. That’s how it’s going. Yeah, we got to bring that. We got to get you a happily miserable. It’s a beautiful It’s a beautiful expression and a very honest and uh What does it mean to you? I mean, I think it’s the space it’s the space of of where people are trying to to live and uh you know, I don’t I don’t think you can have one without the other and I don’t think you can have too much of one. And so, I think it’s a balance of like, you know, you’re in a space right now. We didn’t achieve our goal. I mean, our goal is to win a championship every single year. We have a responsibility and ownership uh you know, to the city, to the organization, really to our to ourselves in the competitive arena to try and do that every year. And you didn’t do it. And so, but at the same time, uh, there were a lot of positive things that came out of the season, you know, as a team, as individuals, and there’s a lot of stuff that that, you know, comes out of the positive, um, you know, in your family and and in your life. And so, uh, you have to be able to accept both of those things. And you know, I think the scariest thing is like if you plan on coaching or playing for a long time, uh if you look at the ratio outside of like John Wooden, Red Outback, and Phil Jackson, the ratio of like successes to failures, uh weighs heavier on the failure side if you count not winning a championship as a failure. And so that space of happily miserable is somewhere where you got to be extremely comfortable because I think that’s where you grow the most, you know? Yeah. I mean, so that’s how the offseason’s going. That’s how now you guys are faced with some adversity. You know, I used to hear every every last meeting of the season. Bill would say, you know, that’s the last time this team will be together. Next year there’s going to be new coaches. Next year there’s going to be new players. Next year there’s going to be guys that leave. There’s going to be guys that come. How do you deal with an adversity like losing JT and then going into another season not knowing what your team’s going to be? How do you deal with these types of things as a coach mentally? Uh I mean I think at the end of the day like you got to sign you sign up for the journey. I don’t think you sign up for the short-term uh approach to one year. You know if that was the case then I would have retired after year two you know and so I think you sign up for the journey and you don’t sign up for just one person’s journey. I think you take on the the journey of everybody, you know, in the organization, all of your players, all of your coaches, uh, all your staff members. You’re for however long you’re together, you’re on this journey. And there’s different chapters in it, right? And each chapter has a different heading, has a different theme, has a different outlook, but it never gets, you know, it doesn’t get stopped written, you know, and I think that’s how you have to look at it is, uh, you know, one chapter is over, the next chapter begins. and uh you know, you have to take on you know, other people’s journeys uh you know, to build those relationships and to go after stuff together. And so that’s kind of how we we look at it. Coach, you have such uh indepth answers like we haven’t we were talking before the show and you just you’re always very deep. Do you read a lot? Uh how the [ __ ] do you know all this [ __ ] You’re [ __ ] younger than me. Are you 39? I’m 39. I mean, so a couple of my favorite books are are probably some of yours. U Oh, that’s great. Um, on the road, you know, I think you have to I think the most important thing is I’ve been blessed to have uh great people, great family, great opportunities, but I think you got to fight for perspective because if you don’t, you could lose yourself. And uh that’s my biggest fear in life is losing myself amongst all this worldly stuff that we’re going after, which is important to go after, but like Ecclesiastes is my favorite book. No, that’s not one of my I football guy. Not a big reader. Audio book guy. Got to listen. Can’t read very well. Proverbs. Favorite book. Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Psalms, the book of wisdoms. Like I think I think you know we were talking about the history of of Israel and Rome. I think you just have to understand everything that came before you and you have to understand what’s possible to come after you. And so I think you have to fight for that perspective. Um so it’s so easy to just get caught up in your own world and think what happened to me is either the greatest thing or the worst thing. Now, what you just said there, you said you have to know what came before you. Do you see coaching a new these newer players that they struggle with seeing and learning from the past? Because, you know, every older generation that leaves a locker room and welcomes a new generation into a locker room like, man, I I feel like every old guy says, man, they don’t they don’t they don’t fight like they used to. Oh, man. They they don’t understand the history like they used to. And now that I’m the old guy and when I was the old guy in the locker room, I say the same, oh, you know, the same thing. Do you see it’s getting different or I think that comes from uh the generation being attached to its identity and not being able to let it go, right? Like uh you see it all the time when like it happens to me like I was a [ __ ] player. Like I was an average basketball player at best, you know? I just kind of tried hard. But the older you get, people’s memories focus on certain things. And so I think you end up becoming better than what you once were at the time because everybody always wants to remember that emotional good thing and and that like that attachment to the identity. It’s like the older you get, the better you were. You know what I mean? No, I it’s it’s crazy. I’m the complete opposite. Me I am personally too. Yeah. Like the older I get, the more I laugh at how bad I actually was. Exactly. Like I I I don’t think like when people come up to me all the time and say, “Man, how’d you make that catch in that Super Bowl?” I go I don’t even think I think about the third down that I drop coming out of the [ __ ] halftime. Same being the rah guy saying it’s going to be a hell of a [ __ ] story and then our defense goes three and out. We get a [ __ ] I get a good look. I get the guy bop him drop the ball. That’s what I think. I think of the [ __ ] But I think I think most of I think most and it’s probably a little bit of a generalization are attached to the identity of what they once were, you know. And so I think that’s where the oh you know we we never did this stuff or you know and I think that’s part of our responsibility is your responsibility in the present moment is to give it everything you have and then you know when it’s over you’re just forgotten about like I think that’s just kind of I think it also goes to that that dream thing that we were just talking about. You know a lot of these guys a lot of people like you said they we are given information now. Everyone can see and experience what other people experience. Some people forget about their own journey and forget about hey let’s make our own experience and and and live off of that. Yeah. Well, they also forget about like like one of the things I like to do as a as a exercise is, you know, I think everyone studies successes, but I always go back and look at the best players and the best coaches and all the mistakes that they made because it’s humbling because like one they were all better than like all the coaches in the past are better than I am and all the players in the past were great players but you got to look at all the mistakes that were made and and it’s a balance and so you know a healthy exercise is to go back and be like okay you know why did this team you know blow this lead in the 95 NBA finals in in a game or like what adjustment was made there. And so I think you have to find the balance of like you want to look at all the best things that coaches did, but you also got to look at it’s easy to forget all those things, you know, that uh the mistakes that were made before your time and and um and so I I try to do both of those. You know, you have to study the successes, but you also got to study the failures because it gives you a perspective. 1,000%. You know, a mistake is great because it’s a learning experience. You just can’t make that mistake twice. Yeah. Right. You can try not to, but you’re gonna make you’re going to make a different one. But with but you’re going to make a different one. Yeah. A different one is okay. You just can’t like that’s what I always told young players. You’re going to make mistakes. Just don’t make the same one twice. Yeah. But make a different one. Make a different one. But you’ll learn from that. You know what I mean? Now, you have such a you have such a learning mindset. You grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. You’re Johnston. But on a border hot tucket right over there. We’re in We’re in [ __ ] roadie. We’re a roadie. Okay. We’re a roadie. Now, where did this love of learning come from? Your your dad was a basketball coach. Is that where this all came from? What’s a young coach Missoula like? Yeah. I mean, I probably didn’t I probably wasn’t as much of a growth mindset until I graduated from college. I mean, I was probably very the opposite in college, but I was I was very I was very blessed. I always had um you know, my parents were there for me in different ways. My mom was the academia side, you know, making sure I did my homework. My dad was like the the the mindset side. Um, but I always had great coaches. Like I never had a negative coaching experience. And I think that’s huge for a kid. Uh, you know, trying to get into athletics is like I can remember, you know, 95 if not 100% of my coach’s names at every level. I can remember some of the practice plans, what they taught me, and I just never had a negative experience. And so, um, as I started to get older, I realized, uh, what they were teaching me was so much bigger than just basketball. But it was all based on the fundamentals. Um, and so I think when when I got into playing, I was probably more resultsoriented and caught up in, you know, my own identity and and trying to make a name for yourself. And and uh after that when I was like forced when the game was taken from me and I was like forced to decide, okay, like where am I going? You know, you can’t play uh and so where is my identity going to be? And uh you know, I started to to go back to those moments of coaching and and and reflecting on how I never had negative experiences as a coach and all the times with your teammates. And it’s like, you know, the best way to stay in the game if you can’t play is to is to be a part of that and to give that back to the people that are coming after you. And so I think that’s kind of where it’s come from is like, you know, here are the moments. Uh I’m I’m only here because of the people around me and cannot be, you know, one person that helps, you know, others get to that, you know. Now, you never had a bad coach. What makes a great coach then? I mean, at every level, I mean, I tell you, my CYO coach at St. Phillips. We practiced I think 3 4 days a week from 5:30 to 8 and it was a drug. It was just drudgery. Yeah. Um we did the same thing every single practice. Ran the same plays. Uh but you know Mike and Jeff did an amazing job of teaching us the fundamentals and putting us in position to win. And like you know same thing with my AU coaches. You know Coach Vital and and uh you know those group of guys like to me they’re they’re honest with you. You know they’re in it for the right reasons. Uh they’re in it to to see kids get better. they’re honest with you whether you’re good or whether you suck. I remember I had a bad game and AU and my my AU coach came up to me and was like, “Man, you suck today.” He’s like, “But you know, the guy you went against just kicked your ass, but you know, he’s going to make it one day and so are you.” And so they’re able to be honest with you, but also give you uh you know, the the encouragement or the perspective that you need to go forward. And I think they never let you settle uh being yourself. I think they they hold you accountable to the person that you say you want to be or the person that they think you can become and that’s a that’s a space that uh many people aren’t willing to go to. So I I think that’s kind of at any level that’s what the coaches are. Have you noticed coaching styles evolve these days compared to what we used to go through? I mean everything matches the times, you know, and I think you always have to evolve. I think there’s moments. I think I think it’s more about what the personality that you have, right? And I think as we get into this game, you know, looking at that, as I’m standing on the sidelines, even that moment, I’m like, okay, who am I going to be as a coach? You know, who am I? What am I going to be like? What’s my identity? How are we going to uh how we’re going to go about things as a team, as a staff? How am I going to handle things individually? And so, I think it’s more like personality based where as long as you can become an authentic to who you are as a leader, uh people will respect that and they’ll go with it. And it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be perfect all the time, but I just think it’s constantly evolving because people are different and personalities are different. What’s your identity as a coach? Yeah, I mean, I think it’s based off of the players that I have. I think I think to be a great coach, you have to have great players. You have to have a group of players that allow you to be yourself. And I think you have to create a space where you allow your players to be yourself. And so, I think that identity, you know, where I I think it is is, you know, being authentic to who I am. You know, I’m not afraid to say like here’s where I suck. Here’s where I’m, you know, pretty good. here’s where I need you guys to fill in for me and here’s how we could do it together. So, I think it’s the space of like authenticity and then your mindset, right? I think everything comes down to your mindset, how you approach things, how do you have a certain perspective on that. Um, and then, you know, can you be great tactically? Like, can you find ways to to uh, you know, to be great from a tactical standpoint to outthink your opponents and to put yourself in position to win? Yeah. But I suck at a lot of things, you know. I mean, we all do. Yeah. Is there anything that you pulled from growing up with a dad as a head coach? Because my dad was a coach and there’s [ __ ] I pulled on how I would I’ve never coached, but you know, when you get to become an older player in a locker room, there’s kind of that way to communicate with younger guys that comes off as like a coach. Is there anything you pull from your pops? I mean, so much. Uh, most of it’s illegal now, but there’s still a lot of stuff that into it. I think he he just wasn’t afraid to be himself. He wasn’t afraid to be himself. He wasn’t afraid to win the moment however he thought necessary uh to win to win that moment, you know, whether it was basketball, soccer, track, like he was always going to do whatever it took to get the most out of that guy in that moment. And that’s something that I could always get better at. I think that’s you know, you’re always being challenged of like how could you be better in this moment? And he was just relentless. like he was relentless in his mentality, like relentless in his mindset, relentless in his approach towards the fundamentals um on and off the course. I think those are the two biggest things. Now, you grew up in Providence. You grew up a massive Celtics fan. Yeah, I was a Red Sox fan before Celtics. So, let’s hear your sports hierarchy of of what your fandom was. Well, so my uncle, my credit to him, he got me into like the the history and the study of sports. So, he was a huge 49ers fan. Uh, shout out to Mike. And he collected all these he collected he just collected memorabilia and stuff. And so it started with like these pencils. I don’t know if you remember these old pencils of like all the different