Mazzulla

SHEPHERDSTOWN — As the youngest head coach to win the NBA championship in over 50 years, one-time West Virginia University point guard Joe Mazzulla once again has the Boston Celtics back in first place in the league’s East Division. Mazzulla, who last played for the Mountaineers in 2011, was just 35 last season when the Celtics capped a 64-18 regular season by sweeping through the Eastern Division and then beating Dallas in five games in the league finals.

Boston’s Bill Russell had won the league championship as a player-coach back in 1970, when he was younger than Mazzulla’s age 35.

After being made the Celtics permanent head coach by administrator Brad Stevens, the former Mountaineer led Boston to a 64-18 record in the 2023-2024 season.

When he was playing for the Bob Huggins-coached Mountaineers, Mazzulla was named team captain as a redshirt junior in 2010.

West Virginia reached only the school’s second-ever Final Four, while Mazzulla was playing after a shoulder injury forced him to redshirt one season.

Stevens

Before climbing into the NBA, he had begun his coaching career as assistant at both Glenville State University and Fairmont State University. In 2017, Mazzulla was named the head coach at Fairmont and in 2019 was brought to Boston by Brad Stevens, as an assistant coach. He was later appointed as interim head coach, before being named the permanent head coach on Feb. 16, 2023.

Boston started this season with a 7-1 record, later won seven straight and are currently on a three-game win streak at the league’s All-Star break, which ended last night.

The Celtics were 39-16 going into last night’s game against Philadelphia.

Currently, Mazzulla has the highest winning percentage in the history of the league for anybody who has won 200 or more games.

Boston and Cleveland have the Eastern Conference’s two best records at the lengthy All-Star break.

Stevens, the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, told a Boston Globe writer, after Mazzulla became the teams’ interim head coach when Ime Udoka was suspended just before the start of training camp, “He did a great job in year one under really tough circumstances.

“Then he came back and prepared exceptionally well and really had an unbelievable year and always recognized the whole time how fortunate we were to have the team we had.

“His leadership all the way throughout and the way he managed each part of the season, and the way we peaked in the playoffs, was really encouraging.

“Winning all those close games in the Indiana series, I just thought there were a lot of good things. It was cool to see that.

“It’s a reminder, I think, of how good he’s always been and we knew that.”