Former WVU player Mazzulla joins Boston Celtics

Joe Mazzulla will join the Boston Celtics as an assistant coach to head coach Brad Stevens. Courtesy photo
MORGANTOWN — Joe Mazzulla became a fan favorite in Morgantown when he played with an injury to his right shoulder and was courageous enough to stay on the floor when he had to shoot foul shots left-handed.
Mazzulla was quiet about his injury, but his on-court presence was leadership enough to be inspirational to his teammates.
During the middle of his five-season career as a Mountaineer, Mazzulla was part of the 2010 team that reached the NCAA’s Final Four.
Now 30 years old, the Johnston, Rhode Island native has become an assistant coach with the NBA’s Boston Celtics.
Mazzulla most recently was the head basketball coach at Fairmont State, where his two-year record was 43-17 and included a 2019 trip to the NCAA Division II national tournament as part of the Atlantic Regional.
Before accepting the head job at Fairmont State, Mazzulla was an assistant at the school under Jerrod Calhoun, now the head coach at Youngstown State in Ohio.
As a standout basketball and soccer player in high school in Rhode Island, Mazzulla came to Morgantown where he was a Mountaineer player from 2007 through the 2010-2011 season. In his third year at WVU, Mazzulla suffered a shoulder injury that allowed him to play only seven games. He was allowed a medical redshirt that season and still had two more years of eligibility.
In his five seasons, Mazzulla played 145 games and scored 700 points.
Joining the Boston Celtics as an assistant brings Mazzulla together with head coach Brad Stevens, one of the NBA’s younger head coaches who came into professional basketball from Butler University after two of his college teams reached the national championship game.
Boston will reportedly lose several long-time players to free agency this summer and will have a youth-laden team next season that won’t have the pressure of being an expected contender like it was in the 2018-19 season.
Mazzulla is back in New England where he was a well-known high school player in two sports.