NFL teams. So we had one of every team, but I wasn’t allowed to use the 49ers one. And then uh that was his that was his team. And then the Patriots were coming to uh training camp at Bryant College. That’s where my dad went. Yeah. And so he would take me to Bryant College for training camp all the time. And so I got these pictures with like a young Adam Venitary uh because you had to walk that dirt road, you know, from the dorms and everything. So we’d stand on that dirt dirt road. Had a had a ball signed by Venitary. Uh had a ball signed by that whole team. I don’t remember that. So it started with like the Patriots in that. So you’re Patriots is number one. Well, it’s not a hierarchy as much of it’s like this is how it went. Okay. This time and and then it went Red Sox because the All-Star game came to Fenway in 99 and you went and I went. So we went So what’s what year is that? That’s is that Sosa? That’s Maguire. I really don’t remember from him in the 90s. That was I think Ken Griffy had I really don’t remember much of it but I think Griffy had a huge game that All-Star game. So here’s the story. So we went up just for the festivities like we didn’t have tickets to the game and so we’re standing around Fenway. We’re going through all this stuff and then we get into a taxi to go somewhere and we end up we’re in a taxi with Ray Knight uh you know who scored I think he scored the winning run in the 88 World Series to beat the Red Sox. So we in there randomly randomly. Hey, let me get in taxi. Let’s get one night. Hey, how you doing, dude? And then like some random person comes up to us and was like, “Hey, I got one extra ticket to the game.” Now, this you could you couldn’t do this now. So, I’m 11 uh 10 at the time and we’re hour 10 minutes away from home and this stranger comes up and offers us one ticket and my uncle’s like, “You got to go.” So, he sends me into the All-Star game. How old are you? I’m 10. Oh my. Solo. Dooo. Solo. Yeah. Sends me into the All-Star game. That’s a cool uncle. By myself. And um he’s like, “Hey, like I’ll meet you right here.” I think he called my dad and my dad drove down, which I don’t know what the hell he was going to do. Like uh and so I just sat in the sat next to these two people in the stands by myself, watched the 99 All-Star game, 10-year-old Missou. And uh it had this book that um on the back of the book taught you how to throw all the pitches. And uh so I would I would like I was into baseball for a little while, so I would like work on that. And then then was the Celtics because when they drafted uh you know Joe Forte was one of my favorite players to watch from North Carolina. Yeah. And then so when they drafted Joe Forte and I would go to Red Hback camp um you know and so uh for like three four years every summer I would spend a week at Red Arback camp stay in the dorms at Brandeise Red uh Coach Arbback would talk to the team and so you know I just fell in love with like fell in love with Red Arback first and then fell in love with the Celtics. And so that’s kind of the trajectory. And then the Bruins I just like to be. And so they’re just fourth by default. But like that’s kind of this timeline of like how uh you know Boston sports kind of came into my life. Wow. What about some of the sp uh Boston sports heroes did you like? I mean Vinitary was one Vin to start because he signed your ball. He signed a ball and then we I was watching the first Super Bowl at my grandmother’s house and he hit it. Was it the Panthers was the first one I think? Uh no Rams. Greatest show on turf. Yeah. So he hit the gamewinner, I think, on that one. And that was also the year he hit the snow one. Yes. In the Raiders. Uh and so that and then the the Panthers one was another game winner that he had. Yeah. Um and so he’s up there, you know, clutch. You like clutch guys. Yeah. And then um I had this plaque of Celtic players of all the greats of the 80s and 90s. And for whatever reason, I liked Robert Parish. I like the nickname the Chief. So like I I just liked the Chief the Chief, you know what I mean? That was just a cool nickname to have. Um, so from a childhood, you know, remembers that. And then, you know, you got those years in college of when it was like Pedro and Kurt Schilling and and like that whole crew. Bloody Sock. That was just a huge just [ __ ] on broad t TV. Yeah. And then and then but like and then Garnett and that era, you know? So like uh Yeah. Just grew up You grew up in a great time to live. Grew up in a great time. Great time. And now I get to uh it’s it’s it’s like full circle because the great time that I grew up on as a kid for however long I’m here I’ve been entrusted with this opportunity, ownership, responsibility to like do what was done when I was a kid, you know? Yeah. And so that’s where like happily miserable comes into place of like I think when you have responsibility, you have to take on the other side of responsibility which is like the weight that that carries. Like that’s never going to go away. And so like it’s almost like I’m using everything from my childhood to spur this opportunity that you know we have as an organization to like bring that back. It’s kind of cool but it’s it’s also it’s it’s tough which is that’s what you want. It is tough you know and and you know you have you feel like you have this responsibility because of what you experienced as a kid being part of this community. Now do you have relationships with other coaches? Do you you talk with Raes at all? talk with uh you know, Coach Mayo was great. Uh Braves has been great. Just his perspective. Uh you know, Alex Core is awesome. Yeah. You know, he’s he’s been around. He’s seen it. I haven’t tapped into the Bruins or the Revolution like I need to. Um but I think it’s a fraternity that you have to have, right? Because uh Coach Bichc’s been great. Like um especially the my first year he was great, right? But I think it’s he came didn’t you came to our facility. I remember seeing you there and he came to a couple games and then you know we talked a lot about just the perspective and how he goes about things. But like uh to me it’s just a fraternity that you have because we’re all going after the same thing and we’re all carrying you know the responsibility and the weight of of bringing what Boston what the city deserves and what in there. So yeah, I think I think it’s a huge connection to have that. It’s so crazy that like this is like the perfect pro sports city. It is. Yeah. It has everything. It everything like it’s not a college area. I mean we have hella good colleges but it ain’t college sport area. It’s it’s not fall, spring, summer. It’s football season, baseball season, basketball season, hockey season. That’s the only way they live out here. It’s crazy. You know, I grew up in the Bay Area and we had the NerS, we had the Giants, the Sharks just came out. So, but it wasn’t the same. They didn’t have four, you know. Well, people I think I think here in Boston there’s no distractions. Like, you know, each sport is is like a foundation of like a family. Yeah. Like there’s there’s nothing I get goosebumps when I see people wearing Celtic gear and they don’t see me. I get goosebumps because it’s like I know they’re wearing that with like a sense of pride and there’s a story behind why they’re a Celtic fan. There’s a story behind like it’s almost passed down from their dad or you know their grandfather or like you know so like I that gives me like the greatest uh thrill and and a sense of chills when I see that you know. Yeah. Now, what’s now what’s young coach Missoula’s favorite place on Federal Hill? Panavino. Panavino. Yeah. I think I worked there for like two days. What happened? I’m not a big manual labor guy and so I was like, I’m not I’m not doing that. I can’t do this. I think you had to like if I remember you had to ask for like three Now I guess the people that like now I’m that guy cuz I always want sparkling water instead of distilled. But you had to ask for like three different waters. Did you want like still flat sparkling? Yeah. And then like the the utensils had to be like three fingertips from the thing. And I was like, I’m just going to go to the gym. Tight [ __ ] baby. They run a tight shift over in the hill. Do you ever go to Orno’s Alornos? I maybe once when I was a kid, but like um I don’t remember it as much. Did you ever go to Sienna’s? No. That was over there on the hill. We used to go there. We weren’t allowed to go to Federal or we weren’t we weren’t really allowed to go to Providence. Coach didn’t want us there. And there’s a lot of great restaurants in Rhode Island. Caser’s Pizza is obviously a big one. Yeah. Rosameia’s pizza on in Johnson is phenomenal. I got to what’s it called? Rosamia. Rosia. You got to find it. It’s like the true Sicilian pizza. Like the nice thick square slices. What kind of sauce? It is a sweet sauce. Uh, no. Not too sweet. It’s got the It has like the It’s got like pepperoni and the peppers on there and like built underneath the cheese. We get that a lot with my grandmother. Now, does your grandma make like a hell of a like red sauce and [ __ ] Have you seen Nonas on Netflix? Yeah. Great movie. It’s fun, right? Yeah. But I was I couldn’t remember if my grandmother called her sauce sauce or gravy. Gravy. But she made a hell of a you know a sauce or a gravy, you know. I I always want to experience that Italian East Coast meal. That was us every what? Sunday. I mean every night. So every night like cuz they she lived in the same house my dad. There was I think there was nine brothers and sisters combined. But you never knew who was coming over. So she would make dinner every night and it was it was just an open door. So like whoever came in came, you know, if you got there late, you didn’t eat, you know, and so but on Sundays we would have like, you know, a big a big ordeal. Like all my aunts would cook, my grandmother would cook. It was uh I mean, it was just like just like the movie. It was cool. It was cool to kind of relive that. I watched that the other night with my wife. No, we got bread for every everything, right? Bread has to be bread. I I’ I’ve learned that in the Italian house, you got to have a piece of bread in hand at all time for the sauce, the [ __ ] noodles. You got You can’t You got to dip the bread in the sauce. You can’t let the sauce go to waste. I don’t eat as I I don’t eat as much bread anymore. I can’t, coach. I know. I mean, I’m getting old and uh not getting old, but I I I’ve heard the interviews. You got to stay in shape so you you can understand the perspect the perspective that the players are in, right? I think that’s important. I think that’s a way to be empathetic for what those guys have to go through. Oh, yeah. But, uh I lost touch. I don’t do the coffee or uh the after dinner. I can’t do that. I’ll never know sleep. I can’t. No. I’m sensitive to that stuff, too. I went through a sambuka phase, though. Oo. Yeah. Like that pee? No. What is it? say, “Oh, is that the alcohol DJD?” Yeah, DJ Steo. Is it DJs? I What else is Zambuka? And then there’s another one. There’s a lemon cello, which isello me, but there’s there’s an Amaro that’s phenomenal. Like the the Amaros are great. I I used to drink those a little bit. They always say makes your stomach feel better. I felt like it made me drunker. I think both can be true. Oh, side effect. You ever plan the perfect pool day and then the clouds roll in and block the sun? Yeah, that’ll get you worked up. That’s what I choose. chill and crack open a cools light. Last weekend, we turned a rained out BBQ into a living room pool tournament. Coolers stocked, vibes stayed high. The first cold sip tasted like eightball corner pocket. You know when those mountains turn blue, it’s as cold as the Rockies. That’s mountain cold refreshment, baby. Cold loggered, cold filtered, cold packaged. Basically the hat-tick of chill. So when life throws you a curveball, don’t sweat it. Make the most of the times you choose chill. Choose Korsite. Get Kors delivered straight to your door. Visit cororsite.com/gwn. That’s corsetlight.com/gwn. Kors brewing company. Golden Colorado beer. celebrate responsibly. Now, coach, you played at West Virginia. Yeah. Went to a final four. Yeah. Explain this. Like, how was that experience? You got to play in a [ __ ] final four. That’s insane. Yeah. I mean, I think uh it was such a It went by so fast. It does. Went by so fast that the week leading up to it went by really fast. Um, you know, first like college I had two great coaches and I started out with coach Beine who was great and then I, you know, and then I start then I went to coach Huggin who was phenomenal and then we just had great teammates like and that year went to the final four. It kind of all came together but that was when I realized that like man winning is not as fun as people think it is. Like it’s it wasn’t an easy year. Like we were in the I think we were in top top 10 most of the year. I think we finished 31 and nine or something like that. But 31 and seven. 31 and seven, but it never felt like that. It felt like we were 500 the whole year. And that was that that prepared me for kind of where we’re at now and and the healthier approach to like nothing is ever going to be good enough when you have a responsibility to greatness. And so like I I just remember like practices being miserable. Like it was like, man, this this responsibility to winning goes beyond the joys of of winning. And and you have to fight for the perspective, but you also have to take on that was the biggest thing I learned. like we lost the game on New Year’s Eve to Purdue and we got smacked and you would have thought the season was over and yet I think we were like still top 10. And so it was a great balance of learning uh you know what comes with success uh and how you have to handle that throughout the season and um you know we had great guys that were able to to just bring us there. Now, who would bring that mindset of mediocrity even though you guys were above med you guys were [ __ ] 31 and seven. Was that Bob Huggin? Oh, yeah. How was it playing for him? He’s a ledge. He is a legend. Um, very misunderstood guy. Uh, but he was the best. I he was very he reminded me of my father. Um, but he he he was the best to play for. How did he remind you of your father? Uh, just no nonsense. um had an innate ability to like the [ __ ] you and I love you became synonymous and you couldn’t tell which one was which. Yeah, that’s the best way to describe it. Like sometimes when it was [ __ ] you, I was hearing I love you and sometimes when I was hearing I love you, I was hearing [ __ ] you. Does that make sense? It does. It’s bad that I know and understand that. And so like so like my dad and like and coach hugs were like the same there where it was like I just couldn’t tell what it was that day but it it you knew it was to get the best out of you. That was the only thing he cared about was like getting the best out of you and he’ll go to any measure possible to get the best out of you. There was no uh restrictions towards that. But the best thing he did was when the game or the practice was over, he never brought that energy in. He never brought that energy from what he was doing on the sideline to what he was what you were doing off the court. I mean, I think that’s a huge balance for a coach. Yeah, that’s I mean, people don’t what goes on in a game is different than that. I think that’s what the good coaches and players relationships like I remember there’s a few times, you know, with my Chatty Chatty O’Shea, my receiver coach, we’re [ __ ] each other up, you know, on the sideline. After the game, we get the win. All right. Yeah. All right, man. You know, that’s just how it goes in battle. Yeah, that’s it. But I think you got to be able to take the cap off though. You have to be able to. And I think that’s that’s the biggest thing I learned from him was he was able to take the cap off u more times than not of like you know what how I hold you accountable on on it’s because I love you but then this love kind of looks different when you’re off the floor. And he was he was amazing at that. Yeah. Amazing. Now I heard this story Oh no. about what is it the ultimate [ __ ] uh the ultimate alpha