Who was the youngest coach to win an NBA Championship?

The Boston have a chance to make NBA history by winning their 18th title in franchise history. If they can beat the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals, they would jump the Los Angeles Lakers and become the first franchise to ever reach that feat.

The fast path to glory

Should the Celtics win, their head coach Joe Mazzulla will write his own chapter in the history books of the league. The 35 year old is in his second season as Celtics coach, and is four wins away from joining shortlist that would include just him and one of the most legendary names in the game, Bill Russell.

Mazzulla started coaching right after finishing his college career at West Virginia in 2011. He wanted to continue playing but after no worthwhile offers appeared, in the NBA or overseas, he turned to coaching. His first job as an assistant gig at Glenville State University in West Virginia.

He would move to Farimont State just a couple years later before making jump the G-League with the Maine Red Claws. After a short stint there he went back to Fairmont State where he was offered the head coaching job. He spent two years as coach of the Fighting Falcons, but then the NBA came calling with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Boston named him assistant coach for Brad Stevens in 2019, and he would stay on staff even after Stevens decided to step down from his role as head coach and focus solely on his general manager duties. Ime Udoka kept him aboard in his one and only season as the Celtics coach.

Mazzulla flirting with history

In that season, Udoka took his team all the way to the NBA Finals where they would eventually fall to the Golden State Warriors in six games. Following the Finals disappointment, Udoka was suspended by the Celtics for violating team policies for the entire 2022/23 season, and Mazzulla was promoted to interim coach. Boston decided to permanently part ways with Udoka, naming his replacement head coach midway through the season. After a disappointing exit in last year’s playoffs he has the Celtics back in the Finals.

Mazzulla, who turns 36 at the end of this month has a chance to join Bill Russell as the youngest head coach to win an NBA Championship. The only difference was Bill Russell was playing 46.1 minutes a game during the 1969 season in which he led the Celtics to a title.

Russell had just turned 35 four months before winning the title, so that would technically make him younger than Mazzulla, should the Celtics beat the Mavs. Mazzula is two years younger than his oldest player Al Horford, who just turned 38 on June 3rd, but he will be the first two tell you he doesn’t care how old Horford is or Russell was as long as the C’s bring a title back to Boston.