How Joe Mazzulla, Celtics helped one superfan beat cancer: “Whatever it takes”

Days before the Boston Celtics began their 2024 championship run, longtime Celtics superfan Craig Morency received terrible news: he had colon cancer.

“It’s a very isolating experience – so scary,” Morency, who is a father to two young girls, told CelticsBlog. “So, I leaned into the things I love to distract me from that fear.”

The Celtics – a lifelong source of joy – were near the top of that list. For years, he never missed a game, even the most inconsequential ones. Now, he was counting on his favorite basketball team to help keep him going during the most difficult time of his life.

The operation to remove the tumor was scheduled for the same day as a Celtics’ second-round playoff game against the Cavaliers, and fittingly, Morency’s first words after waking up were:

“Did we win?”

The Celtics had lost decisively, dropping Game 2 at home to the Cavs by 24 points. And, following the operation, the 40-year-old received more difficult medical news.

The cancer had spread beyond what doctors initially believed. Now, treatments would also include months of chemotherapy.

Still, he continued to tune into the conference semi-finals and was pleased to see the Celtics rattle off three straight victories to win the series against the Cavs.

After the Celtics’ Game 5 win, which sent them to the Eastern Conference Finals, Morency heard Joe Mazzulla say something offhand in a postgame press conference that hit him deeply.

“If you want to win, you’ve got to do whatever it takes.”

Whatever it takes.

“Everybody wants to win until it’s really time to win,” Mazzulla said in that same presser. “‘Cause then you have to nut up and do a bunch of shit that you don’t want to do.”

In Morency’s case, there was a long list of things he really didn’t want to do. At the top of that list was more chemotherapy sessions, which increasingly made him feel physically sick and emotionally exhausted.

Receiving the news that the cancer was in stage three was devastating. But the very simple concept of ‘whatever it takes’ helped keep things in perspective.

“I just immediately harkened back to thinking about what Mazzulla said. However long it takes, the mission didn’t of surviving cancer didn’t change – it’s just now going to take maybe longer than I thought, and with more adversity than I thought.”

There was another Mazzulla-inspired line that became a guidepost for Morency throughout his journey:

“I get to deal with it.”

In Netflix’s Starting Five documentary, which aired in the fall of 2024 and shadowed the seasons of Jayson Tatum and four other NBA players, an interviewer began to ask Mazzulla about the pressure on Tatum’s plate.

“It seems to me that Jayson has to deal with unfair criticism,” the interviewer began.

“-- Gets to deal with,” Mazzulla immediately interrupted, matter-of-fact. “He gets to deal with it.“

That concept resonated deeply with Morency — it was a privilege to undergo cancer treatment. He knew of many people who did not survive cancer. So, after every session, no matter how sick he felt, he reminded himself that he was incredibly lucky to even have the chance to fight.

“During those dread feelings where it was fueling some extreme depression at times, it was like – no, no, you get to do this chemo treatment,” Morency recalled. “Because there are people who don’t make it to this point, or who don’t find [the cancer] soon enough to still be able to do this.”

And so, he kept fighting.

Morency ultimately credits the Mazzulla mindset – as well as the unconditional support of his family and friends – for helping him power through the most difficult time of his life.

By January of 2024, Morency had completed his initial treatments and traveled to Oklahoma City with his brother, Scott, to watch the Celtics face the Thunder.

He wasn’t out of the woods yet – scans months down the road would ultimately determine if treatments were a success – but twelve sessions of chemo were complete, and it was time to enjoy life as best he could.

That’s when a series of Celtics-themed coincidences and run-ins began.

In Oklahoma City, Morency and his brother attended Sunday morning church ahead of the Celtics’ matinee game against the Thunder. Morency had drifted away from religion throughout the course of his life, but reconnected with his faith upon his diagnosis.

After the church services concluded, the Morency brothers were waiting for their Uber back to the hotel when they saw a familiar face: then-Celtics center Luke Kornet, who was with the team’s director of player development, Craig Luschenat. Morency introduced himself as a diehard Celtics fan and shared with Kornet and Luschenat the special significance behind his trip to OKC, and how Mazzulla and the championship team unknowingly helped him get through his cancer journey.

“They were both just so empathetic – it was like not talking to a professional athlete and a coach, just two human beings,” Morency said.

It was then that Morency and his brother learned that they were actually staying in the same hotel as the Celtics in OKC. A few hours later, the two bumped into Joe Mazzulla and his wife, Camai, in the hotel lobby, and ended up chatting for nearly 15 minutes.

“I got the chance to really explain to him what that championship run had meant to me,” Morency said. “And he just thanked me. He was appreciative that I shared that with him, and both he and his wife very, very genuinely said, ‘We’re gonna pray for you – tell us your name again, we’re gonna pray for you.’”

In April of 2025 – almost a year after his initial diagnosis – Morency finally got the news he had prayed for: he was cancer-free. To celebrate, he and more than 20 of his family and friends — including his beloved wife and kids — made the trip to Boston for a regular-season Celtics game at TD Garden.

As Morency and his family approached the court for warm-ups, he was spotted by Luschenat, who typically helps lead players through their pregame individual work. The Celtics assistant coach remembered every detail of their conversation from months earlier outside of that Oklahoma City church, and he was thrilled to learn that Morency had received the news he hoped for.

Moments later, Kornet came over as well, signing all of his family’s merch, taking photos, and expressing elation at the news.

Then, Morency and his family and friends went upstairs to their suite, which had been secured for the special night.

As tip-off neared, he unexpectedly saw Joe Mazzulla by the upstairs suites. It was an unusual place for the head coach to be so soon before game time.

It was also a weird deja vu because for the second time, just a few hours after bumping into Kornet and Luschenat, Morency and his brother ran into the Celtics’ head coach.

Fittingly, this time, Morency was wearing a “Whatever It Takes” T-shirt. He didn’t want to take too much time out of Mazzulla’s pregame obligations, but he did want to quickly relay the message that he was cancer-free.

Mazzulla vividly remembered his interaction with Morency in the OKC lobby, and Morency thanked him for helping instill in him the mindset to fight Stage 3 cancer.

“He got genuinely emotional,” Morency recalled. “And he was like, ‘Thank you. I really needed to hear that. Thank you for telling me that.’”

Needless to say, the Celtics’ 2025 season didn’t conclude at the mountaintop the way that the 2024 season did. Rather than win a title, the Celtics lost in the second round of the playoffs against the New York Knicks and saw Jayson Tatum suffer a ruptured Achilles tendon. Morency was also saddened to see key players from the Celtics rotation — like Kornet — depart in the offseason.

But he’s eternally grateful to have the most difficult year of his life behind him.

And, he’s looking forward to tuning into every game this season, regardless of how competitive this Celtics team ends up being.

When he looks back on his cancer battle, Morency said he’ll always be grateful to Mazzulla for instilling in him a fighter’s mindset – and for genuinely hearing him out on a human level when the two coincidentally met — once in OKC, after the completion of his treatments, and once back in Boston, after receiving the positive health news.

The phrase ‘bigger than basketball’ has become a tired cliche.

But, in Morency’s case, that’s exactly what the Celtics became in 2024.

“I hope [Joe] knows, and these guys know the impact that they have on fans,” Morency said. “I think it’s so easy to drown in criticism just based on your results on the court.”

“But, it’s just so much more than that.”

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