The reigning NBA champions have taken their act overseas -- and they're already making a fashion statement.
The Boston Celtics landed in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to begin preparation for two exhibition games against the Denver Nuggets later this week in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. But there was no rest for the C's after their 13-hour flight, as they immediately headed to NYU Abu Dhabi to host a coaching clinic.
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Joe Mazzulla was a popular man at the clinic, in part because of his clothing choice: The Celtics head coach rocked a custom "2024-25 World Tour" T-shirt that listed Abu Dhabi among each city his team will visit during the 2024-25 campaign.
Mazzulla explained the origins of the T-shirts Wednesday, explaining to our Chris Forsberg that they were the brainchild of Celtics director of performance Art Horne.
"I think it's a really cool idea, so we passed them out at the beginning of the year. He does a great job of kind of just tying (things) into the season, so that was really cool," Mazzulla said.
Horne, who has been with the Celtics since the 2017-18 season, brought the shirt design to Mazzulla about two weeks ago and received plenty of positive feedback.
"Art works in the offseason on just some different messaging things," Mazzulla said. "He does a great job with that."
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The Celtics don't play until Friday, but their schedule was full on their first day: Mazzulla and Derrick White were on hand at Abu Dhabi's Reem Central Park to witness the unveiling of a special Celtics-themed court. White even played a game of knockout -- which ended with Mazzulla celebrating when the Celtics guard lost.
Game 1 of Celtics-Nuggets in Abu Dhabi is set for Friday at 12 p.m. ET. NBC Sports Boston will broadcast the game live and begin coverage at 11:30 a.m. ET with a special edition of Celtics Pregame Live.
Game 2 will be on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. ET, with pregame coverage beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.
