Joe Mazzulla was a Division 2 coach not long ago. He's now an NBA champion, and just getting started

Joe Mazzulla has been called weird. He’s been called a sicko. He’s been called crazy.

Those comments weren’t coming from critics or haters directing anonymous insults toward the coach of the Boston Celtics. They came publicly from his own players who, by all accounts, absolutely adore him. And they are meant with all possible respect, especially now that those players — and everyone else — must call Mazzulla something else.

A champion.

A 35-year-old whose only head coaching experience before taking over the Celtics in the fall of 2022 was at the NCAA Division II level is now the leader of the best team in the NBA world. Boston wrapped up the NBA title on Monday night, beating the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to finish off a five-game roll through the finals and secure the team’s record 18th championship.

“There's nothing better than representing the Celtics,” Mazzulla said, “and being part of history.”

Including playoffs, Mazzulla’s record is now 148-54 — a .729 winning percentage. Among all coaches with at least 200 games in the NBA, nobody has a better record than that.

And when it was over, yes, the famously stoic Mazzulla smiled.

“The thing you just can’t take for granted in the game today is a coach’s greatest gift is a group of guys that want to be coached, want to be led, that also empower themselves,” Mazzulla said earlier in the series. “So, I think at the end of the day, just appreciate the fact that we have an environment where learning and coaching is important, and getting better and developing is important. You can’t be a good coach if your players don’t let you.”

He’s the 37th coach in NBA history to win a title and the seventh to do so from the Celtics’ bench, joining Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, Bill Fitch, K.C. Jones and Doc Rivers.

And there are other names the Celtics call him, too. Like genius, for example. Mazzulla doesn't hide his Christian faith, talks about three of his loves beyond family being Jesus, coffee and jiu-jitsu, is obsessed with things like international soccer, and in his spare time leads teams to NBA titles.

“He’s really himself. He’s like authentic to himself. We all appreciate that,” Celtics guard Payton Pritchard said. “He’s not trying to be somebody he’s not. So, I think that’s kind of like the sicko side of it. He’s different, but we respect that. Then the basketball genius, you can learn a lot from him as to how he sees the offensive side of things, the play calling, the game management, all that. He’s elite in that. I’ve personally learned a lot from him, and I think our whole group has.”

Alex Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox, makes no secret that he believes the Celtics are going to be enjoying success for a while. He’s close with Brad Stevens, the front office mastermind of the team, and has gotten to know Mazzulla somewhat well since he took over as coach. The respect he has for Mazzulla is clear.

It’s not like Mazzulla struggled in Year 1 after being shoved into the job unexpectedly following the scandal that led to the Celtics parting ways with Ime Udoka; the Celtics did make Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last season. Cora just thinks things were more suited to Mazzulla’s needs in Year 2, such as bringing in assistants like Charles Lee (the next coach of the Charlotte Hornets) and Sam Cassell.

“I do believe that with everything that they went through, with the head coaching part of it, and Joe last year being the head coach but not having his staff, I think it was kind of like an obstacle for him,” Cora told reporters before a Red Sox game last week. “But he got the right people, they got the right coach.”

Mazzulla’s path to the NBA mountaintop could easily be described as non-traditional, and not just for the circumstances under which he got the job as Udoka's replacement.

Mazzulla’s only previous experience as a head coach before taking over the Celtics was a two-year stint at Fairmont State in West Virginia, where he went 43-17 and made the NCAA Tournament in his second season. A native New Englander from Rhode Island, Mazzulla played at West Virginia, was an assistant for the Celtics’ G League team before taking over at Fairmont State, and then got hired by the Celtics again in June 2019 to be part of Stevens’ coaching staff.

They’re a lot alike, Mazzulla and Stevens. They don’t waste words. They don’t seek the spotlight. Asking them a question about themselves is almost certainly not going to get any sort of peel-back-the-curtain answer. It’s not about them. It’s just about wins.

“When Joe won coach of the month, I was like, ‘Hey, congratulations,’” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “And he just looked at me and said, ‘Nobody cares.’”

The closest Mazzulla likely came to getting a head-coaching gig in the NBA before getting promoted by Boston was in 2022, when he interviewed with the Utah Jazz. The Jazz hired Will Hardy, and Mazzulla said they made the right decision. But when he looked back at that process, Mazzulla hated one part of his interview.

He wore a suit. “They’re useless,” he said.

To be clear, that wasn’t where Mazzulla thinks he blew that interview. The Jazz asked him a fairly standard question. Paraphrasing, they wanted to know how Mazzulla, as a young coach — actually younger than some NBA players — felt he was ready to lead a team.

He didn’t have a great answer. But now, nobody will have to ask him that question again. Mazzulla answered it Monday night once and for all. He can lead a team to the top of the NBA world. The Celtics' 18th banner will be raised this fall, and that's more than enough for him.

“You get very few chances in life to be great and you get very few chances in life to carry on the ownership and the responsibility of what these banners are, and all the great people, all the great players that came here," Mazzulla said. “When you have few chances in life, you just have to take the bull by the horns and you've got to just own it. And our guys owned it.”

