The Boston Celtics’ head coach, Joe Mazzulla, just announced his resignation because…

The term “interim” has been eliminated from Joe Mazzulla’s title by the Boston Celtics. Mazzulla officially took Ime Udoka’s place as the team’s permanent head coach, as the announcement was made on Thursday.

“Joe is a tremendously gifted coach and leader, as he has demonstrated,” a statement from Brad Stevens, president of basketball operations, said.”He possesses a special talent for energizing a space surrounding a goal. We are thrilled that he has agreed to guide us into the future and appreciate the work he has done to help us get here.”

Mazzulla and the Celtics agreed to a multi-year contract; however, the terms were kept under wraps.

With Mazzulla’s 34th birthday promotion, the Celtics’ disorganized Udoka chapter comes to an end. Just 15 months after being hired as Boston’s head coach in June 2021, he was suspended by the Celtics for the whole 2022–2023 season for a “volume of infractions” of team policy. He is accused of having an intimate relationship with a female employee that was consensual, which is against the law. However, he is also accused of making inappropriate statements to the same employee, which she reported. To date, the team has not revealed any of Udoka’s transgressions.

That was Mazzulla’s role. After eight years of collegiate coaching, he joined the NBA in 2019 as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics. After being designated Boston’s interim head coach, he went out to restore order to a team that had lost its highly respected head coach in an abrupt manner. And he did all that and more in the end. With an NBA-best 42-17 record, the Celtics lead the Eastern Conference and don’t appear to be missing Udoka at all.