The Denver Nuggets stunned the basketball world by firing head coach Michael Malone on Tuesday. Malone had won the 2023 NBA title with the Nuggets, and Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who won the championship the following year, had an interesting reaction to the firing in his press conference before Tuesday’s game against the New York Knicks.
“I mean, it’s part of what motivates me, but I wake up every day saying this could be my last day,” Mazzulla said. “You have to have that type of perspective. Because it gives you gratitude. It also keeps you hungry.
“You have to have a healthy balance of you want this for as long as you can,” Mazzulla added. “At the same time, you’re very much replaceable because that’s just how it works. So every day I remind myself of my own mortality and I think that’s what kind of what keeps me in a perspective and a gratitude of the opportunity that you have.”
That’s the most Joe Mazzulla response imaginable. Speaking about his own mortality and whatnot.
While you’d reckon Mazzulla is in no danger of losing his job anytime soon, you’d have said the same about Malone this time last year. After winning the title in 2023, he led the Nuggets to a 57-25 record in 2023-24. It was the joint-best record in the Western Conference, and things were going relatively smoothly at the time.
The Nuggets then blew a 20-point lead in Game 7 of the Conference Semifinals to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and everything went downhill after that. There was reportedly tension behind the scenes between Malone and GM Calvin Booth, who was also fired. Some players were also seemingly unhappy that their head coach gave Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray preferential treatment.
Winning solves everything, but when you start struggling, all sorts of problems come to the surface. As long as the Celtics keep winning, Mazzulla should be fine.
Malone’s firing, though, continues a trend of head coaches losing their jobs not long after winning a title. Mike Budenholzer was fired in 2023 after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the championship in 2021. Frank Vogel had won the title the year before with the Los Angeles Lakers, and he was fired in 2022.
Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors had won it all in 2019 but parted ways in 2023. Lastly, Tyronn Lue orchestrated the greatest comeback in league history when the Cleveland Cavaliers overturned a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. Lue then lost his job two years later in 2018.
Only four head coaches who have won a title since 2012 are still with the same team. They are Erik Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, and Mazzulla. Winning a championship no longer gives a coach the kind of job security that it once did.
Mazzulla knows that too. He has had tremendous success since becoming the Celtics’ head coach in 2023. He has amassed a 180-63 record and won a title, but a couple of bad seasons might lead to him getting the boot. The Celtics are going to be under new ownership as well, and we all know how drastically things can change after that.
As for this game against the Knicks, the Celtics won 119-117 in overtime to improve to 59-20 this season. They’ll be taking on the Orlando Magic next at the Kia Center on Wednesday at 7 PM ET.
