After covering a Boston Celtics morning practice, the journalists who report on the Celtics laced up their basketball shoes to face an opponent they were not expecting: the coaches. 

The game ended as expected, 57-4, with the coaches dominating. But the game was far more than its result. 

Initially, the Junior Celtics Academy had planned for journalists to play in a game competing with each other. This event was scheduled to take place Oct. 14 after a regular Celtics practice in Auerbach Center. 

Anticipating the media game, Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics’ head coach, was asked that morning if he had any advice for the upcoming match. Instead of a routine, predictable answer, Mazzulla informed the media members of their unforeseen fate. 

“I don’t want to break it to you,” Mazzulla said in a post-practice conference. “But you’re not playing against each other. You’re playing against the coaches.” 

“I knew right away that [this announcement] was not a joke,” said Noa Dalzell, a Celtics beat writer for CLNS Media who would soon play Mazzulla and his entourage of NBA talent. 

About an hour later, media members changed into their basketball clothes as the coaching staff warmed up. Mazzulla, who has rarely played basketball since his meniscus tear March 2024, prepared to participate in a game that would soon make national headlines. 

Aside from its notoriously competitive head coach, the Celtics coaching staff is loaded with basketball talent. Phil Pressey, Amile Jefferson and Da’Sean Butler, who all played in the NBA, partnered with former college players God Shammgod Jr., Tony Dobbins and D.J. MacLeay to form a team that would bring an entertaining afternoon in Auerbach. 

“It goes to show you what the level is of the coaching staff,” Dalzell said. 

The media team also had some experience under its belt, including two DI and two DIII college basketball players. Despite this experience, the journalists faced a brutal 12 minutes against coaches who were hungry for a win. 

“I don’t think we knew that they were going to play as hard as they did,” said Jack Simone, a reporter for Hardwood Houdini and player on the media team. 

The coaches proved to be formidable opponents from the jump. They showed no mercy as they stepped on the gas and showered the media with threes. Their full-court hustle had the media team slipping and scuffing as they soared with any ball that came their way. Mazzulla especially embodied his notoriously stolid composure.

“There was no smile on [Mazzulla’s] face the whole time,” Simone said. “After the game: smile on his face. Before the game: huge smile on his face — it was a happy day. During the game: business. He wanted to kick our [butts].” 

The media team showed some grit, but ultimately, the gap in skill level led to an unassailable lead by the coaches, who emphasized stealing the ball and would not let their opponents dribble. 

“Getting a shot off in that game was a huge accomplishment, because we could barely get across the half court line,” Dalzell said. 

While this battle took place on the practice court, a few Celtics players watched from the balcony and windows above, including stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and the newly-acquired Luka Garza. They witnessed the extreme efforts of both teams with huge smiles on their faces.  

While it was apparent that not all of the coaches were giving their all in basketball skills, there was definitely no relaxation in the game. 

“It was never foot-off-the-gas,” Dalzell said. “Joe kept saying ‘push the pace.’” 

In the first stretch, the media team especially struggled to get the ball up, Dalzell said. Afterward, she wished the players had coordinated more through planning, which may have led to a more synchronized offensive attack. 

“By the time that conversation was beginning to happen, the game was over,” Dalzell said. 

As the coaches full-court pressed, continuously trapped and sprinted the entire way up and down the court, the disparity between the media, who cover NBA players every day, and coaches, who train said players every day, elucidated even further. There were no surprises with the result.

“I understood what the outcome was going to be,” Dalzell said. 

A 53-point deficit would soon conclude the game, but not the event, as there was an actual media versus media game right after. This game was much more competitive and ended 26-23 in a close match. 

While she has closely studied and reported these coaches’ gameplay, Dalzell received some outstanding perspectives from playing the coaches firsthand. Shammgod, in particular, was lights-out from behind the arc. 

“Everytime I see [Shammgod] around the facility, I’m never going to forget the threes that he made,” Dalzell said. 

This game was one-of-a-kind, as it was the first time the coaches and media got to witness each other in a more casual setting. This experience allowed for more of an equal footing between the stars and their reporters and gave the coaches an opportunity to see a different side of the media. 

“You saw a lot more of the competitive fire come out of the reporters,” Simone said. “Overall, [the game] dropped the walls between the media and coaches.” 

Subsequently, the game was a bonding experience between media members, who are an eclectic mix of reporters working for various networks.

“Losing together, winning together; that all kind of brings you together,” Dalzell said. 

Dalzell and Simone had found themselves in an interesting position, both playing in a game and having to cover it right after. Through their stories, they shared their perspectives from both experiencing the game firsthand and reporting on it. 

“My philosophy is, any time I have a unique experience, because I am a reporter, I always want to write about it,” Dalzell said. 

Inspired by the Celtics, the Denver Nuggets also decided to hold a media vs. coaches game,  reviving a similar franchise event held in 2018. The Nuggets player development staff played their media members in small back-to-back scrimmages Oct. 21 and beat them with an accumulative score of 114-16. However, this game did not include the Nuggets’ head coach, David Adelman, nor NBA talents J.J Barea and Jared Dudley. 

“These Nuggets coaches were out to prove a point. They had an axe to grind, and they did,” said Zach Bye, the host of “The Drive” on Denver Sports.  

As the Celtics embodied Mazzulla’s play style of three-pointers and pressure, the Nuggets coaches’ style of play emphasized a different approach. The coaching staff continuously drove in the paint and pressured with coast-to-coast layups, rarely needing to strategize. There was especially an abundance of masterclass dunking. 

“They tried to run and cut and dunk us to death,” said Ryan Blackburn, a writer for Mile High Sports who was in attendance for — but didn’t play in — the Nuggets media vs. coaches game. “If the media is a Greek army, the players are the Titans.”

Despite the lighthearted nature of the Celtics game, social media responded negatively, with some users saying the media’s efforts and gameplay were “humbling.” 

But the skill level of the players — nor who won — was really the point of the game, Simone said.

“If you had told 10-year-old Jack that he was going to get to play in a game with the head coach of the Boston Celtics, he’d be freaking out,” he said. 

The coaches play NBA players every day to help them maintain shape and skill level. But their own skill set is often overlooked when all fans see is the product of consistently-trained NBA stars. 

“It was a cool opportunity to compete with somebody that we know to be incredibly competitive,” Dalzell said. 

The media game put the welcoming and tight-knit culture of the Celtics franchise on display, regardless of the lopsided outcome. 

“It’s a very welcoming environment,” Simone said. “Overall, [the franchise] definitely [does] a good job of cultivating that relationship.”

Similarly, the Nuggets gave their media members blank, authentic Nuggets jerseys to wear during the game. These gifts not only promoted unity but also doubled as mementos to remember the experience. Bye even brought home an extra souvenir: a media MVP trophy.

“To get motivated to play was unique,” Bye said. “It was just a blessing that I got to experience [this game] in the first place.” 

These games continue to resonate with media members as they cover their respective teams throughout the NBA season.