The Joe Mazzulla advice that changed everything for Jordan Walsh

Life as an NBA rookie can be a real roller coaster. Just ask Jordan Walsh.

One minute you’re a 19-year-old kid dumped into a new city on a team overflowing with talent and wondering if you’ll ever get an opportunity to show you belong. The next, your teammates are swarming you and delivering the game ball after you scored your first NBA points.

One minute you’re being dragged on stage in front of all your veteran teammates and asked for an impromptu performance of a Boyz II Men song that came out 13 years before you were born. The next you’re riding a duck boat through a sea of a million delirious Celtics fans and reveling in the team’s 18th world title.

The only thing more pressure-packed than trying to create a dance to “Motownphilly" (it had to be “Motownphilly," right? No one should ever be asked to dance to “I’ll Make Love to You” or “End of the Road”) is the mere 83 minutes you’ll play as a rookie, trying to prove you belong while only getting 15 shots over nine appearances.

Each one of those misses gnaws at you. And then you go to Summer League with a bigger opportunity to show what you can do and you cannot buy a 3-point make.

That’s when your coach, the same one who forced you on stage for that darn Boyz II Men performance, offers some of the simplest advice and takes some of the twists and turns out of the roller coaster.

“[Head coach Joe Mazzulla has a] rule where you get one care to give and then, after that, you gotta let it go,” explained Walsh. “So, he’s been telling me the biggest thing is you get one care to give -- he didn’t use care, it’s a different word -- but, yeah, one care to give.”

To paraphrase Ralphie in “A Christmas Story," Mazzulla didn’t say “care.” He said THE word. The big one. The queen mother of dirty words. The F-dash-dash-dash word.

So Walsh is doing his best to give one, ahem, care, and move on.

“I’m trying. I’m really trying,” said Walsh. “I’m working on it.”

Walsh astonishingly missed the first 22 3-pointers he attempted at Summer League in July. After busting that slump at the tail end of the Vegas foray, he admitted he put too much pressure on himself at the summer exhibition. He leaned into Mazzulla’s care-shedding advice and pledged to be better when the Celtics convened for training camp.

Walsh might have been the most pleasant surprise of the Celtics’ five-game preseason slate that wrapped Tuesday night in Toronto. Walsh logged 104 total minutes, the second-highest total behind only Payton Pritchard, and showed the sort of progress that leaves you wondering if he could be a rotational presence despite Boston’s league-best depth this season.

Walsh’s 3-point shot looked smoother (though he swears there’s been no mechanical changes) and he connected on 36.8 percent of his attempts (7 of 19). He nearly muscled home a game-winning layup at the buzzer in Toronto but had plenty of quality moments that could position him to snag some of the minutes left behind by the departure of Oshae Brissett.

Jordan Walsh having himself a game 🔥

He's up to 14 points and 6 boards pic.twitter.com/nyxxIhMJce

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) October 14, 2024

The defense, his college calling card, was stout. There’s a role for Walsh as a gritty, defense-first player who rolls up his sleeves and does the dirty work.

The missed shots still nag at him, but Walsh knows he must give one care, then it’s on to the next play.

After all, there are plenty of highs ahead. The Celtics open the season Tuesday night against the New York Knicks and players will receive their championship rings. Walsh spent much of the Celtics’ championship parade pointing at his ring finger, while boat-mate Luke Kornet worked the crowd into a championship lather throughout the ride.

More importantly, Walsh will log the first game of his sophomore season on Tuesday and finally shed the rookie title. His rookie duties have been mild to start the new season, but he hasn't even benefited from the addition of two new first-year players in Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson.

“They’re older than me, so I can’t really tell them what to do,” shrugged Walsh.

So Walsh is focused on what he can control, like putting his best foot forward whenever opportunities come along.

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

“Hopefully, going into this next year, I'll be a way better version of myself,” said Walsh. “Hopefully I'll have the opportunity that I want. If not, it's OK. But just striving for greatness, striving to finally get to a level that I think that I can get to. Maybe it's not this year, maybe it's next year, but making strides to get to that level.”

And how might that manifest itself on the court?

"Hopefully better shooting ability, better decisions and playmaking ability,” said Walsh. "When I'm with Boston, making the right play every single time.”

But he knows now that things don’t always go as planned. You’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly and move on. Sometimes a greater reward awaits. Just like he found out on parade day.

"I thought that it was gonna be a quiet like stroll, a ride through the city,” said Walsh. “I thought Luke was gonna just like chill. But he got me into it. And I was like, ‘All right, now we're counting. We're interacting with the fans.’ Like, he made it more and more fun ...

"I think the best part, Luke started a chant. We were counting from one to 18. And when we got to 18, everybody went crazy. That was definitely the most amazing part.”

Those are the sort of moments that make all the ups and downs of the roller coaster worth it.