Celtics Assistant's Aspirations Could Pave Way For Boston Departure

Sam Cassell returned to the Boston Celtics and accepted an assistant position on head coach Joe Mazzulla’s staff last offseason, while ambitious and hopeful that someday an NBA team would give the 54-year-old a chance to lead a coaching staff himself.

Even after the Celtics racked up a league-leading 64 regular season wins, made easy work of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, celebrated with a two-plus-mile-long duck boat parade and spent over $500 million to keep the roster intact for a re-run, Cassell hasn’t lost sight of his primary goal. Boston already lost Charles Lee, who joined the Charlotte Hornets as their newest head coach midway through last postseason, begging the question: Could Cassell be the next to go?

“I just gotta find a general manager or president of a team to just believe in me,” Cassell told the “Come And Talk 2 Me” podcast. “Believe that I can get this done. I know I can get it done. I’m just trying to figure out, just working on myself every year as a coach trying to get better. It ain’t the Xs and Os. I think it’s just the other little things. Who knows what it is? But I’m not gonna give up until I get it. That’s how I was all my life. I still enjoy coaching the game of basketball.”

Cassell was considered to replace Darvin Ham as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, undergoing an interview with the Western Conference franchise during Boston’s semifinal playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers in May. Boston allowed Cassell to pursue the opportunity, however, the Lakers elected to go with J.J. Redick, a non-experienced candidate and ex-podcast partner of Los Angeles star LeBron James. But Cassell’s soon-to-be 15 years of sideline experience will keep the former All-Star guard prepared for whenever the next door opens.

Until then, Cassell is focused on Boston. The Celtics haven’t repeated as champions in over five decades and the team, poised for another favorable chance to flood the streets of Boston with confetti, fans and tears of joy, isn’t allowing Banner 18 to cloud its judgment on the journey of chasing Banner 19.

“We trying to chase greatness,” Cassell added, per the “Come And Talk 2 Me” podcast. “We understand that we gonna get everybody’s best shot and we’re gonna do some hunting too. We want to hunt too. Our guys are preparing. I don’t really talk about the repeat thing but it’s gonna be fun for us this year. It’s gonna be hard but we got the right character guys for our team to — we’re gonna go for it. We’re gonna go for it. We’re gonna go for it.”