The Boston Celtics will embark upon their title defense on Tuesday night as they play in the first game of the 2024-25 NBA season against the New York Knicks. It is the return of basketball, and with that return comes the usual offering of bizarre quotes from the ever-thoughtful head of the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla.

In Mazzulla’s eyes, there are two types of pressure: the kind a team puts on itself and the kind created by media hype. The former is important — and certainly present within this Celtics squad, whose players spoke throughout training camp about their desire not to be one-and-done champions. The latter? To Mazzulla, it’s just noise.