Felger, Mazz, and Murray opened the show on Thursday with their thoughts on the Boston Celtics taking the interim tag off of Joe Mazzulla and offiicially naming him head coach of the team.

• Listen to the full segment here:

• Mazz wonders why they had to do it now

  Mazz: My one question is this: why did they have to do it now? And I’m talking about the Mazzulla part. So if you want to let Udoka go, you can do it. But what do we know about Mazzulla in big spots? We don’t know anything yet, really. And like, so what if you get to the postseason now and he makes some colossal blunder like not calling a timeout, which has been an ongoing issue all year long, orwhatever, I’m just just thinking out loud, I can’t give you a specific transgression. But what if there is an in-game thing that we look at and we say this guy is not the guy to be there in the finals? He’s just not. Because the other night we were talking about it, or yesterday we were talking about and I said, he doesn’t have that part figured out yet with the timeouts, he’s really not ready to handle it. And so what if that becomes a thing in the postseason and then you’re like, well, they really need someone else on the bench that can handle the final 2 minutes of a game.

  Felger: You think they jumped the gun?

  Mazz: I think they…yes. The answer is yes. I don’t think they needed to do this now.

• 

  Jan 9, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks with guard Jaylen Brown (7) from the sideline as they take on the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden. Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

• Murray thinks the timing is weird

  Jim Murray: I mean, maybe we have the same thought. The first thing I thought about this, because I thought the timing was weird, too. What weekend is it?

  Felger: All-Star Weekend.

  Jim Murray: Who’s going out there?

  Mazz: Tatum.

  Jim Murray: Yeah. And this is Tatum’s guy based on everything Jimmy has said, you know, he loves Mazzulla, so there might be a thing there, right? And that Frank Vogel might be hovering. So what goes on usually at All-Star Weekend, besides the nonstop “doin”? This is when the dalliances happen between players and usually the most prolific players, LeBron, whoever, saying, “hey, let’s put it together down the road”. Let’s make Tatum happy. That’s the key here going forward, let’s get ahead of it. Going out the All-Star Weekend, LeBron dabbling a little bit, you know, few years from now, “why don’t you play with me and my kid out in L.A.” or somewhere else. Might be far fetched but it was the first thing I thought, because I think the timing’s weird. I just think the timing’s weird.

• Joe Mazzulla is officially the 19th Head Coach in franchise history 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/LMcTLS1u0m

  — Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 16, 2023

• Felger thinks it was the right thing to do

  Felger: So you take the interim tag. He’s the guy. It’s like any coach or manager who you’re halfway certain about. You don’t let him go into the last year. The Red Sox always used to do this. You tack on one more year so he’s not a lame duck. He’s a lame duck. So you take away the lame duck status. I’ve been saying that for two months and Udoka had nothing to do with that. And it was the right thing to do. Even if he’s not the guy. Because let me tell you what, if he’s not the guy, he still shouldn’t prevent you from winning a championship. Let’s face it. You’ve got to suck on some sort of epic level in that league and that sport to get in the way of a championship team winning a championship.

• Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

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