This is not a referendum on how Joe Mazzulla has performed as head coach of the Celtics. But he has one idiosyncrasy that I simply cannot ignore.
Mazzulla, who took over as interim head coach for Boston in September when Ime Udoka was suspended for violating team policy, was officially named head coach and signed a contract extension in February.
Boston finished more than 30 games above .500 and finished just one win shy of recording the best regular-season record in the league. For all intents and purposes, Mazzulla has done a good job coaching the Celtics.
The Celtics currently trail the Heat, 1-0, in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Joe Mazzulla watches The Town four times a week – name him the Boston Celtics Head Coach immediately pic.twitter.com/cOzXQbgBCm
— jordan ☘️ (@whataa_jem) January 12, 2023
But as it turns out, throughout this process, Mazzulla has stuck to a strange ritual that I can exactly endorse.
He told NBC Sports analyst and former Celtics big man Brian Scalabrine that he watches Ben Affleck’s 2010 film The Town four times per week. He says it is just a “Boston mindset” to watch that movie.
According to Malcolm Brogdon, the line “Whose car we gonna take?” has become a rallying cry for the Celtics during the postseason (via NESN):
“It’s basically just ride or die for your guys, the guys you’re on the court with, the guys you’re competing with. It’s having the mentality it doesn’t matter what we’re going to get into, we’re going to do it together.”
Mazzulla even wore the catchphrase on a hooded sweatshirt during a recent press conference.
Listen, I’m not saying The Town is a bad movie. But if I were to power rank all of the movies in the world based on how much I would like to watch them four times in one week, I don’t think that this movie comes close to deserving an honorable mention.
Others also seemed a bit caught off guard by this strange factoid: