Even though Joe Mazzulla’s 2022 interview for the Utah Jazz head coaching job is more than a year ago, he can’t seem to get over one question from the process. He claimed Friday night that he wasn’t nearly ready to respond to it at the moment.
“It was something like, ‘Do you think you can run an organisation at this age?'” Mazzulla thought back.
Mazzulla thought he could, but he felt he didn’t adequately explain why he was able to coach a team at the greatest level of basketball in his early 30s. Whether correct or not, he felt his reaction persuaded the group to take a different course. Mazzulla believed he could have pitched, but he insisted the Jazz made the proper choice in bringing on his close friend Will Hardy.
“I can’t even recall my response,” Mazzulla remarked, “but I had the feeling that I didn’t present it in the best possible light or offer the necessary validation.”
Before thrashing the Jazz 126-97, Mazzulla had an insightful conversation about the responsibilities of an NBA organization’s leader. For the Utah brass, he was unable to provide a satisfactory response to the question, but he can now.
After responding to the question, Mazzulla stated, “I think the following and principles, leadership principles, are the same if you take away the glitz and glamour of, like, the Celtics or the NBA, running your organisation.” Mazzulla had done this before. “Therefore, I believe that even in the Utah scenario, addressing that question and approaching leadership from that perspective, you can succeed; it just might look different and require different values or principles depending on the setting or culture you’re in.
