LAS VEGAS — Sam Cassell stood along the baseline all smiles waiting for Victor Wembanyama to debut along with an arena full of NBA fans, players, media and personnel. He laughed when asked if his return to the Celtics means more appearances by Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — his former Boston teammates. For sure, he said.
Sure enough, when the Celtics arrived at the arena to face the Wizards on Sunday, Pierce strolled to his seat along the sideline for a July game featuring players who’ll likely reside in Maine this season.
“That’s the only goal,” Cassell said. “It ain’t about making conference finals as a member of the Celtics, the coaching staff and the players. It’s all about winning the championship. That’s the tradition in Boston — win the championship. Playing for guys who won previously for us, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Russell, Cousy, Maxwell, the history goes on. It’s about them. That’s the thing that our guys have to understand. It’s a pride thing.”
Cassell, like other members of the 2008 team, can’t stop talking about it. It made him a Celtic for life, and he remembers it as the highlight of his career. They became a family, pushed each other and demanded each other’s best. Then, the banner made their legacies untouchable. Now, he’ll try to describe that feeling to the young Celts.
Charles Lee, Phil Pressey, Amile Jefferson and Cassell did the same, attending Summer League as they began meeting Joe Mazzulla and Boston’s players. Boston hired Cassell away from the 76ers after Philadelphia fired Doc Rivers, who Cassell coached alongside over the last nine seasons. He looked forward to the new opportunity as he continues to try climbing the NBA coaching ladder to head coach after numerous interviews in recent years.
“Right after the playoffs was over, (Mazzulla and I) got together, had a couple of phone conversations and he asked me, first of all, if was I interested in coming, joining the staff. I just told him it would be an honor, you know, I even heard from anybody else. It was an opportunity that I was looking forward to and I think Joe is an amazing coach. I’m here to just help them just, you know, to enjoy that. We have a great team and I won’t change his mentality, that’s who he is, but I’m gonna help him enjoy it a little more. That’s all.”
Cassell emphasized his three decades of continuous experience in the league providing him knowledge of nearly every situation and role. His veteran role on the 2008 Celtics championship team should serve him best leading this group, arguably the most talented in the league and on the verge of a championship.
That’ll require connecting and involving players across the roster, though Cassell clearly arrived to mentor Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and the team’s other headline talent trying to break through as champions. They became pretty good players during their first six seasons together, Cassell thought, but that doesn’t suffice to win at the highest level. Cassell will stress both continued growth on their part and — as a former point guard — passing
“It’s going to be fun,” Cassell told CLNS Media/CelticsBlog. “It’s going to be challenging, but being a professional coach in this game is challenging, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s gonna be fun. We got a great group of guys and we have a mission to accomplish. As a player, my last year playing basketball, I was a member of the Celtics … I know what it takes to win a championship. The whole makeup of it.”
“This is a golden opportunity for us,” he continued. “It ain’t easy. I know what it feels like to win a championship in Boston … it’s life-changing. I’ve been retired from the game of basketball for 15-16 years, and it’s still life-changing … understanding what winning a championship in Boston is about. That’s our motivation to go far, but it’s not just gonna be (Brown and Tatum). This is a team game. This is a team sport. Even from the top guys down to the 15th man on the team, we’ve all gotta be collectively together. That’s where I know I’m great at, ‘stay in the moment,’ … which means if you’re playing five minutes, play the best five minutes you’ve played in your life.”
Cassell also became Mazzulla’s first hire after Will Hardy, Damon Stoudamire, Ben Sullivan and several development coaches left the organization alongside Ime Udoka. Mazzulla needed to formulate his system, philosophy and principles in a matter of days and in the months after watched it waver in ways that became difficult to adjust.
Mazzulla relied on Stoudamire as a former player in a similar role before Georgia State hired him in April, another hole on the staff the Celtics tried and failed to replace before a playoff letdown. Sullivan and others in Boston acknowledged how difficult the year became.
That clears up after a full summer where Mazzulla can tweak the system, Cassell and Lee can settle into their roles and meet the players, while those who wanted to leave the organization could. Celtics Summer League coach and long-time assistant Tony Dobbins compared the changes along the sideline to roster churn, which Boston also experienced this summer.
“Knowing (Cassell) from afar and competing against him, it’s different obviously,” Dobbins said. “I’m looking forward to being able to work closely with him, but just experience. A ton of experience that (Lee and Cassell) bring to the table. They’ve seen a lot of situations, so looking forward to them. For me personally, to learn from them. Those are guys who are more experienced and have more years of service than I do, so I’m looking forward to picking their brains and ultimately, the goal is to help Joe as much as possible. Make Joe’s job easier. That’s what the whole staff will try to do.”
Cassell hopes to center the team’s focus on winning a championship regardless of outside distractions, commitments and ventures on the roster. You can’t hold yourself accountable for changing the world, he said. Winning is all that matters to him upon arrival, and he’ll make sure it’s the only thing that matters to the players.
Otherwise, he wants to provide the calming presence they undoubtedly needed during some of the recent crisis moments in the playoffs. He wants the players to embrace expectations. Some struggled to manage the criticism and attention involved with playing as the team in Boston and the NBA with the largest championship expectations. That’s a challenge and a blessing, one that he saw bring the best out of other players and could do the same for this team.
“Gosh, you know, to win big in this league, there’s pressure,” Cassell said. “But sometimes you can have fun with pressure as well. Pressure bursts pipes, but it can also make diamonds.”
