Mazzulla was asked by Karalis about how stars like Tatum and Brown can draw on those slights (from the Olympics) for motivation just a few months removed from seemingly reaching the NBA summit as champions.
They?re two competitors and they are who they are, Mazzulla said. They?re two great, great players. So I?m not going to try to figure out how they?re going to go about it. If they want to take revenge on that particular game, that?s great for them. Like I said, my number one job is to; I gotta grow as a coach, I gotta get better so that I can get them better and help them get better, and be a catalyst for growth.
Revenge is healthy and it?s not at the same time. I think just like anything else you can have a little bit of it, but I think it?s a short-term thing, and when that runs out what are you gonna rely on?
Mazzulla was asked by Karalis about why the animal kingdom stands as a reliable analogy to turn to when trying to instill principles into his team.
The animal kingdom is the most pure form of hierarchy and role definition that there is. Everybody plays their role. If you step outside of it, you get killed, Mazzulla said. If you try to do something with a sense of pride or arrogance, you?d probably get killed.
If you stay within the lines, you survive for as long as you can until you don?t anymore. I just think that?s the closest thing to hierarchy, role definition, competition, commitment, and all those things that go into success and survival. And yes, Mazzulla is a massive fan of killer whales.
To me, the killer whale [is] obviously the most forceful animal in nature, Mazzulla said. But they have the humility. They very rarely attack their prey by themselves. And so you have this concept of I know I could kill you by myself, but I?m not going to do it unless I have my pod with me. They only attack in three and four so, like, there?s a huge humility aspect to that.
