Joe Mazzulla explains the hard truths he told Charles Lee before their meeting in Char

Charles Lee’s NBA experience made him one of the most desirable options on last season’s coaching carousel, and his appointment at Buzz City was the first of many steps aimed at changing the culture with the Charlotte Hornets. His former boss, Joe Mazzulla, the head coach of the Boston Celtics, has become famous for his, shall we say, strange views on life, basketball and coaching.

During a Celtics shootout this afternoon, Mazzulla went on a tirade about how he doesn’t want to give coaches any competitive advantage by acting nice to them, using his protégé Charles Lee as an obvious example. See below for Mazzulla’s quote.

Joe Mazzulla explained that he doesn’t want to give coaches a competitive advantage by working with them, and told a story about how Hornets coach Charles Lee now walked into the Celtics coaches room and forced Joe to hug him pic.twitter.com/DdXBEhWONe

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) November 15, 2024

“I told Charles (Lee) when he left, ‘I’m not talking to you during the season.’ I’m not waving at you during the national anthem. You’re the enemy.”

“(Charles Lee) broke the rules and came into the coach’s locker room and made me give him a hug, which could easily be a psychological signal that takes you out of your game. He knew what he was doing.”

Mazzulla then said that it was not nice to hug his former assistant. Yes.

You have to respect Mazzulla’s dedication to the bit. He has skyrocketed the NBA coaching rankings by employing a five-out, three-point-centric scheme that squeezes every ounce of talent out of his Celtics roster, but he continually generates viral headlines with off-the-wall statements like this.

Charles Lee couldn’t be more opposite than Mazzulla.

Charlotte’s head coach is jovial, speaks quickly and is one of the friendliest personalities in the association. His willingness to cross enemy lines and embrace his former boss is a small glimpse into the type of person Lee is, and the joy he brings to his Hornets’ locker room every day. All eyes will be on Lee and Mazzulla in their next match on April 11 in Beantown.

Whatever Mazzulla says that grabs attention on a daily basis, he’s damn good at his job. He is an NBA champion head coach and the maestro of a roster favored as the first franchise to win back-to-back world championships since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.

MORE STORIES FROM HORNETS ON SI