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Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla calls to players during the first half of Game 1 of the basketball team's NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla calls to players during the first half of Game 1 of the basketball team's NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, center, talks with his players during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Dallas Mavericks, Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla calls to his players during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Dallas Mavericks, Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, left, and assistant coach Sam Cassell react during the first half in Game 3 of the NBA basketball finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla arrives at American Airlines Center prior to Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (STF Photo/Julio Cortez)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla signals to players during the first half in Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla watches play during the second half in Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, center, speaks to his players during a timeout in the first half of Game 5 of the NBA basketball finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Vice President Kamala Harris gave a speech Friday focused squarely on abortion rights to voters in Georgia, where news reports have documented women’s deaths in the face of the state’s six-week ban.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation’s presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. The efforts follow a July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally and after a second apparent attempt last weekend at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

With early voting beginning Friday in three states, voters are split on whether Harris or Trump would better handle the economy, a new AP-NORC poll finds.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Harris will speak at an evening rally in the heavily Democratic state capital of Madison, where some voters said they’re eager to hear more about where she stands on issues.

“I’d like to hear more details,” said Rabindra Upreti, 51, of Madison. He said he especially wanted to hear her talk more about her plans for the economy, especially how she will bring down housing costs.

“I don’t know how she’s going to cover that,” Upreti said. “I want her to break down more details.”

Brittany Thompson, 34, of Madison, also wants more information about her plans for affordable housing.

“Her story is compelling, but I would like to hear more,” Thompson said.

While Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin, is a Democratic stronghold, the race statewide in Wisconsin is expected to be tight.

During her speech Friday in battleground Georgia, Harris shared the story of Amber Thurman, a mother who decided to have an abortion after she became pregnant again. She developed sepsis and died while waiting more than 20 hours at the hospital for a routine medical procedure after taking abortion pills.

The vice president said Thurman “should be alive today.”

Harris blasted Donald Trump as a threat to women's freedoms and their very lives, warning Georgia voters that he would choke off access to abortion if he returns to the White House.

The Democratic vice president’s visit came days after ProPublica reported that two women in the state died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills to end their pregnancies.

Such deaths, Harris said, were not only preventable but predictable because of laws that have been implemented since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Although Georgia’s six-week ban allows abortions in early pregnancy to save a mother’s life, critics say the law has created dangerous confusion for doctors about when they’re allowed to provide care.

A Beverly Hills fundraiser featuring Barack Obama is expected to bring in over $4 million for Kamala Harris' election effort.

The Friday event is intended to be smaller than other blowout fundraisers for the Democratic ticket over the past year in the beating heart of America’s entertainment industry, which have featured entertainers such as Lenny Kravitz. The minimum donation for a ticket is $50,000, according to a Los Angeles-based consultant.

It will be held at the home of James Costos, the former president’s ambassador to Spain, and his partner Michael Smith. It’s not the only fundraiser for Harris to be held in the Los Angeles area on Friday. Hillary Clinton was slated to appear at an event hosted by Sybil and Matthew Orr, said the consultant, who insisted on anonymity to provide private details for the events.

Nearly eight years removed from office, the $4 million figure raised by Obama suggests he has still has lasting star power in Hollywood.

Harris’ campaign is airing a new ad in battleground North Carolina, aiming to highlight Trump’s ties to the embattled GOP gubernatorial nominee and top Trump surrogate.

The ad alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments in support of a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. It comes as Harris is set to give a speech Friday focused squarely on abortion rights in Georgia, where news reports have documented women’s deaths in the face of the state’s six-week ban.

Her campaign says Harris’ ad is its first to link Trump to a down-ballot candidate. The rollout follows a CNN report Thursday about Robinson’s alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board. Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.”

Trump campaigns in Wilmington on Saturday, but a person on the Trump campaign, and a second person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, told AP that Robinson will not be with him.

The Harris campaign says the ad is part of its $370 million in digital and television advertising reservations between Labor Day and Election Day.

In addition, the Democratic National Committee is running billboards in nine places across North Carolina, including Robinson’s hometown of Greensboro, showing a photo of him standing alongside Trump. There’s also text of positive things the Republican presidential nominee and former president has said about Robinson.

President Joe Biden invited a special guest to his meeting with his Cabinet on Friday: his wife, Jill Biden. It was her first time attending.

Biden called on her to update the group on a new White House effort to change the approach to and boost funding for research into women’s health issues.

The first lady said “incredible progress” had been made since she and the president launched the initiative in November after she learned about “huge gaps in our understanding of women’s health.”

She called out several departments and agencies, including Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health, for committing hundreds of millions of dollars to spur research and innovation.

The first lady said she’ll be making a new announcement on Monday in New York.

She said the steps taken so far are “building momentum for this research” but added, “We have to keep moving forward.”

In-person voting for this year’s presidential election has officially begun, kicking off the six-week sprint to Election Day.

Voters lined up Friday to cast their ballots in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, the states with the first early in-person voting opportunities. About a dozen more states will follow by mid-October.

Some of the voters who cast ballots Friday suggested that they didn’t want to wait, hoping to avoid the potential for trouble or chaos at the polls after a summer of political turmoil.

