You would think that after winning the NBA championship earlier this year, it would probably be a good idea not to change the way the game is played too much.
But Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pitched some pretty wild ideas to switch up the game of hoops — and it sounds like he might have attended a Bruins game or two during his time in Beantown.
Mazzulla joined Boston’s Zolak & Bertrand radio show on Tuesday and was asked if he had any rules he’d like to add or change in the NBA — and he seemed pretty excited to talk about it.
“Oh, I love this!” Mazzulla began. “Hey, I mean, basketball is one of the only sports that doesn’t have a power play.
“I think soccer just put in the ‘blue card’ where a guy has to go off and it’s a 10 on 9. Like we should have a power play.”
Mazzu;la went on to explain how there’s not a big enough punishment against teams that are assessed a technical foul.
“Let’s say you have a technical or let’s say you get a take foul and you get the one shot, but you’re not really rewarded for that because, if you miss it, you don’t get the reward for that take foul,” he said.
“So, there should be like a power play where on a take foul or on a technical, you have to play five on four for five seconds or three passes.”
While short power plays in the game of hoops may be a passable idea to the league if it wants to change things up, Mazzulla’s next pitch to make the game more entertaining would face more of an uphill battle.
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Mazzulla thinks that the game of basketball would benefit from allowing players to fight.
“I think the biggest thing that we rob people from as an entertainment standpoint is you can’t fight anymore,” Mazzulla said. “I wish you could bring back fighting. I mean, you want to talk about robbing the league of entertainment. What’s more entertaining than when there is a little scuffle?”
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While there have been plenty of spirited scraps on the hardwood in the past, many have been notable for how awful they’ve been. There’s also the inherent injury risk, which only is heightened in a sport where players aren’t wearing any padding and can’t afford to injure their hands and fingers as much.
And, for the record, the NHL has seen a decrease in fisticuffs over the past few seasons.
The league saw 311 fights across 1,312 regular-season games in 2023-24, according to hockeyfights.com. That number dropped from the 334 of 2022-23 and 331 in 2021-22.
This season, heading into Wednesday’s games, the NHL has seen 35 fights through 154 contests for an average of 0.23 per game, putting the pace at 298 for the 2024-25 campaign.
On the hardwood, Mazzulla’s Celtics have started off their title defence on the right foot. At 4-0, Boston is one of three remaining undefeated teams going into their game against the Pacers in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.