Sports is a very fickle part of our lives. I used to be a sports fanatic but certainly less so as I aged and realized how much valuable time sports can consume. I am not a fair-weather fan, only paying attention when the local teams win.
I tend to look for a deeper story in sports that has meaning far deeper than what we see in the highlights. One such situation draws daily attention, while another does not seem to get the attention it deserves.
Caitlin Clark has been a scoring phenom since she first threw a basketball through a hoop. As a collegiate player at Iowa, she scored more points than any other college male or female in history, and she drew record crowds to watch her that many games she played in needed to be moved to larger venues. There had been other big stories in women’s basketball, but none rose to the level of Clark’s. She became the first-round draft pick of the WNBA Indiana Fever. Caitlin has been the target of many physical attacks on the court by jealous opponents who fail to see what Clark is doing to elevate the league and players. Three elements of Clark may be the reason for these players lashing out. Clark is White, Straight, and Christian. It is truly a shame that people see these individual characteristics rather than Caitlin Clark, the person.
The other individual I find fascinating is Joe Mazzulla, the second-year coach of the 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics. Mazzulla was thrown into the fire last year when then-coach Ime Udoka was fired for a contract violation. Few people knew much about Mazzulla, and many called for him to be replaced when the Celtics did not bring home a championship. Fortunately, his boss, Brad Stevens, was not one of those people.
Stevens stuck with his coach and pulled off some incredible roster moves to put together the best team in the league from start to finish in 2024. As the season went on, and it was apparent we were witnessing something special, we began to look closer into this coach who seemed to relish his lack of notoriety. As the layers were peeled away, an extraordinary individual was unveiled, displaying a much deeper individual than a championship coach.
I started accumulating videos of Mazzulla in different situations, waiting for one to show a crack in this gem, and have yet to find one. People were asking him questions that might have caused someone to pause before responding, yet the coach had the perfect response each time. One reporter asked if Coach was impacted by members of the Royal Family sitting courtside for one of Boston’s games. His response was, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” which drew a chuckle. Still, he said he only recognized one royal family and was unfamiliar with any other from Great Britain.
In another instance, Coach was asked how he was handling the pressure of The Finals. He replied he met three young women under the age of 21 who had terminal cancer. He thought he was helping them with his visit, but he was impacted by these three women smiling and enjoying the moment as they were dying in bed. They taught the Coach the meaning of life.
Mazzulla does not look at himself as a basketball coach but as a man who goes to work to help others reach their potential. Some say that Brad Stevens is the MVP of the 2024 Celtics for putting a great team together, but it was Joe Mazzulla who took those players and their egos and made them a team with a goal. One of the mottos of the Celtics is, “It is different here.” That difference starts with a man who is a Christian and a husband before a championship coach. We are fortunate that Stevens saw enough in Joe Mazzulla to give this 35-year-old the reigns to the greatest NBA franchise. Mazzulla took those reins and gave Boston its 18th NBA Championship and the promise it would not be the last in the Joe Mazzulla era.
