Soccer and basketball are treated as entirely different sports with different fundamental concepts. But Joe Mazzulla is bridging the gap by bringing in tactical philosophies used by English Premier League’s Pep Guardiola, manager of the soccer team Manchester City. The Athletic covered the soccer influence taking over Mazzulla and the Celtics.
“That is what the game of basketball is about, to me, and what counterattacking in soccer is about. So I study a lot of Man City. I study Pep (Guardiola) a lot. I think he’s the best coach at any level, in any sport. It’s had a huge influence (on me).”
Guardiola has won 38 trophies over his career as a manager, and 16 trophy wins with Manchester City. There’s no better example of a coach or manager in a team sport that has a record like Guardiola’s, so it’s highly unusual but intelligent of Mazzulla to be influenced by his philosophy.
Mazzulla also delved into the link between basketball and soccer.
“I think where basketball and soccer are the same is the transition is happening so fast. You can be on offense and two seconds later, you can be on defense. So the game is constantly changing… To me, regardless of the sport, it could be lacrosse, soccer, or basketball; those one-on-one situations, all fundamentals are the same.”
Multiple NBA players such as Luka Doncic and Jimmy Butler to name a few are big fans of the sport. LeBron James was a part-owner in England’s Liverpool, Guardiola’s biggest rival in the Premier League. With ‘Mazzullaball’ bringing in ideas from the world’s biggest sport, soccer may influence the future great tacticians in basketball.
The Impact Of Joe Mazzula’s Soccer Philosophies On The Celtics
Mazzulla spread the Guardiola influence on his Celtics roster by making them watch a Manchester City match. The main philosophy behind his new system is to view the game of basketball as a whole instead of breaking it up into offense or defense. As a result, players are encouraged to be more versatile and attack situations in a more intelligent manner.
The Celtics’ starting five features elite two-way players who play improvisational basketball by trusting their instincts within the structure that Mazzulla has created for them. The more free-flowing nature of the game has positively impacted players such as Jaylen Brown, who elaborated on it.
“It’s made me a more efficient basketball player, just because you need to make the game easier for yourself. I feel like I can score with the best of them on anybody. But when you are identifying and manipulating the game and getting the right matchups on you, playing slow, taking your time, those are easier baskets.”
The Celtics are 45-12 this season, currently on a 65-win pace this season. They’ve won their last eight games and are playing with surgical efficiency, looking unbeatable. They’re 7.5 games ahead of the No. 2 seed in the East (Cleveland Cavaliers) and five games ahead of the best team in the West (Minnesota Timberwolves).
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