Why the Celtics’ Banner 18 parade won’t be Mazzulla’s first duck boat ride originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
The Celtics will display the Larry O’Brien Trophy and celebrate winning the 2024 NBA Finals with a championship parade in the city of Boston on Friday morning.
And like every other title parade in Boston this century, players, coaches, their families and team personnel will be transported along the parade route in the famous duck boats.
For some players and staff, it will be their first time on the iconic duck boats, but not for Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
Coaches often go on retreats before each season and they typically involve going to a fancy location and simply getting away from the city. But Mazzulla decided to do something different with his team in the 2023-24 campaign.
The Celtics’ training retreat was in Boston and included a duck boat ride. Why did Mazzulla choose this option?
“We did a duck boat trip. We kind of created that with the duck boat trip. So the team did one. Most training retreats go away — they go to the beach, they go to Cape Cod, they go to places We had our training retreat in downtown Boston,” Mazzulla. told 98.5 The Sports Hub Zolak and Bertrand on Thursday, as seen in the video player above.
“We had new employees and we were building this identity and connection to the city. So I said we would have our employee retreat in Boston, have dinner in Boston and go to a hotel in Boston and take the duck boat tour so we can understand the city and history. We need to know what it’s really about. So we did one at the beginning of the year and we’re going to end with one.
Mazzulla is thrilled to be back in the duck boats to celebrate the Celtics’ Banner 18 triumph with the fans.
“I’m really excited to see how people support the players, that’s going to be amazing,” Mazzulla said. “The coolest thing about coaching is seeing a group of guys sacrifice everything, which I think our guys did.
“I thought that was underrated — the mentality, the humility, the sacrifice that the guys made throughout the season. And it’s going to be a lot of fun to see them build on that.”
The last time the Celtics had a championship parade was in 2008, after the new Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen helped the team defeat Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. This year’s title-winning group is headed by two young stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brownwhich led the C’s to a five-game series finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Friday’s parade will be the 13th duck boat title celebration for Boston sports teams this century. Not bad.
NBC Sports Boston’s parade coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. ET. More information here.
