Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla shut down a race-baiting question from a Yahoo Sports reporter ahead of his team’s game 2 NBA Finals clash against the Dallas Mavericks.

Mazzulla, who is mixed race, was asked whether he saw any significance in the fact that both he and Mavericks Head Coach Jason Kidd both have African American heritage. The reporter, Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill, noted that it was the first time since 1975 that two African American head coaches will be going head-to-head in a finals matchup.

“I wonder how many of those have been Christian coaches,” Mazzulla said Saturday without any hesitation. His response was met with silence from press pool members. After about 10 seconds, the press conference moved ahead to another question without any further comment.

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Goodwill was not happy with Mazzulla’s response in a follow-up article for Yahoo Sports. “There was stunned silence in the room because it felt like an awkward answer, at the very least. Shockingly, and this may come as a surprise to the Celtics coach, it is possible to be both Black and Christian,” he wrote. “He didn’t expound on it, he didn’t elaborate what it meant for him to be a Christian in this spot. He brought religion to the party but didn’t choose to explore the conversation.”

He went on to insinuate that the awkward silence was Mazzulla’s intention before listing other instances where the Celtics’ coach gave brief answers to media members. “Mazzulla doesn’t mind jostling with the media, at times coming across very thin-skinned when being challenged. He doesn’t seem pressed by the awkward silence, and perhaps he likes embracing the weird in everything that comes with this professional sports ecosystem,” Goodwill wrote.

“His relationship with his own racial identity is personal, but his answer certainly opens the door for more questions,” the sports reporter went on to say.

Mazzulla is currently coaching his Eastern Conference champion Celtics in the NBA finals after taking over as head coach in 2022. At the age of 35, Mazzulla became the youngest head coach to head up a finals squad when his team swept the Indiana Pacers last month.

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