challenge with your dad. Yeah. Well, it struck me because Where did you hear that? I heard it I think Bar stool maybe. Oh, yeah. And it it struck me because you guys went to a baseball field and you had to get out. Yeah. I went I had a similar situation. It was just I was doing batting practice with my dad and I was dipping my shoulder. I think I was 13 and I I I finally at that age was like trying to bow up and he was brushing me off the plate. Yeah. Right. I got m and this is before a game. This is at like 4:30. You get a little BP before a game. Then we go to the game. And [ __ ] I got sick of it. He threw at me. I threw the bat down and I charged him out on my dad. He one twoed me, put me on the ground. I ended up going to the game with the bloody no bloody jersey. Yeah. People were asking me, you know, I was like, that didn’t practice. Didn’t go well. Now look at you. Now look at you. But like, is that the pulling the best out of you? So I went So if I I think I remember this story correctly. I I I uh our soccer game got cancelled. It was raining and he was probably pissed that he had to come all the way out to Warwick to pick me up and uh he was giving my friend a ride home. Uh you know, Mark, good friend of mine. I you know, he’s on the soccer team and uh you know, he was so he had to be pissed cuz it was a tough place to get to. It was right near the airport. Yeah. And Green TF Green. Yeah. And so on the way to dropping Markoff at his house, I’m I’m being you know, he’s mad. I’m being even more mad. I’m showing off in front of, you know, my friend here. And you know, he was just like, “Okay, I’m going to take care of you after we drop this kid off.” And so, you know, I’m I mean, kid’s house is on the right. You come out, you take a right, you go down the main road, you take a left, and then off the main road, there’s this baseball field, and it’s raining. And he’s just like, he’s had enough. You know, I’m just being a [ __ ] dick. And he’s just like, “Winner take all.” And we go into this, we go, we go into the batting, we go into the batting cage of the field, and he’s just like, “Give me your best shot.” Like, you know, and I like you, I think I have a chance. Yeah. I I I really thought I had a chance, but at first I was like, “Okay, how am I going to go out this?” So I I like because of the rain, I picked up some dirt and tried to throw it in his face and at the same time kick him in the nuts. Oldest trick in the book. Yeah. Oldest trick in the book. Try it. Yeah. But the thing is, they taught us that trick. They taught us that trick. Catches my heel, leg sweeps me, mounts me, and just starts [ __ ] just wailing on me. Yeah. By that time, we’re late to to grandma’s dinner. And I’ll never forget, he just looked at me and he goes, “You don’t [ __ ] say a word.” Like nothing happened. And so I walk into my grandmother’s house with just like a wet beaten dog. And I just I just eat my my meal as if like it, you know, I was just dead. It humbled you though, didn’t But it did. It did. I didn’t go back to my dad ever again. I I never tried that. Never tried that again. Never tried it again. You felt the strength that you never felt before. But I I feel it was important to try it. You had you got you had you got to test the limits. Who are you if you don’t try it? Hey, he had me down. I was over here trying to get him and [ __ ] I remember. He’s like, “Are you done yet?” Oh, [ __ ] It’s I I heard that story. I cried. I was like, “Thank God there was other crazy [ __ ] people out there.” Cuz I remember people used to drive by the [ __ ] field when me and my dad were having batting practice and he’d be like, “Oh, old man Edman is whailing on his kid again.” Bad news Edman’s. Today’s his birthday actually. He passed, but today’s his birthday. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday, Bobs. Happy birthday, R. Man, man. He gave me so many I mean, I remember like I used to I used to have to kneel on Rice when I got in trouble and that hurt. Like I have to like sit in the corner and like kneel on Rice. That’s like Catholic [ __ ] But like he he just he brought something out of you that like I to this day like you is necessary to take on whatever it is we’re taking on right now. So like that was just the beginning. Yeah. I mean, I remember we play I I sucked one game and this dude just beat the hell out of me. I think I fouled out and he like went over to my coach and was like, “I’ll give him a ride home today.” Yeah. I was like, “No, I’m good. I’ll take the bus. I’m going to give him a ride home.” You know what? And my dad used to coach me and everyone would be like, “Oh, man. Your dad’s a co coach.” I was like, “Yeah, right. I got to go home with him. He can.” No. What What’s your favorite memory about your dad, though, man? My favorite memory about my dad was how he coached my cousin. So my cousin, she uh was one of the, you know, one of the best players in Rhode Island. I used to go to all her games and all her practices and he would make her cry every day. Yeah. Whether it was a game, whether it was a practice, like it was his goal to make her cry. That’s my favorite memory because she needed it. She needed it. She loved it. But it was also like to watch him, he he wasn’t just coaching me that way. He he coached everybody that way. And I, you know, as I got a little bit older, the relationship that Chelsea and him had was kind of like I was seeing what he was doing with me in real time cuz she was older than me. And so, uh, I always appreciated how he did that. And I mean, all the time. Yeah. And then in eighth grade, he coached my eighth grade team at St. Mary’s. And, uh, let’s just say he had a couple run-ins with, you know, faculty on coaching me a little bit too hard. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right. Yeah, that was a different generation. Then he then he transitioned into like becoming more like when I got to college it wasn’t like that. No, because you became a man. He became Yeah. Like when I got to college, it was the opposite. Like he was just a supporting figure. He was like ah you know you know he did the exact opposite. It was like I did my time you know and uh he let me kind of grow into who I who I was at the time. It it’s crazy. That’s exactly how it was with me because once you surpassed their know not like their knowledge, but once they like let you out, it was like now we’re here to support. Yeah. So they weren’t like overbearing. He was doing it for a clear purpose. It would have I would have not have appreciated if he kept it going in college. He wasn’t making it about him. No. He was making it about me and he was able to release that. Wow. Yeah. Love that. Let’s go into a segment where we go back into time when the game took place and we go over pop culture. This game took place October 18th, 2022. Number one movie, Halloween Ends. Didn’t see it. You see it, coach? Nope. Never heard of it. It’s that one of the Halloweens. It’s when Halloween Ends. Yeah. I’m not a big uh I don’t like Halloween. Scary movie. I’m with you, coach. I’m not a big Halloween. I I I never liked Halloween until like my I have a little girl and she like we’re already talking about costumes. Uh number one song, Bad Habits. Stacy. Never heard of that. Never heard of it. NBA champions Denver Nuggets with Joker. Joel Ml Joel Embiid was the MVP. Chiefs win the Super Bowl. Patrick was the MVP. First time that was done. Uh MVP wins a Super Bowl in a long time, I believe. Astros win 2022 World Series against Philly. Rock Pury makes his NFL debut. What’s the best Boston movie of all time, coach? I know you love the town, but is that your favorite? It’s between the town and the departed, I’d say. Yeah. Depends on what kind of relief you need. Do you want what kind of mood you’re in? I mean, I grew up on the departed, but the town as I got older and the reason why I kind of resonate a little bit more with the town than the departed is is the identity and the love factor, you know, that like you’re in this space. Like I feel like kind of you know this area and kind of how I grew up of like and even people in general not necessarily to an area but it’s like uh you’re always you don’t like the person you are but you do and you’re trying to be something that you want to be something more but like you’re who you are is bringing you down so to speak. You know what I mean? And I feel like the town portrays so much more than violence where it where it shows an identity crisis of like this area made me, but I’m looking for more, you know, and you know, the great things about me are from this area, but also the tough things about me are from this area. And how do you evolve as a person? And you know, living in a space of being falling in love with someone, but also robbing banks at the same time is like there’s nothing more of a duality approach to that. And so it just has a little bit more of a than the part of where like it’s an action and it’s a great movie like this is like you know it shows more of like life of like you know you’re trying to figure out your identity but you have these things uh tugging with you at all times but you want to be a better person and oh by the way I love you but I’m also using you because you’re getting interrogated by the FBI. What’s more, you know Yeah, it’s darker. Yeah, it is. It’s realer. I’m attracted to you know like a part it’s comic. There’s some comedy relief with, you know, Jack and how he does things. There’s a little funniness to it. Yeah. The other one town and there ain’t that that [ __ ] feels real. It’s just dark. Yeah, I agree with you. And I I I’m not used saying it as like a saying like I’m attracted to the dark side of greatness or the dark side of like the tugs of identity and love and like shadows. You are you part of the Batman people? I mean, that trilogy is by far the best trilogy that by far. By far. Yeah. I mean, the Dark Knight is dark. I I You know what? You know what I loved? I loved Batman Begins because I was a huge Batman kid when I was a kid. Yeah. And to see the origin of where it all came from. Like I was like, “Oh my god, that’s how they got the Batcave. Holy [ __ ] Oh my. That’s where he got his [ __ ] moves. He went to China or Japan, wherever he went.” Like that was like And then The Dark Knight was crazy. And then Bane came. And see, I think the Batman Begins is third. I think it’s Dark Knight. Dark Knight Rises, then Batman Begins. Oh, I think I’ll go Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Dark Knight Rises. It got a little long at the last one. Yeah, but the space I love is like villains, you know, like the movies and like these are like the themes that I always think about of like there really isn’t much difference between the hero and the villain, right? And I think that’s the space of why the villain gets so frustrated is like the self-righteousness of the hero thinking he’s better than someone else because he’s quote unquote trying to do the right thing, you know, and so they’re more similar than they than you think. Are you a Star Wars fan? I’m not. Because I I have that same argument with, you know, the dark side and having the force, you know. I I think when you’re uh what are they called? Sith. A Sith. When you’re a Sith, all they are are people that have the force that make decision through emotion. Yeah. When you’re a Jedi, you’re making decision emotionalist. So, it’s more peaceful. But why are we getting mad at a person that’s making emotional decision? Because we all do that. Yeah, I know. The space is the gap between a hero and a villain is much it’s it’s very similar to like the gap between winning and losing and and greatness to, you know, be good to great. Like that gap is so much closer. uh than people think and it’s very small fundamental details that separate you. Uh and that’s that that’s the space that I like to like dive into a lot. What is it the saying? You live long enough of the hero, you die the villain or something. Dark Knight. Dark Knight. You’re a dire hero or live long enough to be the villain. I mean that that’s about as true as you can get. It is. Now what who’s your villain? Who’s who’s the villain? The Joker. You’re the Joker. Yeah. That’s your guy. That’s who you That’s like That’s my guy. Like the Heath Ledger version. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I heard the first time. I mean this. So I have this I mean I got this. So why are you so serious? Yeah. For him. Wow. Uh because of like that perfect balance of like you know you know it’s a great question. Yeah. Yeah. Now what you and he goes into like telling the story as to like how he got to that point you know but it’s like you know it it’s amazing how like if you look at the Batman and the Joker it’s like the Joker had no rules but he really just wanted honesty you know but he just went to the wrong depth to try and get that honesty meanwhile Batman was like you know I’m doing I’m doing this for all the right reasons when in reality like was he and you know they’re not much different. They’re not. You You need to do a movie podcast. That’s what you should do on your spare time. I was going to ask you, what do you do on your spare time? But probably get better at my job first. [ __ ] That’s a coach right there. That’s a coach right there. What are we watching? Anything like when we have any downtime right now? So, I try to watch So, during the playoffs, I was watching the Bin Laden documentary. I watched that, too. That was pretty. Yeah. I mean, they should So, you know how they have like um You know how they have uh what’s that thing called where you like escape rooms? Yeah. They should have we should start a business where you have like situation rooms. Oh. And like you can sign up and go in and like reenact different things, you know? Like, hey, what are you doing tonight? We’re going to grab dinner and then we’re going to go reenact the bin Laden raid. That’d be a sick first idea. You know what I mean? Like like I think the escape room is just the beginning. Yeah. It’s like, hey, what are you doing tonight? We’re going to simulate. They have those. you go out to like the west coast, you can go deal with those like they teach you how to like the John Wick guy that teaches you gun and like I’m talking like down here on like the the main road you I’m not I’m not saying like you got to go out I’m saying like you can find an escape room anywhere like at a billiard spot. Yeah. Like tonight we’re going to reenact uh four. No, maybe we talk about morality, but tonight we’re going to reenact like negotiation tactics. Like, hey, you’re going to get, you know, after dinner, you’re you’re going to be kidnapped and I got to I got to use my negotiation tactics to like get you back more strategy than like, you know what I mean? I just want some situations. So, like, so I whatever I watch, I try to tie into like how you can, you know, another great one is um So, we should think more about that business. All right. I’m into it. I like that boardroom screen. Someone comes in. You know who my favorite movies is? What? The game. Was that Michael Douglas? Yeah. Where he hires the people to put himself in that situation because he wants excitement. The rehearsal. Yeah. Huh. I’m just playing in this night. I like this fun Friday night. I mean, escape rooms are just the beginning. Oh, yeah. That’s child’s play. Come on now. I mean, that is I mean, that’s over. I mean, that’s boring. Trying to go PF Chens maybe a little water boarding afterwards. So Bellison told me a story about uh he brought in a guy. Yeah, we used to have I don’t know if we’re supposed I don’t know if we’re supposed to talk about this on air. Yeah, we we we tried it. There was there was a select few. But didn’t someone try? Yeah. There’s a few of us enhanced interrogation techniques. Well, I I can’t I don’t want to put on name on blast, but like we we used to have bunch of Navy Seals that would come in and train with us, teach us hand combat for line of scrimmage [ __ ] Yeah. And couple bold guys were like, “Hey man, we want to try this. We want to get waterboarded.” Wow. Yeah. And it’s pretty weird. Yeah. Did you? No, I didn’t. Did the team watch? I’m surprised by that. Uh, well, I was out. It was uh a linebacker group that hung out with