Other early voters might opt for early in-person balloting instead of mail-in absentee ballots to ensure their votes get counted, given the ongoing struggles of the U.S. Postal Service.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has often sought to sow doubt about mail voting and encouraged voters to cast ballots in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun to embrace early and mail voting as a way to lock in GOP votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years.

At a polling site in Minneapolis, Jason Miller arrived well before the polls opened at 8 a.m. and was first in line. He was among roughly 75 people who cast ballots in the first hour at the city’s early voting center.

“Why not try to be first? That’s kind of fun, right?” said the 37-year-old house painter.

The Teamsters Rail Conference, which represents 70,000 members, endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on Friday.

The announcement comes as a flurry of Teamsters locals back the Democratic ticket even though the national union declined to make an endorsement in the presidential race.

“The lives and livelihoods of railroaders are more dependent than most workers on decisions made by the federal government,” said the Teamsters Rail Conference, which cited Democrats’ support for worker-friendly regulations like paid sick leave.

The rail workers’ endorsement differs from a previous statement from the Teamsters’ national leadership, which cited Harris’ stance on rail strikes as a reason not to endorse her.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she’s “very proud” to have earned Taylor Swift’s endorsement but poked at the pop superstar over the Super Bowl in a new video interview released Friday.

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 to win February’s game.

Harris and Swift supported opposing teams. Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, is a 49ers fan, while Swift backs the Chiefs. Her boyfriend is Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

In WIRED’s Autocomplete Interview, which Harris sat for earlier this week, she noted the split with Swift over the Super Bowl but said, “Who’s mad at anyone for being loyal to their team?”

On Swift’s endorsement, Harris said, “I am very proud to have the support of Taylor Swift” and described the singer-songwriter as “an incredible artist.”

“I really respect the courage that she has had in her career to stand up for what she believes is right,” the vice president said.

Swift announced her endorsement shortly after the conclusion of Harris’ debate on Sept. 10 with Republican Donald Trump.

Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election, and her latest tour has generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales

Washington, D.C., has a new tourist stop that surely will be made over once the next president settles into office.

“The Peoples’s House: A Washington Experience” is set to open on Monday, covering three floors in an office building a block from the White House.

The education center boasts a full-scale replica of the Oval Office decorated just as President Joe Biden’s currently is — right down to his desk, the armchairs in front of the fireplace and the weathered family Bible resting on a side table.

But it won’t look that way for long.

The plan is to update the replica Oval next year after either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump is elected in November and assumes office, and the décor is set.

The replica will always mirror the Oval Office of the sitting president, so it will be updated regularly, said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association.

The nonprofit organization raised money to open the education center.

Admission is free; timed tickets are required.

Vice President Kamala Harris has grown more open about her gun ownership in recent weeks, but on Thursday she for the first time said what she’d do with the handgun she owns.

Speaking during a campaign event hosted by the talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Harris was addressing her efforts to cut down on violence and pass a new ban on assault-style weapons, when she referenced owning a handgun — surprising Winfrey.

“If somebody’s breaking into my house they’re gettin shot,” Harris added. She continued: “I probably shouldn’t have said that. My staff will deal with that later.”

A live stream with Vice President Kamala Harris and talk show host Oprah Winfrey billed as a “Unite for America” rally kicked off Thursday night with more than 230,000 viewers on YouTube alone even before Harris joined, as the Democrat looks to digital-first events to reach voters.

The event was hosted by Winfrey from suburban Michigan, one of this election’s key battlegrounds, and leaned on celebrities like Brian Cranston, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, and Meryl Streep, but also the stories of ordinary voters to promote Harris’s message.

“I want to bring my daughters to the White House to meet this Black woman president,” said comedian Chris Rock.

Donald Trump appeared before Jewish leaders in Washington D.C. on Thursday to talk about antisemitism.

But as the former president is wont to do, he took a large detour at the top of his speech, name-checking his Republican allies in the crowd, discussing the Green New Deal “scam” and pontificating about his polling numbers at length.

Trump was roughly an hour late to his speech, which was slated to begin around 6 p.m.

“Kamala Harris has done absolutely nothing. She has not lifted a single finger to protect you, or protect your children, or even protect you with words... I’m here to tell you today that this ugly kind of antisemitic hate for all of us — bigotry and hate — will be turned back ... starting at noon on Jan. 23rd," he said.

"With your vote, I will be your protector and defender and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Minneapolis residents cast their votes at the City of Minneapolis early voting center, Friday, September 20, 2024, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Minneapolis voter Jason Miller casts his ballot at the City of Minneapolis early voting center, Friday, September 20, 2024, in Minneapolis, Minn. Miller was the first resident in line to cast his vote. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks to supporters at a Democratic campaign office in Macon, Ga., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris joins Oprah Winfrey at Oprah's Unite for America Live Streaming event Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Farmington Hills, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris listens as she joins Oprah Winfrey at Oprah's Unite for America Live Streaming event Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Farmington Hills, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the Israeli American Council National Summit, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd after speaking at the Israeli American Council National Summit, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)