Why the Celtics are embracing a quote from ‘The City’ as a part of their ‘ride-or-die’ mantra within the playoffs

Celtics

“It would not matter what we’re going to get into, we’re going to do it collectively.”

Joe Mazzulla isn’t precisely one to make headline-snagging statements at any time when he takes to the rostrum.

However the Celtics’ first-year head coach did let his postgame apparel do a few of the speaking after Boston blew out the 76ers, 112-88, in Sport 7 on Sunday night.

Whereas fielding questions from the media, Mazzulla donned a Nike sweatshirt with the phrases, “Whose automotive we gonna take?” etched on the entrance. 

After all, Boston-area cinephiles ought to acknowledge the quote instantly as a well-known line from the 2010 movie, “The City.”

The back-and-forth between Ben Affleck’s Doug MacRay and Jeremy Renner’s James Coughlin is acknowledged as one of the crucial quotable traces from a movie set within the Commonwealth, becoming a member of different quips comparable to “How do you want them apples?” and “I’m the man who does his job, you have to be the opposite man.”

However Renner’s retort is greater than only a inventive design for Mazzulla’s new sweatshirt. In response to guard Malcolm Brogdon, it’s a rallying cry for a Celtics workforce shopping for into one widespread aim this postseason.

“I feel it’s ‘Whose automotive are we taking?’ I feel that’s the saying,” Brogdon advised NESN.com’s Sean T. McGuire of the quote. “And it’s principally simply trip or die on your guys, the fellows you’re on the court docket with, the fellows you’re competing with. It’s having the mentality [of] it doesn’t matter what we’re going to get into, we’re going to do it collectively.”

Though Mazzulla hasn’t expanded a lot on the quote in query, he did tip his hand earlier this yr about his affinity for the favored movie about Charlestown financial institution robbers.

Throughout a pregame interview again in January, Brian Scalabrine mentioned that Mazzulla watches the movie “4 instances every week.”

When requested how his frequent viewings of “The City” pertains to the Celtics, Mazzulla answered, “I suppose only a mindset. A Boston mindset.”