Jrue Holiday supports Joe Mazzulla’s pro-fighting stance in basketball
"Get your paws ready, all right?"
Joe Mazzulla is no stranger to making headlines with his candid comments and unorthodox musings.
But the Celtics head coach did create quite a stir across the NBA when he acknowledged on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand” that he wished the league sanctioned fighting — much in the same vein as sports like hockey.
“The biggest thing that we rob people of from an entertainment standpoint is, you can’t fight anymore,” Mazzulla stressed. “We should bring back fighting. If you want to talk about robbing the league of entertainment, what’s more entertaining than a little scuffle?
“You get to go to a baseball game — how come in baseball they’re allowed to clear the benches? How come in hockey they’re allowed to? I don’t understand.”
Mazzulla’s comments drew plenty of reaction across the NBA, with noted on-court pugilist Draymond Green saying that fighting in the league would likely get him in trouble, regardless.
“I get what Joe is trying to get at. Moreso what he’s saying is the intensity and the (expletive) talking and guys getting tested,’ Green said on his podcast. “We take so much of that out of the game today, so I think that’s what he’s getting at.”
“But, like actual physical fights, Joe, I’m here to petition against you and say ‘no, we’re not doing that’ because where that almost led me, my man, Green added. “I don’t want none of that. I’m cool. Y’all can have the fighting. I’m going to leave that to Joe. Joe you go fight. Smokin’ Joe.”
Green may not endorse Mazzulla’s scrappy approach, but Celtics guard Jrue Holiday backed up his head coach while appearing on FanDuel’s “Run It Back” on Thursday.
“Look, I’m with it. I’m with it,” Holiday said. “Get your paws ready, all right? If we gotta get in the boxing gym, if we gotta get in the ring. You know Joe does jiu-jitsu so I really think he’s ready but to his point, back in the ’90s and the early 2000s like when people was scrapping and throwing hands, it was pretty entertaining. … I’m too old for that, but other people can have that.”
While the NBA clearly doesn’t want a repeat of the “Malice in the Palace” breaking out any time soon, scraps after hard fouls were commonplace in the NBA during the ‘80s and ‘90s — as evidenced whenever the Celtics and the “Bad Boys” Pistons duked it out during that stretch.
Even if Mazzulla’s hopes of seeing more skirmishes break out on the hardwood likely aren’t happening, Holiday stressed that he doesn’t expect his coach to change his tune.
“Joe, he’s him,” Holiday explained. “He’s gonna be like that in film. He’s gonna be like that while we’re going through schemes and plays. But he’s genuine and he’s genuinely himself and I think that when you know him, you can tell that he really cares and he really cares for people. He really cares about Celtics basketball.
“From the day I got here, he made it known what this was about; it was about being a Celtic and the legacy and winning championships and hanging banners.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com