them the most. Oh, okay. But I wasn’t scared of it. They just they were doing it. Sounds like you were a little scared of it to me. Not really. I honestly don’t see how it would be that weird if you just put a what do you put a [ __ ] towel over your face, you pour water on. And if I know they’re not going to kill me, I’m not scared. Yeah. But do you know that they’re not going to kill you? I mean, I guess you do. Yeah. I mean, they’re pros. You know what I mean? Guantanamo Bay, those guys have done that millions of times. Oh my god. I don’t know if we’re allowed to say that. I opened up a can of worms. I’m sorry. Jesus. I wasn’t digging water. Yeah. Sorry. I took it to another level. More like I’m sorry, coach. You got to try it. You got to drown yourself. They kidnapped the president’s daughter and now you got to like But you, your wife, and your kids like now you’re teaching your kids. Like, you know, now you have like a wife and your kid. You have a different level of trust of like, hey, like you know, my oldest, hey, I’m gonna go in first. You get my back. You check the corner. Like you work on those things. Like I think those are great not only team but like those are just great, you know, dynamic building things. Honestly, I’ll go out there be a distraction. Okay, I’m going to go this way, you go that way, Lily. All right. Hey, start him young, baby. Start him. I like it. I I also I’m I’m really Because of how deep you are, what’s on your pregame playlist? Cuz is it Are you Are you like Cuz I’m an instrumental guy. So, uh, we listen to music every game and, uh, I don’t sit in my own office. I sit in the assistance room and we all hang out together and like, you know, just we kind of meet all the time and so, uh, Matt Reynolds, your boy, great guy, great coach. He takes turns. Each guy gets to pick their own playlist. Um, and so it just rotates throughout the entire season. Rotating the aux. What’s on yours? Well, uh, when we went down, uh, it got pretty it got pretty dark. There’s uh we had, you know, Ready to Die, Biggie. Yeah. Ain’t No Sunshine, DMX, uh Field in the Air, Phil Collins, and DMX’s um uh redo of that. Um Somebody’s Got to Die Tonight. Um Pearls by S. Yeah. You know, yeah, you got to smooth it out. I like it. Yeah, it’s still a little, you know, Pearls is a little dark though. You know, it’s it’s in uh it’s in there. got some worship songs on there just to kind of bring you back so that you don’t, you know, you got to keep the balance a little bit. Every song I listen to, I ask, can I come out to this for a UFC championship fight? That’s a good test. That’s a, you know, that that’s to know if it’s a good song or not. I like So, I would always go with like Han Zimmer movie music. So, like Inceptions [ __ ] Oh, man. you know, like that or interstellar like those those playlist or those uh soundtracks. Yeah. Because I didn’t want words. I wanted to think my words. So, I like I like that. I like also I wanted to I wanted to like I wanted to walk through my play sheet and I wanted to see the coverage to that music like you watching a movie where you see a scene and the music can bring a [ __ ] scene to a whole another level if it hits right. Yeah. No, like what are those called? Montages maybe. Yeah, maybe those. Yeah. But I like a song where I can match the montage. Yes. And so like uh Naughty by Nature’s Hip Hop Parade is in The Last Dance. And so I’ll listen to the song and replay that that segment of The Last Dance. Yeah. You know, there’s um there’s another one of there’s a KRS1 song that is that is really cool. Uh that’s in The Last Dance. I’ll listen to that KRS1 song. So like I I I like that. I might take that. Yeah. I’ll I’ll send you a couple. Yeah, I’ll send you. And the the best one is from The Dark Knight Risers when he’s in that cave and they’re chanting and he’s got to he’s got to, you know, get out of the cave. If I’m trying to be real crazy, what I’ll do is I’ll get up on my skateboard. I’ll throw on the Dark Knight Rises soundtrack at night and you go [ __ ] cruising. You feel like you’re Batman. I swear to God. You see you’ve done this a million times. Oh, that’s awesome. Is that when you got hit by that guy? I I was longboard and some dude hit me when I was playing. Well, I fell into him. I look at him, he looked at me, he goes, “Are you all right?” Like, “Yeah, man. I’m good.” You go on the Dark Knight Rises soundtrack. Yeah. Or if I’m on a dirt bike or something. Um, Moonlight Sonata is a good one. It kind of just takes you in. I That’s on the playlist. Moonight Sonata, the the song from the Dark Knight Rises. I forget the name of it. Um, I think it’s just Dark Knight Rise, Han Zimmer, because it goes by the scene. Okay. Yeah. You got to check it out. I like Moonight Sonata. That’s a good one. I’m I’m going to check it out. Yeah. Let’s Jackie, let’s jump into this matchup. Should we get into these Sixers real quick? Let’s get into these Sixers. 54 and 28. Finished third in the East. This was the final year of the Doc Rivers era in Philly. Um this was of course Joel Embiid’s MVP season. Notably led the NBA in free throw percentage, 83 and a half and three-point percentage, 38.7. Uh resigned James Harden after trading for him the year before. uh Mac Mclung dunk contest winner two-way guy. We all remember that one though. Um and yeah, finished third in the East. Coach, how do you describe the Celtics 76ers rivalry? I mean, these are two some of the oldest cities. Yeah. In this beautiful country that we live in, the bell being cracked over there, John Hancock being buried here. I mean, we could go into the history and Larry, what does this rivalry mean? I learned more about that watching Celtic City, you know, because I think the, you know, watching that that dynamic there. Yeah. So, I think that runs deeper than maybe I understood, you know, uh that that particular one. Yeah. Yeah. Now, let’s do some dude talk. What makes Joe Embiid so so good? Uh I mean, you know, the thing I appreciate about him is I’m pretty sure he was a soccer goalie. So, I think his footwork believe that is correct. Yeah. His footwork, his hand eye coordination. Imagine him in a goal. His timing. his timing and his angles like that. Studying some of those guys brought me back to like the building connections on different sports, right? like Tim Duncan being a swimmer like Kakean was a goalie and so like what can teach you from one sport you can transition into making you and that kind of like that was one of the only advantages I had uh when I went to college was I wasn’t great uh I wasn’t I didn’t have a lot of talent but because of my soccer background I was conditioned really well and that that helped me defensively take on angles and and footwork and uh changing directions and so always fascinated by his how seeing what a goalie does and how he translate that joic is like with water polo. If you watch water polo, you’re essentially watching Jokic play. That’s exactly how that’s how he plays. He plays. Was he a water polo player? Like he he he Yeah. Like he would he you can tell how he palms the ball, how he one-touch passes it when it’s midair, how he how he almost embraces people draping on him because like you’re you’re having to do both of those things and like watching him is like watching a water polo there. So I’ve never put that together. That’s that’s the first time I ever heard that. Yeah. So like when I watch Jokic I see water polo. When I watch Embiid, I see how uh you know, his soccer background gave him the footwork, the angles, the hand eye, cronation, the timing to be so effective at such a for such a big guy. Yeah. What about James Harden? Uh his watching him play is like listening to like Moonlight Sonata. Like never gets sped up. Plays at his own pace. Always. Yeah. Always. Smooth. Smooth. Knows how to knows how to make a basket when he needs. Knows how to just get to a, you know, just do challenges those those rule books, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I like that. Does what he does, you know. All right, let’s let’s let’s jump into the Celtics, Jackie. Celtics, he’s 252 Celtics, 57 and 25. Went into the All-Star break with the best record in the NBA at 42 and 17. Uh coming off a finals loss the year before to Golden State. Uh added some new key pieces. Malcolm Brogden, Galinari, Blake Griffin. Uh this was the first full season with Derek White after bringing him in the year before. Uh resigned Luke and Sam uh in the off season and uh prior to this year, this will be a little foreshadowing for the game. Lost the legend Bill Russell in July uh which was a huge loss for the Celtics and the basketball world uh as a whole. And of course you got the Jays Jaylen Jason from the year before. So we’re we’re jelling coming into this year’s still there. And we got a new head coach. And we got a new head coach, our main man. What was it like being called to be the 19th coach for the historic Boston Celtics? Uh, I mean, that’s kind of where my faith came into play. It just felt like it was a true gift from God really. Like it was like I don’t belong here, you know? You go through a little bit of like how the hell did I get here slash I don’t belong here, but I also I was put here, you know, by God. And so like that that’s really the only way to describe it. Yeah. Can you describe to people our viewers that are from different cities how the Celtics are different than any other other NBA franchise? I think it’s it’s it’s it starts with the history, you know, it starts with the tradition. It starts with uh some of the greatest players to have ever played the game and then it goes to the city. Like, you know, there’s not much difference between how hugs motivated us the year we went to the final four and what it’s like to be in Boston. I think the only way for a team to maximize itself, not just in one year, but in a series of years, is like we took on the identity of West Virginia people, the gritty, the hard-nosed, the bluecollar, like he was very adamant on like playing for something bigger than yourself. And um it’s the same thing here. You know, you’re playing for something bigger than yourself. You’re not playing for just yourself. You’re playing for the guy next to you, but you’re playing for the city. You’re playing for the the competency of the uh the fans and the respect of the fans and the respect of the organization. And um you know that comes with a lot of responsibility that comes with a it’s it’s not easy but it’s necessary and uh it’s a compliment that you get that responsibility to be able to do it. But you know there’s nothing better and it’s just different. Uh and I think it’s and it’s a list of all those things. Yeah. The boys are back in town. That’s right. We are back in Boston for another live show. An evening with the nutouse. You thought last year was wild. This year is going to be bigger and better. We got Gronk, myself, plenty of special guests, and surprises in store August 28th at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. Tickets on sale now. Go to ticketmaster.com. Use promo code nutouse. It’s going to be a blast. Now, let’s get into some of these roster guys. Who who who on this specific team 2022 Boston Celtics who was the team [ __ ] Like the guy that not like an [ __ ] but you a team [ __ ] in our in our world is a good guy that holds people accountable. May not do it in the most proper way, but works his dick off. Yeah, that kind of [ __ ] Not like an [ __ ] Yeah. I mean, let’s not use that word because I don’t like Who’s a team uh enforcer? Yeah, there there’s so there’s like a few guys. Everybody is in their own way, right? Like vocal guy like Jason does it in one way, Jaylen does it in another way, Al does it another way. Uh for this season and for his time here, you know, you have to give that to Smart. Like his ability to to do that and and an underlying one who was ended up being one of the best people I ever coached was Blake Griffin. You know, uh he became an like just an amazing guy uh and his ability to lead in different ways both in action and in words. And so, you know, they all did it in their own way. Uh, but the verbal probably, you know, came from Smart, came from Blake, came from Jaylen at times, came from Al at times. JT leads by example, like he’s, you know, his consistency and but he also leads, you know, behind the trenches, the way he uh how he, you know, treats other people and and uh, you know, his coach ability. So, they all do it in their own way. Now, how did Blake do it differently? I mean, it it was actually interesting because like I I I didn’t again I was the interm and then we signed Blake and I’m like [ __ ] like how am I going to coach this guy? Like he was a former number one pick. Like it’s Blake Griffin and um you know his humility like he came in and our relationship changed and it it you know motivated me when he came to me was like hey how can I get better? And for a guy of his stature and where he’s been to have the the foresight to be like, “Hey, I want to get better. Like, how can I, you know, that was huge, right?” And and um you know, every time he talked and and decisions that he made were weren’t about him. They were about, you know, winning. Yeah. Now, you talk about Jason Tatum and how he treats people. That’s probably a huge component of why he is who he is. What else makes him great? Yeah. I mean, I think you live in that space of like greatness is viewed at as differently. And I think another thing when you play for the Celtics and you have a great team and you have multiple guys, you have to take on uh everybody’s greatness and you have to allow space in order for greatness to to kind of be exemplified in different ways, right? And and you know, like Al does it in a certain way, Jaylen does it in in and Jaylen does it in his way and his approach and his fierceness and his warrior mentality. Jason does it in his consistency and and um you know his ability to just want to be coached all the time and want to be held accountable which they all do that right but like you know so I think that’s how he does it and you know Al does it and his you know the the second guy that I was like man like I think the hardest part about coaching that first year was when we didn’t win and I was like man I let Al down beyond all the other guys like when you coach a guy uh you know, who who who knows he’s got a few years for it’s three, four, five left. You take on the like, as we were talking about earlier, you take on the journey of each of your guys, right? And you take on the the the good and the the tough stuff. And the hardest thing to do was knowing after that season that we didn’t give Al what he deserved. Yeah. And and that was that was something that we had to carry into the next season. He’s just a consmate professional. When I was there, like that was the vet pro guy. Yeah. Because when I was there, it was I went there and I hung out with you guys in like 2020. Like Jaylen and Jason, they were still babies. Yeah. You know, Al was the old guy. He wasn’t old yet. He’s kind of getting old. I mean, but he was the guy that like was the example for how these guys need to be as a professional. how he came in to work, how his his preparation habits were, how he took care of his body, how he practiced on the court. That’s all the stuff that I just saw being a fly on the wall that he that that was his leadership. Didn’t say much, but when he talked, everyone listened. Yeah. And I think everyone does it in their own way. Like I think, you know, Jaylen, he does it with his mindset and his warrior mentality. Jason does it kind of the way Al did it, you know, and you need both of those. And I think from what you’re talking about when you were there to now like you know you’ve transitioned into each guy does it in their own way and you need each guy’s way to be able to set the tone and like the temperature of it. And it’s crazy in basketball because of the smaller rosters they have such an impact on your your your five guys that your guys they have an impact on everyone. Yeah. So it they all have to come together and do their individual thing and do it in a different way because it influences everyone else. Yeah. And everyone else influences that and and it’s just kind of like a melting pot