Pep Guardiola is as legendary as a manager in European football as there is — seven Premier League titles with Manchester City, three La Liga titles with Barcelona, three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, and across all those stops, three Champions League titles.
In the run-up to Game 1 of last year’s NBA Finals, there was Guardiola on the court, talking to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who had coached one team for two seasons but was on the cusp of a ring. Mazzulla spoke about that moment on the Men in Blazers podcast, which you can now stream on Peacock.
“The biggest thing I wanted to take from him was: What’s it like before you win? What are the challenges that come with winning the first one? And what are you like now that you’ve won. He has seen all those steps, and it just gives you great perspective as to: Okay, if you’re gonna do this for a long time, here’s what to expect, here’s how to adapt and here’s how to look at it.”
Mazzulla said he admired Guardiola’s roadmap to success and tried to follow it.
“Obviously, nowhere near the manager that Pep is but we share a similar beginning. He was coaching Barcelona’s B team, I was in Maine’s G-League team, and they could have easily gone for a bigger name, but they go to this guy sitting on the back bench with no experience.
“It became really a roadmap to how I wanted to go about building a culture, a team, and you know, taking over greatness. You take a look at his tactical ability, his abilty to manage the best players, which I think is what separates coaches in any sport — that’s something that I thought I could really learn from.”
Mazzulla’s Celtics found their groove again a couple of weeks before the All-Star break and head into the season’s final stretch as one of the betting favorites to win the title. If Mazzulla needs advice on handling that, don’t be surprised if he reaches out to Guardiola.
