In an interview on ‘Locked on Celtics,’ championship coach Joe Mazzulla revealed his mindset going into the 2024-25 season. Despite being a few months removed from winning the Finals, Mazzulla says that the Celtics will not be using the prospect of defending their title to motivate their efforts this upcoming season.
“The differentiating factor between good and great is so small,” said Mazzulla. “The phrase ‘defending a title’ is a very passive-aggressive term. If you look at the animal kingdom, some of the strongest animals don’t defend; they’re the most aggressive, and they attack the most.”
The Boston Celtics became champions once again after winning the 2024 Finals over Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks. Thanks to a collaborative group effort, which involved complete buy-in from every player, the Cs finally broke their drought and were able to bring the Larry O’Brien trophy back to Boston for the first time since 2008.
Of course, even before this year, the Boston Celtics were accustomed to success. They were 17x champions before their title run last year and their core duo of 26-year-old Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown already had several long playoff runs under their belt.
Over the years, however, doubt was growing among critics that the modern Celtics could go the distance and finish the job to win the title. Every year, there was always some kind of obstacle that kept them from making a run.
Last year, after finishing as the best team in the regular season, everything finally came together at the right time. With two stars and an impressive supporting cast of veterans, the Celtics were able to outlast everyone and prove to the world that they are the NBA’s best team.
Going into next season, the Celtics are hoping to start with a brand new slate. As coach Mazzulla prepares his team to be the main target next season, he will do everything he can to ensure they keep their “attack dog” mentality intact.
Instead of approaching this season on the defensive, Mazzulla wants his team to be more hungry than ever before. Just like the strongest creatures in the animal kingdom, he wants his team to be relentless in their pursuit and unforgiving against the competition.
With the same cast set to run it back, the Cs will be competitive next season no matter what happens but they might find it more difficult than they imagined to repeat as champions. Besides any internal obstacles, new challengers in the East will make things harder than ever and it will take another stretch of good luck and hard work to get through it alive.
In the end, only time will tell what’s next for this Celtics team and if they can sustain their recent success. Surely, they have enough reasons to believe in their odds and if they play their cards right they could tip the scale in their favor for the 2024-25 campaign.
As it stands, no team since the 2018 Warriors has repeated as champions, and for the Celtics to break the cycle now it will take nothing short of a miracle. Joe Mazzulla cannot let his team get complacent or they may lose the opportunity to make history.
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