Boston Celtics Coaching Staff Filled With Maine Ties

The road to Boston begins in Maine. 

That slogan can be read on various signage across the Portland Expo. Not only is it true in a literal sense – Interstate 95 does run through Portland right down to the Boston suburbs – but it serves as motivation for the players and coaches practicing in the gym every day. While rosters in the G League tend to be fluid, shuffling players in and out sometimes on a weekly basis, fans rarely see the same people on the court year in and year out. On the benches, though, Maine fans have found continuity over recent years as they’ve watched Celtics coaches graduate from the sidelines in Portland to the TD Garden. 

The most noticeable Maine Celtics coaching alum is now the face of the operation down in Boston: Head Coach Joe Mazzulla. But before he became the leader of one of the sport’s most iconic franchises, Mazzulla honed his craft all over New England, starting in his home state of Rhode Island. 

A native of Johnston, R.I., Joe is the son of a local basketball legend and Bryant University Hall of Famer, Dan Mazzulla. As a player, Joe won three state titles at Bishop Hendricken in Warwick before spending five years playing college basketball at West Virginia. Mazzulla graduated into the coaching ranks himself two years after helping the Mountaineers reach the Final Four in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, working two seasons in the Division II ranks before earning a spot on the Maine Red Claws bench for the 2016-17 season. 

There, Mazzulla began his trajectory towards becoming the Celtics’ head coach. In his lone season on the Maine bench, Mazzulla saw head coach Scott Morrison win 2015 D-League Coach of the Year and was a part of the franchise’s first playoff series victory, a 2-1 first round win over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Though he would leave the organization for two years to gain head coaching experience at Fairmont State, he returned as an assistant, but this time it was in Boston under Brad Stevens. Less than two years later, and Mazzulla was ushered in as the franchise’s new head coach. Since then, Boston has compiled a regular season record of 121-43. 

The Celtics organization has been resoundingly successful developing talent in Maine – Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta, to name a few examples – but that doesn’t only apply to players. Boston’s Director of Player Development, Craig Luschenat, has been a part of the development of many Celtics players in recent years, all while developing in his own right. 

The Boston-born Luschenat attended Andover High School, being named a Merrimack Valley Conference All-Star and continuing his playing career at St. Joseph’s College in Standish. Luschenat came from humble beginnings in the Celtics organization, starting as an operations intern and helping with community events during the summer. It wasn’t long before his basketball acumen began to shine through, as he quickly joined the coaching staff in the following years. By 2023, he earned a spot as a player development coach on the Boston bench. Dedication to incremental improvement and drive to not only achieve, but sustain success are tenets of the Celtics organization; few embody that better than Luschenat. 

Working alongside Luschenat are a pair of coaches from the 2022-23 Maine staff: Ross McMains and Alex Merg.  

McMains, a New Hampshire native that spent part of his childhood in New Zealand, got his starting in coaching with the New Zealand Breakers of the NBL in 2007. Having worked for various G League, college and international teams before landing in Maine last year as the associate head coach, McMains was most recently an assistant coach for the University of Louisville. Back in 2016, he won NZNBL’s Coach of the Year Award as head coach of the Taranaki Mountainairs and parlayed that into a video coordinator position for the New York Knicks. Like Luschenat, McMains focuses on player development, working on the court with players during practice to ensure they’re fully prepared for any situation thrown at them in-game. It took just one season for McMains to leave an impression and work his way up the organizational ladder. 

Same as McMains, Merg also joined the Maine staff last year. Serving as a back-bench assistant in 22-23, Merg has a keen eye for analytics and statistical trends, which pairs well with a development coach’s mindset. The Greendale, Wis. native played at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he was a part of two Division III national championship teams. After that, Merg got similar start to Luschenat, in that he worked from the ground upwards – he utilized his writing acumen as a certified public accountant, and even made a brief foray into NBA blogging years ago. Ever since, the former hooper has been steadily rising through the coaching ranks. Merg only passed through Maine, spending one year on the staff before earning a promotion to a similar role with Boston, but the perspective he brought last year contributed to just the second 30-win season in franchise history. 

Though it’s not the same path Mazzulla, Luschenat, McMains and Merg followed, fellow player development coach Phil Pressey also has ties to Maine – just as a former Red Claws player instead of as coach. The son of former NBA player Paul Pressey, Phil was an acclaimed college player at Missouri in the early 2010s, latching on with the Boston Celtics as a rookie undrafted free agent in 2013. Two years later, Pressey made a single appearance with Maine, dropping 34 points, seven rebounds and nine assists on Feb. 5, 2015, a 101-96 loss to the Iowa Energy. Once his playing career ended, Pressey spent one season as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, and then made the switch to the NBA franchise where it all began nearly a decade prior. 

Success comes in many forms in the G League; winning always comes first, but developing your craft and making the step up to the NBA can constitute success as well. For the Maine Celtics, it’s rewarding to see former players take the court this time of year as they try and help their team win a championship. It can be equally rewarding to watch a former coach do the same – especially when so many of them are on the bench for the big club down in Boston.