Following his team’s NBA Finals championship win, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla wore a t-shirt that gave all the glory to God. Mazzulla is outspoken about his Christian faith, frequently expressing how a relationship with Jesus Christ is paramount.
The Celtics sealed their championship win against the Dallas Mavericks Monday night, 106-88, in a four-to-one series. The NBA Finals win is the first since 2008 for the Celtics, who have won 18 in franchise history, the most of any team in the league.
While celebrating with the trophy, Mazzulla was wearing a black shirt that read, “But First … Let Me Thank God.” The coach made it clear that God received the glory above all else following his monumental victory. “Obviously, for us, for me, our faith is the most important thing,” Mazzulla said during his post-game statements in the celebration. He then thanked the Celtics fans calling them “the best fans in the world.”
The coach continued, “You get very few chances in life to be great. You get very few chances in life to carry on the ownership and responsibility of what these [Celtics championship] banners are and all the great people and great players that came here. When you get a few chances, you just got to take the bull by the horns and just own it. And our guys owned it.”
During a subsequent interview with ESPN, Mazzulla wore the same shirt that honored the Lord, stating, “But First … Let Me Thank God.” The coach added that his role as the Celtics head coach was “a blessing,” maintaining that “I don’t deserve it. But because of grace, I’m here.”
Mazzulla further illustrated how life is a journey through various seasons of ups and downs. However, he noted that God has a plan for each and every one of us, placing us exactly where we need to be in accordance with his divine plan.
“We’ve all been through stuff. The circumstances that we got the job under were not great, but we are exactly where we are supposed to be, and God has us where we are at,” he said. “We just got to be patient and take your time and use all the pain and stuff that you’ve been through in life for the next opportunity.”
The Celtics coach has continually been unafraid to express his Christian faith, explaining how important God is in his life. However, like many men and women who have come to Christ, the road has not always been a straight and easy path. Mazzulla has had past run-ins with the law, which he claims have made him a better man.
“I can’t talk about specifics, but I’m not the same person that I was,” he explained to CBS Boston. “As you grow as a person, you’re constantly having to build an identity. I didn’t have one at a certain point in my life for whatever reason. … You have to find a foundation, and for me that’s my faith. How can I impact people positively around me? That is something that I have learned throughout my life.”
Featured image credit: Boston Celtics, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Mazzulla_Jayson_Tatum.png