The Boston Celtics have one of the youngest head coaches in the league, and they may also have one of the weirdest.
Appearing this week on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak & Bertrand,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla revealed the … unusual sleeping habit that he has — Mazzulla sleeps at night with his mouth taped shut.
“There’s sleep tape,” said Mazzulla, per NBC4 Washington. “I actually have a mouthpiece, I upgraded to a sleep mouthpiece, and that kinda helps with it. When I got into the NBA, I kind of learned how long a season it is physically, mentally and emotionally. And I think coaches and players have to find ways to take care of themselves. It’s important to optimize as much as you can.
“I remember my first year in the league, I wasn’t used to having all this great food around,” Mazzulla added. “Food in the facility, pregame, postgame, food on the plane. I got really worn down and tired halfway through my first year. I just took a different approach and was like, how can I optimize to make sure I’m at my best as a coach, so sleep is really important and mouth tape plays a part in that for me.”
Mazzulla, who is 46-21 in his first season coaching the Celtics, also said that he “highly recommend[s]” sleeping with mouth tape on.
Though Mazzulla is only 34 years old, being an NBA head coach is a pretty high-stress job. Thus, it makes perfect sense for him to want to maximize the quality of his sleep (at least the little that he might get).
The potential benefits from sleeping with mouth tape (e.g. cutting down on excess snoring, promoting breathing through the nose, etc.) do seem a little anecdotal. But if it works for Mazzulla (who has already proven that he is a rather zany dude), Celtics fans won’t be complaining.
