Pep Guardiola swaps the Etihad for TD Garden as Manchester City coach sits courtside for NBA Finals Game 1 between Celtics and Mavericks

Pep Guardiola enjoyed the action from the stands instead of the sidelines for once as he soaked up the NBA Finals Thursday night. 

The Manchester City manager is seemingly enjoying putting his feet up amid his break from the Premier League after his team made history with their fourth consecutive title. 

The Spaniard was at TD Garden for the first game of the NBA Finals series between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. 

And it was immediately obvious who Guardiola was rooting for as he sported a Celtics hoodie while he sat courtside. 

The Spaniard has previously spoken on how he has looked to the worlds of both tennis and basketball to understand how to improve his own sides.

'Incredible athletes, [Roger] Federer, [Novak] Djokovic, [Rafa] Nadal,' Guardiola said.

'The biggest dynasties in the NBA . It’s not easy in the NBA to have a team like the Chicago Bulls with [Michael] Jordan. I’m not comparing with that, don’t misunderstand me. The NBA has a lot of clubs with two or three in a row.'

Guardiola had been spotted chatting to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla on Wednesday at the TD Garden with the pair exchanging jerseys. 

Mazzulla, 35, is the youngest head coach since Bill Russell to reach the NBA Finals, with his side set to take on Dallas Mavericks.

On the eve of that clash, the basketball coach was joined on the court at the TD Garden by Guardiola, who was deep in conversation with the American.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager, who has won six Premier League titles and three Champions Leagues during his coaching career, cut an animated figure as he appeared to gesture with his hands at the coach.

We've seen the Spaniard perform similar acts with his players during the 2023-24 season, notably delivering an impassioned coaching talk to Jack Grealish following 0-0 City's draw to Arsenal.

While several members of his team are now set to travel to Germany for this summer's European Championship, Guardiola has jetted over to America to catch up with Mazzulla, after he had welcomed the Basketball coach to the Etihad Campus in February.

On that day, Guardiola was seen chatting to Mazzulla on City's training pitch, with the Premier League football manager again appearing to impart snippets of information to the basketball coach.

A week later, Mazzulla, a big football fan, told The Athletic that Guardiola was 'the best coach at any level in sport.'

'That is what the game of basketball is about, to me, and what counterattacking in soccer is about,' he told the outlet when speaking on how he wants to deploy the same philosophies on his team as Guardiola delivers to Man City.

'So I study a lot of Man City. I study Pep a lot. I think he’s the best coach at any level, in any sport. It’s had a huge influence (on me).'

This week, they were also pictured exchanging their respective team's shirts, with Guardiola holding up a green Celtics' jersey.