When Baylor Scheierman joined The Garden Report earlier this month, he smiled and shared one of his earliest interactions with Joe Mazzulla when asked for his his best Joe story. He and Mazzulla met as training camp concluded, and Mazzulla told Scheierman he doesn’t like rookies. So he faced an uphill battle to accumulating playing time.
Scheierman didn’t share the best one.
Impending Celtics free agent Torrey Craig joined me and Noa Dalzell this week ahead of his free agency and revealed another Scheierman-Mazzulla interaction from 2024-25. After Craig joined the team in February, he heard that Mazzulla and Scheierman met at a doorway in the arena before a game. Both of them offered to let the other pass first, and a standoff ensued.
“I guess Joe and Baylor was like, ‘no, you go first. Oh no, you go first. No, you go first. No, you got it,’” Craig said.
“And I just remember coming from working out and Baylor was standing in a towel in the hallway with his back against the wall and Joe was laying down on the table right there, and they were both on opposite sides of the door … I was just wondering, ‘oh, OK,’ and then I came back 20 minutes later, they’re still there, and then you come back 20 minutes later, and they’re still there. They both waited for at least an hour before I think we had a meeting or something and that was the only thing that stopped them from staying there.”
Craig believed Mazzulla wanted to test Scheierman’s mental strength with the interaction, from which Craig declared Mazzulla the winner. While Mazzulla’s tendencies surprised some Celtics when they encountered them for the first time, Craig observed them from afar while playing for the Bulls earlier in the season. Craig even cited Mazzulla’s coaching style as part of the reason he joined the Celtics after Chicago bought him out.
Mazzulla regularly praised Craig for contributions as small as one minute in games and for how he conducted himself through inconsistent playing time. Craig only logged 11.8 minutes per game over 17 appearances through Boston’s final 28 games. Then, he did not crack the playoff rotation.
Craig shared some regret on the podcast over not playing more assertively in his opportunities, something he normally doesn’t carry following a season. He appreciated the bond he and his son Braylon formed with Mazzulla and teammates, nonetheless. That included an opportunity for Braylon to address the team before an April game.
“Joe, he’s a great guy. He’s a great father, great family man,” Craig said. “Like how he was with my son, letting him talk in the locker room before the game and trying to get the guys going a little bit, that’s very rare in this league to have coaches like that and I think that’s part of what makes him special.”
Craig becomes a free agent next month alongside Al Horford, who also returned to Boston’s facility alongside Payton Pritchard and younger players ramping up for Summer League. Craig wanted to spend time with Braylon and get back to work, since he doesn’t like longer layoffs. In July, he’ll host his fourth annual Torrey Craig day giving back to Great Falls, South Carolina, where he attended college.
Craig expressed interest in returning to the Celtics, but said he’ll take a business approach and see what makes most sense for himself. Boston currently has three open standard roster spots and two three-way deals. If Craig departs this summer, he’ll do so having never taken Mazzulla up on his offer to attend a jiu-jitsu class.
“I just think it was who had the mental to wait the longest to see,” Craig said of Scheierman and Mazzulla’s exchange. “I think with Joe, he’s a natural competitor. He played in college. He does all this fighting and training. He also tried to get me to come to a session with him and his trainer, but I quickly (declined) that, but yeah, I think everything is mental for Joe.”
