Joe Mazzulla has only been head coach of the Boston Celtics for two seasons. But the hyper-focused and often blunt basketball coach has already delivered decades worth of headline-stealing quotes and viral musings while fielding questions from the media.

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.