Celtics president Brad Stevens confirms Joe Mazzulla will return as head coach

It appears as if Joe Mazzulla will remain the head coach of the Boston Celtics and will return next season.

Celtics president Brad Stevens confirmed the news Thursday, saying Mazulla is the right person for the job.

“Everybody is gonna overreact to the best players and coaches after every game. That’s always the way it is. We know that going in, so we have to be able to judge things on the whole,” Stevens said. “He’s a terrific leader. He’ll only get better at anything that he can learn from this year because he’s constantly trying to learn, and he’s accountable. Those leadership qualities are hard to find. I know they’re easy to talk about, but when you can show all those through the expectations and the microscope that he was under, that’s hard to do.

“Was he perfect? Would he like to have some moments back? Every coach would … our players, our staff, everybody around him believe in him. We’ve got to do our best to support him going forward, and I think it’s really important that we share results here.”

The Celtics suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the 2022-23 season in September for violating organizational policy. Mazzulla, who was on both Udoka’s and Stevens’ coaching staffs from 2019-22, was promoted to interim head coach for the season and named the team’s full-time head coach in February. Meanwhile, Udoka was named the head coach of the Houston Rockets last month.

The Celtics went 57-25 this season, good for the second seed in the Eastern Conference. Boston defeated the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round of the playoffs, and then defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games the ensuing round after trailing 3-2.

Speculation grew about Mazzulla’s job security after the Celtics went down 3-0 to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, which included a 26-point drubbing in Game 3. Boston then resurrected itself, winning three consecutive games prior to losing 103-84 in Game 7.

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