of of influence. I mean it’s a chain. It is. I think that’s the fun part about building a team and building a a uh an atmosphere and in an environment is that fun part is how do you put all that together? Yeah. You know, but the guys make it easy, you know, and I think you know your best players make it easy. You know, Jason makes it easy, Jaylen makes it easy, and then it just goes on down the list. Yeah. Let’s jump into the game. Jackie, I was going to say one of my f We’re talking building atmospheres here and building cultures. I think one of my favorite moments, and I’m paraphrasing here, coach, was when I think Xavier Tilman joined the team and they asked him what you told him when he first walked in and it was, “Don’t be a jerk.” I love that. Did I say that? I don’t know. That’s what he said. And I think I said something like, “Don’t be weird.” Okay, don’t be weird. Like, don’t treat me like a coach. Okay, I like that. You know, in the sense of like I always think back to that. You know, we got to we got to break down the barriers. Like whatever needs to be said needs to be said. Like don’t I think I was trying to say like don’t and I think everybody does this, but you see this sometimes with uh don’t whatever it is your previous relationships with your coaches are, don’t bring in a preconceived notion of what that’s going to be like for us because I want to do it completely different. You know, not to say that one’s better than the other, but let’s just bring an open mind to how we could build our relationship and how we’re going to build a relationship as a team together. you know, that may not be different. It could be fabricated to what the other coach did if that’s the best for the player. Yeah, exactly. So, like it was more like just come in with an open mind and we’re going to we’re going to start from scratch. We’re just going to do this together. Sorry for botching that quote, but I love that that point. Yeah, he’s a good guy. I I I like coaching him. Uh should we get in this game? Let’s get into it. All right. So, before this game, we we talked, of course, uh the last time the Celtics have been on the park was a loss to the Warriors in the finals. Uh, but both teams were expected to contend for the East here, the Sixers and the Celtics. So, high trust the process, man. Trust the process. This was this was kind of put up here. That’s what I’ve seen. Yeah. I mean, great marketing ploy. Keep going. Sorry for cutting you off. Marketing ploy of that. Philly, they just get at me. I know. Unfortunately, we have come at me on this right here. Bring it on, Philly. All that [ __ ] Get out of here with your tush push. Come on. Uh but a little bit of turmoil going on in the Celtics organization coming into this one with injuries to Robert Williams to start the season and Galinari of course tore up his knee in the in the Euro basket playing against I think Georgia. Um so coming in a little banged up. Um and then of course before this game a really great tribute to uh Bill Russ. He tore it up in in Worlds. Yeah. Euro basketball. That’s that that brings a point to me. Yes. So, the NFL just passed that one player per team could go play on the uh Olympic flag football team. Really? Yeah. And I don’t know if it’s going through or what, but is there some kind of edge that you have when your guys go and play for the country because they’re not, you know, they could get hurt or is there like we kind of forget that because it’s America? I mean, I think I think that’s always a that’s always a point of contention, but I think the good outweighs the bad. Yeah, I think when you have guys that want to take on the responsibility of their country and uh pray play for another something bigger than themselves, I I think the only right thing to do is to uh is to have them do that. And you take a lot of pride in that. Yeah, it’s it’s it’ll be interesting in football though cuz a it’s a different [ __ ] sport. B, they’re only 16 games. It doesn’t really but it’s I mean it’s like it doesn’t have the history of what like the you know No, going to play Euro Basket or going to play like it doesn’t have that yet. No, I mean it could one day, but it just doesn’t yet. Yeah. Yeah. But you have a chance to win. I guess it’s cool because, you know, I don’t know. Not every sport has a chance to win a gold medal all day. This is our first time. So, I think I think that that’s something that is something that you got to go after. I’m going have to get the knees ready, coach. See if I still got a couple in me. Give Give one of these little Spanish boys, baby. Give them get a See what these Portuguese dudes know about a real shake route. They ain’t never seen a return. turn out. Coach, so this is your first game, right? What how nervous were you? Did you have nerves going into this? How did you handle the team? What was your first game like first pregame speech? Did you have something that you remember from that? Um I don’t I get anxious before every game. Yeah. Like I’m just like, you know, sitting there. Uh I get more anxious. like I can’t, you know, so that that’s never I hope that never goes away. It it won’t. Um I hope that stays. Uh I I don’t remember exactly. I I remember like just just don’t make this about your first game. Make this about how we can win the game, you know, and that that’s kind of what I was like, don’t make it about you. It’s really not. It’s about, you know, we got to got to win the game. It’s the first one. Um but at the same time, I think you go through of like, you know, let’s see what this is all about. You know, I think it was like, okay, what’s the difference between being an assistant, being a head coach? what makes Doc so good, what makes the players so good. Like I was it was I was excited to see whether I was going to be good at it or not right away and what I was going to learn from it and how quickly I could make that adjustment. But at the same time I was like we got to win this game. You got to and and it couldn’t be a more movie type game where you’re playing against the Philadelphia 76ers against you’re coaching against Doc Rivers. Yeah. Who won a championship in the city you’re coaching for that you were probably a fan of when you were a kid. Like that had to bring some more anxiety. No. Or did you do you not worry about them? You worry about No. No. That’s definitely true. Like I think especially my first year and I think it’ll always be this way. The people who I looked up to and studied are the people that I’m in the arena against now. like and I think you know every coach you have to be able to uh have a respect for but also steal what they’re great at and try and do it yourself. And so especially that first year it was like as I was going on the sideline I was like okay I remember this about I remember an article about this coach you know I remember uh a strength or a weakness about this coach. I remember a situation of when this coach did this and so you take that on and uh you try to use it and you and you try to use it for yourself and you try to use it against them at some point. And so that’s never going to go away either. Yeah. Now, how was the energy that night in this the in the garden? That wasn’t That was insane. Yeah, that was insane. I mean, you can’t even simulate. That’s like It’s like taking a drug. Yeah. I’ve never done that. Me neither. Um I need my doctor to prescribe me Boston Garden game night. Come on now. Get me going. I don’t need this B12. What a little game night Boston Garden atmosphere, bro. If you could like put that in a pill. That is It’s different. So, what was your first test as a head coach in this game, coach? Do you remember a specific timeout, a specific I think the first test came we were losing, right? Yes. Early uh started with a 9-2 run. C’s were up, then got outscored 2715 for the rest of the first quarter. Yeah. That was that was a test, right, of like, you know, again, you you can plan uh as an assistant, you know, what your philosophy is going to be like, what your identity is going to be like, but you don’t know what type of job you’re going to take over until you’re in until you’re in it. And so, like, you know, I had just gotten the interview for the Utah job, which is obviously was in a different place than what the Celtics were in. And so, like your mind is like, okay, like I’m a young coach sitting on the back bench. are probably going to take over a rebuild at some point like you know and then you know a week later you’re taking over a team that has championship expectations all those [ __ ] notes you took on like you know that they really just don’t ma they may matter at some point but they don’t right now uh and so you’re still you’re you’re kind of using more of your instincts than you are using your experiences because you don’t have any experiences and so I just remember like okay like how am I instinctually going to handle this this run that we’re on or this losing and then it was like it was a close game and down the stretch I remember, you know, we ran one play three or four times, uh, and got three or four different great looks out of that towards the end of the game, which kind of gave us the win there. And so, there was a lot to unpack there in the game, you know, uh, managing those runs, managing your timeout communication, managing the end of game about where the ball is going to, how you’re going to execute it, what are the matchups. So, all those things, they came right there in game one. Yeah, I remember the plays that we ran. I mean, Grant was a huge part of executing some of those offball actions that we got uh, a couple open threes and a layup on. and uh it was a fruition of some of the stuff that we know we needed to get better at throughout the season were our offball actions and you know game one kind of tested that. Now do you remember that and what you just said those situations in this specific game because it was your first your first game or do you have like a photographic memory where you remember like coaches usually I don’t know. Um, I don’t want to give I don’t want to give myself the credit of saying I have a photographic memory, but I remember I remember I can remember a lot a lot of stuff. Yeah. I can remember pinpoint situations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz when it’s it’s crazy coaches, they always Yeah. But it’s all over watching. Yeah. You know, you end up watching one game three or four times and then it becomes embedded and then you use everything as a reference point and even more probably if you play that team again and if you want to get back. So it ends up like, yeah, I got a good memory but at the same time I’m constantly retrieving it watching the same stuff. watching the same stuff. So, it’s more about the retrieval of over and over again and then you need this situation to be able to uh uh to fall back on for something else. You know what I mean? Do you guys break down? Do you guys have situational basketball like we do in football? My favorite thing. Yeah, I think that’s and that’s one of the things that Bill was so big on and and he was one of the pioneers which some people could say it was Parcels, which it probably was, but breaking down the game in situations. Do you guys have like a four a two-minute basketball like plan? Ours is more end of quarter, start a quarter, end of the quarter, the start of a quarter, end of a half, uh last two or three minutes. You know, to me that’s where the I mean similar to that’s where the games are won and lost. If you get to the point of where it’s a close game, turnovers, it’s a I mean the margins I mean it sounds redundant and but it it just that that um it’s the end all be all. Yeah. the end all be all are the margins. Um and they leave the they controlling the margins get will dictate how much grace you’re allowed to have throughout the game. You know and you know if you get into a situation of where it’s a one-point game uh in the fourth quarter it’s it’s it’s it’s almost 100% because of there was a margin one or lost at a situation. And then the second piece is like how do you manage those runs? Every team’s going to go on a run. It’s can you not have it 27 to 15? Can it be 19 to 15 run or 21 to 15 run? I think those two things get lost in the shuffle of all the stuff that you know gets talked about amongst games of why you won or lost. They get paid too. This this is National Basketball Association. Okay. They’re [ __ ] good. Yeah. There’s going to be some big ass plays. We got to be able to have a short memory, boys. Yeah. Get back into the new situation. Jack, can you walk us through until halftime? first quarter was was defined by that run that we talked about and and Harden got fouled on three three-pointers which is incred like just insane. Didn’t that the Garden was was not loving it. We weren’t loving it. Eight for eight on free throws. He had 16 in the first. Um big quarter for JB in the second 14. Shot 71% in the second quarter that the Celtics did as a team. No turnovers was a big one in that one. Uh Harden finished the first half with four threes. So he and Embiid were heating up doing the pick and roll thing. They’re both getting going. uh tied it up at the half after a big second quarter. Uh that takes us into the half. So at halftime, what’s what’s the what’s the locker room like under head coach? Depends. I think you’re from soon as that horn goes off, even during the first half, you’re I’m constantly saying, “Okay, what did we do well? What didn’t we do well? What hurt us?” And you try to anticipate on what’s going to happen in the second. And then when the horn goes off, it’s a about a 45se second to a minute walk to the back. you’re you’re kind of deciding about like all right like what does the team need right now in this moment and then you know what are we going to focus on and so in that game you’re talking about the you know you follow a three-point shooter three times and you give them nine potential points out of that that you have to take that away and so I think you’re just constantly and but it changes right sometimes you’re in there and you show film you know sometimes you’re in there and like you don’t show any film uh sometimes it’s like okay who does an individual player need something or does the team need something and so you’re just constantly diagnosing what needs what at that moment. Figuring out like, okay, where do we need to be be better that we can control? Where do we need to be better at are the things that um you know we sucked at and then you know try to get ready for the second half there. Now, how long is the halftime? It’s 15 minutes. By the time you get back to the locker room, it’s like 13:30 and then you got three and a half minutes to look at the the halftime edit to see what you want to show and you try to show the halftime edit at like 10. So, do you have because like whenever our halftime it was it was clockwork. We would come in for halftime it was 13 minutes or 12 minutes. Coaches would have two minutes together while we were to undrain like let our emotions get down. Then we break up into O and D. Offensive coach would have his four keys that we’re going into. Defensive coach would have his four keys. We’d have two minutes there. Then we’d have two minutes as a team. And then special teams would have one minute or what? Like it was broken down. Like do you guys have a moment like that or it’s different cuz you guys are so small? Yeah, it’s different. So I think you’re in the back as far as roster size. No, by the time we get to the team, it’s probably four clips offense, four clips defense or if one side of the ball is just so much more drastically impacting the game. You just focus on that. Uh, but it’s like that in the staff of like, you know, the offense team will give their insight, the defense team will give their insight, the the the coach doing the halftime edit kind of puts in uh, you know, order of what’s most important and you’re just, you know, so in that three and a half minutes, you’re kind of deciding, okay, what’s the most important? Is it is it a are both important or are we focusing on one? Yeah, Jackie, let’s go to the second half. In the second half, really turn up that defensive intensity on Embiid almost like doubling on the catch. Uh, the coverage was awesome. Smart was in there making it hard for him, not getting to his spots. Uh, and then as we talked about a little bit earlier, creating fast break opportunities, five for five uh on turnovers in the third. Celtics were off sixers turnovers. I think that’s where we changed the matchup and put Smart on Embiid. Yep. Yeah. And he was able to draw a couple fouls. He was able to to Smart was able to take advantage of that matchup defensively, you know, raising some hell and and creating that that that was a big shift in that game. And then, you know, we ended with um I believe we ended with it was Jason, Jaylen, Al, Grant, uh and Derek was the end lineup. I believe that’s correct. That that put the matchups, you know, um and be had to decide who he was going to um you know, be matched up with. And that was kind of like our our our five out lineup because we had five guys that were skilled, could pass, catch, shoot, and changed I think that changed the the momentum of the game a little bit. It really did. And then and JT was getting downhill all third. 