There are coaches who use the summer to decompress, and then there’s Joe Mazzulla, apparently dialing players on their birthdays just to remind them the league is doubting them. On the newest episode of The Old Man and the Three, Derrick White shared a story that felt less like small talk and more like a mission statement: Mazzulla called him in July, wished him a happy birthday, delivered one sentence:
“Everybody thinks we’re going to suck, I love it”
…and then hung up.
Derrick White says Joe Mazzulla called him on his birthday 😭
“He’s like, ‘Happy birthday man…Everybody thinks we’re going to suck, I love it,’ and then hangs up.”
“And this is in July.”
(Via @OldManAndThree, h/t @danield1214)pic.twitter.com/TIoLAm9NwC
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) January 29, 2026
White told it with a laugh, but the subtext is pure Boston. For Mazzulla, disrespect isn’t an annoyance to be corrected, it’s fuel to be collected. The timing is what makes it funny and revealing: this wasn’t a postgame rant or a midseason reset, it was July, when most of the league is still in vacation mode and most soundbites are carefully sanded down. Mazzulla, instead, sounded like a coach already living inside the season, already framing the narrative as “us vs. what they think,” and already trying to implant that edge in the people who will define the team’s nightly identity.
