Joe Mazzulla clarifies his stance on wanting the NBA to allow fighting and add a power play
"We have to be OK with a little conflict."
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla answered some follow up questions about his recent comments that the NBA should allow a power play and bring back fighting during his pregame press conference ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup against the Pacers.
“We’re the only fluid sport that doesn’t have it,” Mazzulla said in a video taken by The Boston Globe‘s Gary Washburn. “I think field hockey, lacrosse, water polo, soccer has a blue card, hockey. We’re the only one that doesn’t have a power play.”
Earlier this week, during a radio interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Mazzulla was asked about some comments made by FS1’s Nick Wright.
Wright said NBA teams’ over-reliance on 3-point shooting has made the product boring and that the league should consider making two-point shots worth three points, three-point shots worth four, and dunks worth three.
In response, Mazzulla said that adding a power play and changing the rules around fighting would make the product more entertaining.
Instead of taking the ball out on the side, he said, have a player who committed a foul go on the other side of half court and stay there for several seconds.
“Yeah, he would go in a box,” Mazzulla said. “Or you go on the other side of halfcourt in a circle.”
Mazzulla also said that he didn’t understand why players in certain sports are allowed to clear benches while basketball players are not.
He explained Wednesday that he wasn’t advocating for fighting to be legalized and that his take has more to do with the way fouls are called.
“I didn’t say legalize it,” Mazzulla said. “I just said allow people to express themselves.”
Mazzulla brought up a play that occurred during a game between the Bucks and Nets earlier this week as an example. Milwaukee guard Pat Connaughton was whistled for a flagrant foul after hitting Dennis Schroeder in the head while going after a loose ball.
“Fighting doesn’t necessarily mean a punch. I don’t condone violence,” Mazzulla said. “I just thing the physicality has become — if you look at the play that Pat Connaughton got a Flagrant 1 for, that’s not a flagrant foul. It’s more stuff like that. We have to be OK with a little conflict, that’s how I would say it.”
Mazzulla pointed to a scene from the recent Netflix documentary “The Comeback,” which chronicles the Red Sox’ triumph over the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, as support for his argument that allowing conflict can have a positive impact on a team.
In the scene, Pedro Martinez points to his head after hitting Alfonzo Soriano and Derek Jeter with fastballs in retaliation for Roger Clemens drilling Kevin Millar.
The message was to remember the consequences of hitting his teammates.
“Sent them both in the same ambulance to the hospital,” Martinez said in the documentary. “I was pretty much the shield for every one of my players.”
Mazzulla pointed to his head as he brought his point home.
“I think that breeds teamwork,” Mazzulla said. “I think that breeds ‘I’ve got your back.’ I think that breeds togetherness. I think there’s a lot of things that go into that, but I think we’ve gone a little bit the other way.”
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