17 just in the third alone, like attacking the rim, getting fouled. Uh just really taking over. Um and then of course wouldn’t be a Celtic Sixers game without a little scuffle, baby. We got Smart and Embiid going at it. I Yeah. I mean, that’s why you put the match up there, you know, Smart can take advantage of those moments. Yep. Yeah. And then in the fourth really opened up that lead and uh came out of only one by one in the fourth though. I know. But but it’s the grace of winning the third. Yes. You know, and so yeah, that’s the margins. That’s the margins we had. How many turnovers did we force in the third quarter? Six. Uh, five. Five. Yeah, we scored on all of them. Yeah, you forced five live ball turnovers and you score on that. That that can change the game. And then you look back to the whole game like like coach was saying and the margins won the fast break scoring advantage 24-2 which is massive. But what was the points off turnovers? Oh, points off turnovers. Ours were 22. It was 22 to 15. Yeah. Yeah. So, they weren’t necessarily fast break points as much as they were like points off our defense like you know. So, that that’s huge. and then uh end up winning this thing 125 117 35 a piece from Jaylen and JB that’s huge first thought that comes to your mind after getting your first win in the NBA of your childhood freaking team in the garden like what’s that first thought I don’t suck as much as I thought happily miserable this guy [ __ ] is happily miserable that was really good I was like man I didn’t like I remember my I remember my dad’s voice like don’t [ __ ] this up. I was like, “Okay, I didn’t [ __ ] it up too bad.” You know, got a shot at this thing. Yeah. Yeah. You remembered your dad’s voice. Yeah. Don’t [ __ ] it up, man. That’s awesome. Aftermath. In February, the interim tag was removed. Uh was awesome. Rightfully so. Celtics end up winning the season series against Philly 3 to one. Beat Philly in the second round of the playoffs. Epic GE sevengame series. Uh made the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season we did. uh upset by Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games. Uh but let’s fast forward to 2023. 2024 raised banner 18 beaten Dallas 4 to1. Baby brought that Larry O’Brien trophy back home. I mean this some could say this is the start of the new generation Celtics. This specific game, that’s how important this specific game could Yep. be considered. Tell people what it’s like to win a ship in Title Town. To me it is um you feel the you feel the responsibility to the city uh to the people but really to the players and um there’s so many people in the organization that do so much that people don’t know about and um equipment staff, the lunch ladies. Yeah. The people that let you in the facility, the parking lady, the parking people, the people that clean up after you, but also the business side, right? the people in the business office. And so I think it’s a culmination of uh gratitude for everybody involved and um and you know to the city. But for me it’s it’s uh you know my my priest sent me a text the day of the parade and me and Luke Cornett talked about this winning the the parade is is very similar to Palm Sunday. It’s not Easter, you know, and Palm Sunday is is It it puts you now now it gets harder. Palm Sunday is the week before Easter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then you got Ash Wednesday. Yeah. No. No. Ash Wednesday beginning. You got Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday. And so winning is like Palm Sunday because you’re waiting for that next Easter. It may or may not come. that that’s the space of like happily miserable of duality of there’s the people and the players and then there’s like that space between Palm Sunday and and Easter and all all we’re doing now is we’re in that space of that week of trying to get back to Easter and and you got to do it but you may not you may not stop at Good Friday. He may not come. It may stop at Good Friday and uh you fight like hell to to make sure you get another one. I mean, when that horn went off, that’s the only thing I thought about. How are we going to do this again? Yeah. What do we have to do? And not in an unhealthy way. I think, you know, you live in a space of like, I don’t know how long I’m going to do this, but for however long, that has to be the focus. It’s got to be the relationships with the people and it’s got to be like, how do we get back to Easter Sunday again? And you just have to constantly think about that every day. You ain’t got to explain yourself to here. People, you know, people don’t understand when you’re in the grind of trying to chase your dreams. And once you get your dreams, you recalibrate your dreams. Yeah. Like, you don’t have time to sit back and say, “Man, this is cool.” You don’t like you don’t get time to enjoy it. People that are successful at certain things, they could say they enjoy it, but if they’re having a long sustained career in something, it’s hard to enjoy it. Like I didn’t enjoy my career until I retired. Yeah. Because I was in the heat of it. After each year, whether you win, you’re you’re more stressed because you have to reinvent yourself. You lose, you’re [ __ ] pissed off the whole time from not winning it. You still got to reinvent yourself. And you have to still reinvent yourself. How many years would you play? 12. 12 years is is not much in comparatively speaking into your life. No, without a doubt. And so like it’s not unhealthy to live in that space for 10 12 years. It’s a balance. people, family are important, but so is going after greatness. And uh there’s no trajectory as to what it’s going to look like, you know, like um you know, that’s the perspective that we talked about. Do I think we’ll get another one? Absolutely, we have to. Um but the Spurs won five over the course of 10 years. You know, the 81 team, it took 82 and 83 and all that pain to come back in ‘ 84, you know, and so that it’s just this journey that we’re on together. And uh you got about a 10 15 year window in life to to do something to really go after something and you got to do it for however you know you got to you got to do it. You got to do it. Let’s grade the game. Coach got me ready to run through a wall. Let’s name the game. These are some names we came up with. If you have an suggestion, you can you can give us the suggestion. Of course. The first one is the sweetest Joe’s first game. The Joe opener. This one’s opener. The joiner. This one’s for Bill cuz Bill Russell. RIP. Oh, yeah. That one. You didn’t have to finish the rest. This one’s for Bill. This one’s for Bill. What did Bill Russell mean to the Celtics organization? I tell you what, like you realize what he means and then you hear about Jaylen talk about what he means from a from a uh offthe- court perspective. And um he sets the tone. Uh he sets the standard of what it’s like to be a Celtic. Um, I’ve so enjoyed watch listening to to Jaylen talk about how he’s impacted him and and uh, you know, how he’s impacted the game and it’s been great to see uh, the relationship that Red and Bill have had and um, but it’s also interesting to see from Celtic City like you know this goes back to what we talked about at the beginning of like you only remember the good things like it wasn’t always easy for him you know it wasn’t always easy for teammates like his teammates they they argued they felt a certain way about each other they had good times and bad times There’s the picture of Bill sitting in the ice tub reading his critics in the newspaper. Like the criticism was always there. The episode, there are no final victories. That’s the space between Palm Sunday and Easter is like it’s never going to be good enough. And even a guy as good as him, he felt that and that’s never going to go away. And so he just is an example of so many different things uh that you can look back on to as a Celtic but also as a person. The greats, they all have one thing. They have the ability to compartmentalize like no other. That that’s something that like Tom Brady I noticed you notice from him. Yeah. Like whatever was going on in his life, how he was at work was it was work time. Yeah. It’s not always that’s that that space is difficult though because then you just feel nothing. No, you’re you’re essentially a a serial killer. Yeah. No, you are. You are. And like you drag your wife and kids into it. You drag your family into it. We won’t get into that, but yes. You just you just drag like like my wife is dragged into this. Like this is her life. But she loves it for and I’m grateful for that. Yeah, she’s Every great coach has a great wife at home. You got to sit at the game with her. She’s a [ __ ] maniac. Yeah. Maniac. Have to off to sit in the game. It’s actually pretty awesome to watch. I’m actually It’s actually like really cool. Is she from out here? She’s from West Virginia. West Virginia. How you Let’s go. You brought you brought someone down below that that that Macy Dix line up here to the north, huh, buddy? Let’s score the game. Is this the greatest game of all time? Let’s score it. 76ers versus the Celtics season opener. 2022 2023 NBA season. Coach Missoula’s first game as head coach of the Boston Celtics. Stakes 0 to 10 decimals. Okay, coach. I mean, you the stakes were pretty high, I would imagine. You can’t be an interimm and lose your first game. That’s kind of You’re [ __ ] Yeah. So, what are you going to zero to 10? Stakes were high. They were a 10. 10. Yeah. I’ve never been in that situation. I don’t know the coach’s life, but I’ll give it an eight. I like that. I want Whoa. 3.2. Man, what am I What are you doing? I’m rushing judging us. I’m tripping. Jeez Louise. At a 5.1 regular season game. Our perspective, your perspective, obviously a 10. Yeah. Star power of the game. Lot of great. That’s a 10. 10. 10. We are Are we coach? Are we all right? 10. Um, I will go. Look, Jaylen and Tatum, they weren’t them yet. They combined for 70 points. I know, but we’re talking in time and place in the in the era of of where it was at. I’m going to go with an 8.1. I went with an 8.9. Let’s go. 7.9. I’m really kicking myself for that stake score. I’m sorry, coach. That’s all right. the game play of this game back and forth, how it was visually for the viewer, could be a game play for you as a coach, how you had to coach situationally. 0 to 10 decimal is okay. Uh, I’ll go eight and a half. I’m going to go It was an opener game play. Crowd was going cranking. I’m gonna go with the eight 79 79. We’re in the same ballpark. We’re all there. Name’s a 10. The name is a 10. Yeah, coach knew. I’m gonna go with the 9.5. It’s It’s the great one. We did a We did an autograph signing my rookie year with him. I gota change. I scored this before we knew what we decided on. I’m I’m got to give this a 10. Yeah. The greatest winner of all time. The 10 for I had a 1.8. I’m going to change it for 18 championships. I’m going to go for I see, you know, numerology one. Actually, you know what? 8.1. There you go. Reverse. There you go. Yeah, I like that. Now, where does it stack up into the games we’ve done all time? Was Patrick Wild the goalie in that 2001 World uh Stanley Cup? Oh, yeah. We’re doing that one tomorrow. Eddie was Yeah. Was he Was he the goalie? Yeah. And then Brenda Moore was the goalie for the Devils. Uh the No, Martin. Martin Brewer. I remember those two goalies. They were [ __ ] nasty. Incredible. You’re a hockey guy. When I played NHL as a kid, the Detroit Red Wings were my team. They had Chris Osgood and, you know, between the pipes. He was big time. Chris Chelios was on that team. Shanahan. was on that team. Nicholas Lindstrom was a hell of a defensive Mardi. Yeah. You know, so but I mean Martin Broda versus Patrick W. You don’t get a better game than that. Fight night at the Joe is one of our highest recommended game tomorrow. Just so you know, this will be coming out way later tomorrow. Stanley Cubs coming here with Ray Bourke. We’re talking about that game. I’m over the moon. Who else was on that team? It was It was a forward. The Yeah. No, the uh I’ll talk about the Red Wings. The Red Wings had a forward that was unbelievable. I think it was a Russian guy. Datsuk. Um, no. Oh, Federov. Sergey Federov. Sergey Sergey Federov Feder. Yeah, he was he was big. As you know, you’re NHL head. Yeah, Feder. I just like sports. I But I mean, you always learn the rosters through playing the video game. Yeah, no question. Like that’s how I know FIFA or like soccer. Feder was sick in this. Yeah, he Yeah, Sergey Federov was sick. Get ready to power up your play with the brand new Nintendo Switch 2 system. It’s got powered up visuals with 4K support and a bigger, more vivid screen. Magnetic Joy Con 2 controllers that attach in a snap in a brand new exclusive games like Donkey Kong Bonanza and Mario Kart World, as well as select upgraded favorites from Nintendo Switch. Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2 all together, anytime, anywhere. Games rated E to E10 plus. games and system sold separately. Compatible TV required for 4K display. Where did the game actually? So, it’s an 8.11. It puts us It’s our new 34th game overall, just behind the 2007 Western Conference playoffs. Game five, Mad versus Warriors that we did with Mark Cuban. And then, uh, that was the Believe game. That’s what we did with, right? Uh, no, this was the Warrior did with Baron Davis. Baron Davis. Yes. We believe Warriors. And then just ahead of the Avery real game, Devils versus Rangers. There you we did with Shan Avery. So, 34, that’s not bad. It’s not bad. No. Regular season game, it’s pretty good. And you can come on and you have plenty of games that will score a lot higher. Uh Malcolm Butler game. I was on a a bus at for Glennville State College driving back from a game watching it on my phone when he got the interception. Remember that one? How gnarly was that? That was sick. Miracle on Ice. That’s a great movie. Low for It shouldn’t be fourth, but it’s okay. I mean, that’s a great movie. He stopped the Cold War. Snowball Game. That was huge. Snow. Yeah. We did you like Are you a wrestling fan? WWE. Yeah. Yeah. We Which ones we have? We done Becky Lynch. Uh we did We also did one with uh Shawn Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels. Yep. The Iron Man match. That match was insane. You don’t have You don’t have The Rock. You don’t have the Astrodome. Um what was the Wrestlemania at the Astrodome? Was that the Rock versus Stone Cold? So there are plenty of matchups that aren’t on our list cuz we haven’t done them yet. Okay. So, these are all games that we’ve covered. These are the games that we’ve had interview. I think it’s I think the Rock Stone Cold at the Astrodome 2001. That was like our age. And then you have The Rock Mankind on the on the uh the No, the Steel Cage, man. Steel cage. Steel cage. The tax. Wasn’t there tax? Yeah, the tax. Yeah. I used to love that [ __ ] I mean, that was like if you told me it wasn’t real, I would I would punch you in the face. I got suspended for giving a sucket sign to my teacher. Yeah. I mean, who didn’t? We’ve all been there. I think XO was one of my favorites. XO was with the rodeo. Yeah, Xbox cuz he was small. Yeah, he was [ __ ] awesome. Xbox was huge. Coach, did we miss anything from this game? No, the game was the worst part about today. No, this this game’s [ __ ] awesome. Baby, we in Boston are are very extremely happy and excited to have you as our head coach. It’s a person from the community, you know. It’s it’s amazing. You you come out and you’ve had great success early on in your career. Uh, and you look to learn to get it to continue it. Like you’re constantly learning. That’s something that I’ve always felt when I’ve talked to you in our conversations. Hasn’t been many, but you’re always on like the hunt to learn. You’re always trying to take something from someone to help your team. And I think, man, it’s it’s been a pleasure to get to know you. Uh, and I appreciate you coming on here. Yeah. No, thanks for paving the way with the success you’ve had as a player. And I’ve said all the time like the people before us because they’ve won, they’ve made this job what it is. And uh the best compliment and the gift that you have is coaching in Boston, coaching the Celtics, coaching for the responsibility and the ownership of going after championships every year. But also, I think just as important as that is trying to take on the identity of the city and take on the identity of what it means to be a athlete or a person in Boston and what it means to be a competitor for the Celtics. those two things. Uh, every day I wake up, I’m grateful for that, you know, because I don’t know how long it’s going to last, but for however long it does, you got to make sure we try to leave it in a better place. And I think, you know, credit to our our former ownership of of Wick and Pags is they they got it and they left it in a better place. And I’m thankful to them for giving the opportunity. And then now we have uh, you know, new ownership in Bill and and and Wick and and, you know, they’ll look to do the same thing. And it’s just the ultimate responsibility. So, I’m forever grateful to the city and to people like you who’ve, you know, paved the way for us. Oh man, from a fan perspective, coach, thank you for everything you do, man. I look up to you. I love you. You’ve given me some of my best sports memories of all time. So, Jack was at the game you guys won. I was at game five with Sam and I think a lot of us our best memories in life revolve around sports and that’s right up there at the tippy tippy top. So, we got more. I’m forever grateful for you. Let’s create more. Yes, sir. Let’s create more. Everyone go check them out. Boston Celtics mindset’s going to be on fire this year. Let’s go. And thank you, coach Joe Mazulu. Yeah. Thanks, brother. Man, a white whale guest for me. He’s he’s got a mindset. I’m excited to watch him continue his coaching career. Me, too. And and I feel like I’m a little more invested to the the Celtics now because I’m rooting for him. Oh, me too. Like I would run through a wall for Joe. I’d go to battle for Joe. I’d go to the depths of hell for Joe. I’d do I’m a Joe guy. And that would just put it over the top. Took it to a whole another level. And there’s kind of this weird We talked about it a little bit, but when you don’t win the ship and when the season comes up short and it feels like a failure, like me as a fan, you go into kind of more like you’re like it’s it’s a weird, you know what I mean? Yeah. The whole offseason is just a bummer, but but hearing from Joe and his positivity and his mindset and that tenacity like I’m back, baby. Miserable loves it. He loves it. We just sent him like 15 new hoodies. Yeah. We got to start to That’s a uh happily miserable backed over that big time. That’s a Joe. He loves that. He loved it. Start doing a happily miserable segment. Maybe every once in a while we could talk about the things that makes us happy that we’re miserable about. Let’s let’s let’s pump the brakes, boys. Jeez. It’s a 360 situation. See, the segment will help us sell merch. The merch will help us. Let’s just pump the brakes. Okay, it’s time. You know what it’s time for? It’s time for the chill zone brought to you by Kors Light. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door. Visit cororsite.com/gwn [Music] and celebrate responsibly. That’s pretty cool how you open it with one hand like that. Cheers, Bubba. You’ve never done that? My dexterity not quite that good. I’m a two-hander. That That’s like I don’t know. That just feels white trash to me. You just be like, “Nah, it feels like that’s like your your little Texan guy coming out. He just reach over, grab you, court. I think that was like how one of like my uncle’s friends used to open the beer. He was the man. No, he was a complete degenerate. Sounds like my kind of guy. Yeah, we were I think we were at like my grandma’s trailers. Um, let’s get into this, though. Since this episode was all about the Celtics and there’s this there’s this great bond between athletes especially in Boston. We want to pull back the curtain a little bit and talk to you Jules about what it’s like to hang out with other pro athletes from other sports within your sport uh around the league just everywhere in that kind of bond you guys have when you yourself are a pro athlete how those friendships are made how they’re maintained just to kind of get a sense of how it is because you know as a fan you you wonder like is that guy really buds with that guy? like I you know like and it’s it’s I think it’s especially cool in Boston. So yeah, you know, early in my career I would see Veritecha at a lot of like charity events, but Colts. Uh I never really saw Pjoy. I always wanted to I mean we I used his bat in batting practice. Laser show. Laser show. Laser show. Uh so that was like my my Red Sox and then I used to hang out with what’s his name? Uh Gabe Napoli. Napoli. Mike. You know, we we used to like it’s in those days we would see each other at local bars. That’s when Daisy Bouans was still around and that was like legendary spot. That was a legendary spot. And so you would see a lot of guys there. And then you go to I remember going to like this Chinese restaurant after hours and I I would see Baby Davis and a lot of the Celtics there. Land Davis, baby, big baby. You’d go there and I’m not going to say the name of the establishment, but all you had to do is ask for cold tea and they give you a bucket of beer after two. So like that’s where I would see a lot of So hold on. So you’re at the club, you’re at a bar at something and you see like the Celtics guys over there. How does that like do does someone go up? Do you like guys recognize each other? Like like is it just like a head nod or like how does that actually go down? It depends cuz like I don’t I wasn’t I was still young then. I became closer with like I met Jaylen Brown a few times and he came and hang out. We we we hung out a couple times and and the old the the newer Celtics the older one I was still too young in my prime and I didn’t live in the city yet. So that was early on my career where I would come into the city. When I moved to the city that’s when I started hanging out more like Nap and you know a couple of the Celtics I would see them. I went and spent time with them at their facility. So I I got to know them a little. Um, I hung out with the Bruins when we were young, SGS, Thornton. Uh, I would see Milan. We would have beer chugging contest at De Monica’s. Anytime Luch was around, it was just like we were chugging beers. So, how’d you meet those guys? You know, it it always happened at like either a charity event uh or at local establishments. you you go to Souy, you’d see some of the Bruins out. Um, and then nowadays it it’s simply because of social. Yeah, that makes I mean now you could we both follow each other and something you you comment on a story, they comment on one of yours and that’s how you stay in touch. Yeah. So that’s like the cool thing about it. Uh, you know, you you can still stay in touch with guys via social without even having to talk to them. Like athlete friendship is also different friendship. Like I could like I didn’t I haven’t seen you know example I go to Cardonia’s wedding. I haven’t seen Ryan Allen in seven years since he left. And it you know we we see each other. It’s like we haven’t not seen each other for seven years. Didn’t miss a beat. And it’s like that because you understand when you’re a professional athlete that like your life is pretty much predicated around your your sport schedule and the times that you do uh cross paths with other guys. you enjoy those times, but you you sometimes you just don’t have time to like, hey, man, what are you, you know, what are you doing here or there or that, you know? So, you know, and then Celtics games, you go to Celtics games and there would always be I used to go to I think I went to a Celtics game with Brad Mawn once with Douly. Heck yeah. Same as Gronk used to go a lot with them. Uh you would see some of the Celtics or you would see you’d see all the Celtics. You would see some of the Red Sox. Um, if you’re going to like, let’s say you’re going to a Celtics game with whoever, are you interacting with the Celtics like after or before or like like cuz they if the the Celtics, oh, we know this a Patriots guy you connect or is it or just this on the it’s a head nod. Let I know they’re working. Yeah. You know, I remember when you know, you have people at the game and you know, like this their job, you know, I like what’s up adapt maybe, you know, maybe a inner joke with Jaylen. I love when JB comes daps you up, give you the hug side when you were a football player because the field is so far removed from the state like are you ever noticing guys that are in town or people there? You know what you would see cuz like after teams would win, they would come and we’d had cool like they would wear like a Patriot jersey or a Boston Celtics jersey or a Bruins. Like there was a lot of those types of things where you would go to their games, we dropped pucks, we threw first pitches and they would come to our games to be honored before the game or at halftime or something like that. And it’s different. I was never like a a a kiki kind of guy before a game like hey you know tummy sticks buddy. Yeah we weren’t doing that. I wasn’t at least I would give a head nod or or something but I had to like mentally put myself in a different place to to go out and perform. Like I didn’t like even McAfee talks about it like when I used to like look at the other punters I was trying to intimidate them. Like I I wanted I I would go right next to him and like watch him. I I I loved like the pregame psychological battles, you know, like or or like looking at a DB a certain way. Like I played with some of those. [ __ ] that. Not today. You know what I mean? That that’s that’s how I saw guys do it. That’s how I was kind of told to approach it and that that’s how I I I developed it. But getting back to other athletes, um, you know, it we were talking with Joe, it’s pretty cool to get to play for this city. Like, it’s insanely cool to get to play for Boston and and have this part of your identity because it’s such a huge pivotal sport identity. like this this could be like you know New York’s a big market this that but like this is a huge crazy like pro sport town where they’ve had but they’ve all got to taste success while all being good now. Is there a bit like a of a sibling rivalry between the sports in a in a city like Boston like oh they won a championship more recent than us we got to go out and do it like is there anything to that friendly friendly it was never like [ __ ] them. Yeah they want a champion. It was more like maybe motivation. [ __ ] Bruins just won one. Let’s go get one. That was our time. You know, that was our time. I saw that damn parade. It looked pretty damn fun because you know the Bruins won right before I we won. I think was it 11 or 12? 11. And then three years later, we won our first really in the first in 10 years for the Patriots. So people were kind of forgetting about us. You know, the the the Red Sox had a couple. Yep. You know what I mean? And and then the uh the Celts had 08. So like there was a time where it it’s a motivation factor that everyone had one except us as in the Patriots and even the Patriots before our time had one. So individually for that like era team it was like yo I’m sick and tired of hearing about these [ __ ] old Patriots. I’m sick and tired of hearing about we’re the only ones without a chip. Like that’s the kind of [ __ ] how I used it at least. I can’t speak for everyone. So, taking it outside of Boston, you kind of mentioned it slightly earlier. Um, how does it how do you like meet other players in the league if you didn’t ever like play with them or like be in high school with them or college with them? How do you meet those guys? Um, early in my career it’d be like word of mouth type stuff. Teamate of a team. Teammate of a teammate. Now, social media, but I remember early in my career, you know, Larry Fitzgerald used to hold this camp in the offseason for receivers. is like one of the first like you know there’s tight end university Larry was doing that kind of stuff you know 20 years ago 15 years ago where you know a bunch of receivers would go there bign name guys and then you know I was going into like my second or third year and I you know I heard I got Charlie Fry used to go throw with them so I asked Charlie if I go Larry said no problem come and so like we went and had like a training uh seminar for like a week together where I went and trained we’d run routes and like that that was just word of mouth and that was through a teammate, you know. Now it’s s it’s really easy, you know, just all you got to do is tap in. You can get to anyone um and and say, “Man, hey, love your game, you know, or something like that.” Are there any like offseason like congregation points like oh a lot of guys go to LA to train or a lot of guys go to like you know Arizona to train and that’s where you a lot of the there’s like usually there’s like five hubs early you know back in my day it was like Arizona like in the offseason guys would chase the sun want to be able to train and work out in sun or in their hometowns a lot of guys come from the south you know a lot of guys come from South Florida so South Florida was a big one the Tampa Tampa, there was like training facilities there. It was like the APIs, the Exos’s, and there was these other ones that were coming. They’d be South Florida. There’d be one in Texas. There’d be guys that go to Texas somewhere, either Austiner or Houston or Dallas. There’d be a group of people in Scottdale. That’s where Larry was. So, that’s where I flew out to to do that receiver camp. And then there was California Group, which was usually like LA. You know, there’d be usually guys in LA, you you would get a lot of like transplant guys that would come in for, you know, three or four days. You know, when I was training at API that turned into Exos, we would I would train there for like three months, but there would always be new guys in and out because they do a commercial in LA, but they still need to get their workouts in. So, they’d come to API, get their workout in through, and we jump into groups and and and then we would train. And that was like some of the coolest stuff about the off season is when I would uh train and there would be like a group of guys TJ Ward and and you know I remember training a lot with him at Exos cuz he was an LA guy. Um you know that’s how me and Amandola met training at at in LA. So that was before you guys were teammates. Before we were teammates, you know, so we we started training together. There was a group of guys. You would go to UCLA and there’d be a group of receivers and and coaches out or uh not coaches, receivers and quarterbacks. They’re like coaches. They would run it and we’d, you know, run routes and that was like a way to a compete, b look at how other guys train, c like steel techniques and and look at like movements cuz like we didn’t have Instagram like what it was now or Tik Tok on what it is now where you could see how everyone trains like we would all like congregate to like UCLA use their practice fields. There’d be a group of guys. I remember Odell