Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has severed ties with Life Surge after investigative reporting exposed the organization’s alleged predatory sales tactics at its faith-based wealth seminars.
Mazzulla spoke at a Life Surge event in Portland, Maine, last September and was booked for another in Hartford on October 17. He told the Boston Globe he has withdrawn completely. “Once these allegations came out, I just completely backed out of it,” Mazzulla said. “I’m not showing up there and obviously don’t support any of the allegations or things that they’re accused of.”
The move follows Tim Tebow’s decision to pause his own relationship with the company. Tebow, who had been scheduled for roughly twenty Life Surge appearances in 2026 at fees reportedly between $50,000 and $100,000 per event, said his team would investigate the claims.
Life Surge runs one-day arena events that combine Christian speakers, worship music, and motivational content with a clear sales funnel. Cheap entry tickets lead to three-day “Impact Classes” and then to expensive SurgeU programs on stock trading and real estate. Attendees have reported high-pressure tactics, including suggestions to tap 401(k)s, take home equity loans, or use credit card stacking through a partner broker that offers zero-interest cards before shifting to high rates once the promotional period ends. The reporting, led by Pablo Torre and Mother Jones’ Kiera Butler, documented attendees left with substantial debt.
Evangelical Dark Web covered the Torre investigation the day it broke, noting that Life Surge is a rebranded version of the earlier Get Motivated operation run by founder Joe Johnson. That earlier venture used similar speaker-driven events to sell courses from Online Trading Academy, which faced an FTC settlement in 2012 requiring debt forgiveness for thousands of victims. The pattern—low-cost events fronted by recognizable Christian and sports figures funneling people into high-margin financial products—remains consistent.
Life Surge has pushed back hard. In a statement, the organization said it “strongly disagrees with the characterization of our company presented in recent reporting. We will not apologize for who we are, what we believe, or the work we do.”
Mazzulla’s exit adds to the list of figures distancing themselves. Other speakers listed on the Life Surge site have included Priscilla Shirer, Craig Groeschel, Sadie Robertson Huff, Candace Cameron Bure, Chris Tomlin, and members of the Duck Dynasty family. Whether more follow Tebow and Mazzulla remains to be seen.