would come out. There would be those group of guys. Uh TJ um Hushman Zada used to come out like let’s go. So like you’d always have these guys, the LA guys and then there would be transplant guys that were here for training and everyone would go there and run routes and that was I loved that stuff, you know. And then also, you know, I I came out here. I came out to LA or I went to LA because that’s where Tom lived at the time and he trained. And so we would go to his quarterback coach, Tom House. And I developed such a relationship with him that even when Tom was gone, I would go to Tom House because he always had pro arms. Like I would throw with like Matt Stafford. I would throw with Jared Goff. I would throw a lot with like the C Matt Castle. I threw with uh Carson Palmer a bunch cuz he was in LA, but that was a different group. But like I would I would go to where the arms were, the the NFL arms cuz I wanted to catch live balls. I wanted to catch balls from guys that were throwing an NFL ball. you know, Jugs machine’s great and that’s great for like strengthening your hands, but you know, the ball comes out differently when when you’re running full speed and it’s coming off a live arm. And that that ultimately for me was my best way to prepare was running a lot of routes. So, I I would look for the arms. You can’t go get a beer with a Jugs gun like you can Matthew Stafford after either. Exactly. I’ll tell you what, that ball didn’t hit the turf that day. How do those sessions work? Are they like or what’s the vibe? Are they kind of chummy or do they sometimes they get a little like competitive and a little bit like depends on who you’re who’s there or does any rivalries exist into those things where like oh this guy beat us last playoff I’m going a little harder I’m going to have a little which sessions are we talking workout sessions or throwing sessions? Well explain me the difference first. So you know the workout session was literally at a workout facility. So you go to Exos and you do like your plyometrics, your field work, your explosion work, weight room work, and then you would condition. That was like an like an hour workout that was like fast tempo, constant competition. That was great because you do like all these, you know, change of direction drills and you were racing guys. So like it it brought in, you know, it brought up the intensity. You know, you go do that by yourself. Yeah, you you can be intense, but you’re going to your adrenaline raises. At least mine does when there’s competition. So, you know, it could [ __ ] up your technique, but you’re going to be going hard. No. So, you know, we would play against each other here and there, but like it was different in the off season. We were all there selfishly to get better. So, like you could put it away. There was truths. There was truths. Yeah. But like there was also I mean there are times where guys would compete and guys would get up in each other’s faces, you know? Like that’s anytime you have [ __ ] bunch of highrung [ __ ] professional athletes got these, you know, we were all competitors. So yeah, there would be [ __ ] talking in the weight room like the the weight in the workout [ __ ] Usually our routes, not really. It was kind of like it was kind of like doing infield showing off, you know, like when you used to do infield baseball and that was your way to kind of swag out and show people your glove work. horses before the Kentucky Derby to trot around. Yeah. So, like get the ball over the first, you know, so guys would naturally compete through how they ran their route. Mhm. And the the the smoothness of how they cut or their explosion in and out of a break or the their selling of a of a double move route. Like that was their way of like competing. We didn’t have many one-on ones. Like I I think now I see one-on- ons. It was there really just for conditioning and and and and like route technique, you know what I mean? Do you ever learn anything about like another player from those sessions that you brought back into the the New England be like, “Hey, you know what, Carson Palmer, take a look at this or this is this.” Or you just That’s not really the mentality that goes into those. You talk with guys, but you also like you wouldn’t tell them everything. Yeah. If they were telling you everything, that’s on them. This ain’t no This ain’t no patient client confidentiality. Amen. Keep enemies. I think it’s going to help our team. So, if you’re planning, hey, coach, hey, he said this, we got to do that league, bro. You ain’t got no hypocratic oath. Plus, you’re at the point like it doesn’t matter. Yeah, you’re actually gonna learn in that moment that’s actually gonna go to the next level. You would take little things like on how guys like cut in and out of breaks or how you know you know they would sell something you know head shoulder movements you know like that’s the kind of [ __ ] you would take stacking the ball tracking the ball uh those types of things. Was there ever a session earlier in your career, excluding Tom, that you were in one of those seh sessions and you were kind of the slap dick and some like hot shot like big swinging dick guy was there that you’re like, “Oh my god, like Randy Moss or Jerry Rice is here or something like that that you got to learn a little bit from early in your career.” There was one time I think to showed up to one of those UCLA things and you know, yeah, I was a slap dick at that time, but I I I went 100 miles an hour always. I was always I really I would look at them in in awe, but you’re in a a point where you’re like you’re still working, right? Like that’s how I I did I you know I I So, but you you’d watch learn stuff. Tio used to go a lot lot to those. TJ used to go. They were like the bigger name guy like that the more established guys. There were young guys that were balling that that were there. But what was it like watching Tio in person? just his like freakish like body size but speed combined just like he’s a little older. Yeah, but I mean he looked apart. He still looks apart. Yeah, he’s I mean he’s a he’s a he’s a he’s a freak. Yeah, he’s a freak. He’s a freak. He’s a specimen. I got two for you here, Jules. Say you’re out painting the picture here. Not in your home city, not in Boston. Maybe Miami somewhere out for a night out. You look across the bar. You see a dude you battled. You don’t know him. Maybe a jet. maybe an a a rival. You battled with this guy. You look across the bar, you lock eyes, then a conversation starts and you kind of bury the hatchet and break bread with each other. Has that ever happened? I wouldn’t say break bread, but you know, there’s been a few, lack of a better term, sorry. There’s been a few times where you see a guy that you know, you’re not you run into him out somewhere. Yeah. And you love competing against you. Yeah. Okay. I feel you. Keep it moving. Type type beat. Keep moving. Yeah. I feel that. And people looked at us differently though. Yeah, I was going to say beating the [ __ ] out of everyone. You know what I mean? Like you go to the You go to the Derby, you see the other teams there. We always went after like we won a Super Bowl and stuff. Yeah. People looked at us probably like we were arrogant [ __ ] a little bit. They hate us because they hate us. I don’t know. Yeah. No, I feel that. And then my other one, but I used to be around a lot of the Bronco guys because I I saw I was with T, you know, I used to train with TJ Ward and he’d always, you know, we battled against each other. I was gonna say that was a rivalry. It was always fun. It was always fun to just talk [ __ ] I feel that. But like we there was a respect. I always respected guys that worked their ass off in the train like offseason. So if I didn’t like you, but I saw you you working. I liked you. Yeah. You can’t knock the hustle. You can’t knock hustle. You can’t knock guys that are trying to get better. Has there ever we talked a little bit earlier about the the beauty of social media with helping guys stay in touch and connecting and dudes you may have never crossed paths with just being able to hit them up with a click of a button. Have you ever gotten one of those guys giving you I like your game type vibe that like really meant something or it made your eyes light up when you got that message? Like it came out of the blue. Not really, but I feel you. You know, like Brandon Marshall when I first started working with him, he it kind of blew my mind how like he I don’t know if he was fluffing me, but he like Jules, I love your game. You’re such like he he Brandon Marshall always used to hype me up. The original Glazer. I like it. He’s he he he knew how to charm me. Nice. I like that. That’s a good He’s also that prototypical like number one wide receiver kind of vibe. Yeah, that’s right. And did it for a long time, dude. At 31, I think he had likeund and something catches. Pro Bowl legend. He’s he’s a monster. People forget about, you know, it sucks that he never played in a playoff game because he had such an elite career. He had a crazy career. That’s insane. And like he did it with the quarterbacks that were throwing it to him pretty consistently. He’s like, “Wow.” Yeah. Yeah. He’s a large man. Oh yeah. B Marsh. B Marsh is is both in size and personality. It is. But I think it’s also even more like with the players and friendships and stuff now. I It’s It’s to an all-time high now. Yeah. It’s It’s almost too much. Like you said, it’s almost too much. It’s too kiki. It’s a little too kiki. I’m I’m with you. I don’t like seeing it’s weird to see as a as a fan. I want you to hate each like Yeah. I mean, it’s kind You got to We have a responsibility, man. Keep it like WWE. You guys could be boys in the off season and stuff, but like at least like we got to act like we hate each other. Yeah. I don’t keep up the illusion. You can’t have people that say you don’t hate anything. Well, you ain’t competing right then. You can’t have the Iron Chic and the Hulk traveling to the event together. Everybody in the world sees them. The jig is up. It’s up. I’m with you. You know, Randy, Macho Man, Randy Savage, and [ __ ] Andre the Giant didn’t like each other, but they also showed that they didn’t like each other in the ring either. Amen. I don’t know where that Yeah, I just saw that. That was a great one. Yeah. So great segment. That was awesome. Very insightful. Audience, more comments, voicemails of of in-depth things you wanted to find out about the life of a professional athlete. Please let us know. The segment’s awesome. The hockey guys, you just got, you know, I went and visited one of my boys in Toronto, JPR and CIA. He was a catcher. Took BP with them out there and ended up linking up with Sean and the hockey guy. Those got hockey guys. It it’s [ __ ] it it they’re a different breed. PK Suband like I I hung out with him like these guys like they can go drink and then go like perform at a high level. It’s insane. They’re Bill Diffy. A lot of them have been doing like the professional routine when they’re teenagers, right? Not being at home on the road all the time, practice in school and this and always like learning it and then they become pros at being pros early as as an early age. A great way to put it. They’re pros pro. And maybe just because my I’m I’m back in Boston and my homerisism is coming out. But what other city is a NBA champion and two Super Bowl champions hoods sliding out in LA together after years and years. What? Who else is doing that? Nobody but Boston, baby. Oh, Paul. I see him at work all the time. I say, “Paul, we can’t hang out. Paul, we can’t hang out.” Yeah. Last time we hung out, Bill took my captain away. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Really? Still too soon. And if you want to know more about that story, there’s 18 other episodes you can refer to to get the to get the ending. Yeah, we’re not getting into again. And that was the chill zone. Thanks to our favorite beer, Kors Light. Get Kors Light delivered straight to your door. Visit Korslight.com/gwn. And celebrate responsibly, guys. those Blue Mountains. Keep them blue, baby. Well, what a game. What a start off to a awesome, awesome, and hopefully continually awesome career for coach Missoula. Uh, awesome to get to pick his his brain and and understand him a little even though I don’t think we quite understand him yet. I don’t think you might you might never understand. Back layers, baby. I like that layer, though. I like that onion. That’s a good onion. Like that onion, baby. I like that onion. That’s been another episode of Games with Names. Subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcast. Comment a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review and leave us five star review on Spotify. While you’re there, you know what that reminds me of when you do that? I’ve been watching the Peewee Herman documentary. Incredible. It’s very good. I love PB Herman as a kid. Me, too. And I that gives me peeweee vibes when you do that. Now that you say it, I’m gonna think that every time. You’re right. You’re spot on. Producer Leah, she has connection. She’s friends with one of the producers of that. She’s been talking about it for a year. Love Peewee. RIP. RIP for real. Uh remember to follow Games with Names on YouTube, Instagram X, Tik Tok, and Snapchat. Leave a comment on the YouTube full episode and we’ll read the best ones in the future. Leave a message on the old hotline at 424291-2290 and we’ll see you guys next week. Games with names and production of iHeart Radio. For more podcast from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Joe Mazzulla is in studio! The Boston Celtics Head Coach is with us to relive his first game as Head Coach of the Boston Celtics: Game 1 of the 2022 NBA season.

0:00 – Intro
1:40 – Special Announcement!
3:18 – Joe Mazzulla is in the Nuthouse!
7:02 – Offseason updates
10:46 – Gaining perspective
13:25 – Learning from past mistakes
14:40 – Mazzulla’s childhood in Rhode Island
16:32 – What makes a great coach
18:36 – His identity as a coach
20:29 – Boston Sports Fandom & Hierarchy
23:48 – Childhood Sport Heroes
25:45 – Relationships with other coaches
26:30 – Boston = the perfect pro sports city
28:02 – Pizza Spots in Rhode Island
31:50 – WVU Basketball / Final Four Talk
32:45 – The hardships of success
35:28 – Stories about their no-nonsense dads
39:48 – Lessons from their dads
41:30 – On this Date – October 18, 2022
42:26 – Best Boston Movies
44:28 – The Dark Knight Trilogy
45:16 – Heroes vs. Villains / Winning vs. Losing
46:45 – Mazzulla’s Tattoo & backstory
47:56 – Escape Room Upgrade
51:16 – Pre-Game Playlists
54:32 – 76ers Team Breakdown
57:30 – Celtics Team Breakdown
1:01:17 – Coaching Blake Griffin
1:02:25 – Jayson Tatum Talk
1:03:27 – Al Horford Talk
1:05:35 – The Game
1:07:54 – International Basketball / Team USA
1:09:24 – Anxiety before game
1:10:29 – Doc Rivers Talk
1:11:29 – TD Garden Energy
1:11:52 – First test as a coach
1:16:07 – Tied at Halftime (63-63)
1:16:40 – Halftime locker room vibes
1:19:02 – 2nd Half Defense & Turnovers
1:20:58 – Final Score (117-126)
1:21:35 – Aftermath of the game
1:22:22 – Celtics Banner 18
1:26:30 – Bill Russell’s Legacy
1:28:44 – Score the Game
1:31:02 – Hockey Talk
1:32:57 – Final Game Ranking
1:35:01 – Wrapping up with Joe Mazzulla
1:38:27 – Coors Light Chill Zone

WELCOME TO THE NUTHOUSE! LIVE SHOW Tickets on sale 7/11 at 10am EST here:
https://www.ticketmaster.com/gronk-jules-present-welcome-to-the-boston-massachusetts-08-28-2025/event/010062DAE4F48FBE

Visit: http://coorslight.com/gwn

Got game / guest recommendations, old stories, topics to debate, or even a little bit of advice for us? Give us a ring and leave your message at 424-291-2290.

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Hosted by former Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman, Games with Names is a podcast on the search to find the greatest games of all time. From the infamous to the unforgettable, we dive back into the classic matchups and eras across all of sports history. Joined by the players, coaches, and celebrity fans that lived it, we’ll uncover first-hand insights and never-before-heard stories, shining new light and perspective on the greatest games of all time.