Mazzulla’s wild NBA rules proposals include power plays, in-game fights that originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
There are few minds that work like Joe Mazzulla’s. So as you might expect, the wheels immediately started turning when the Boston Celtics head coach was asked Tuesday about rule changes he would like to see in the NBA.
Marc Bertrand, co-host of The Sports Hub’s 98.5 Zolak and Bertrandbegan the exchange Tuesday by asking Mazzulla what he thought about a radical proposal to eliminate the three-point corner by having the three-point line end about seven feet above the baseline.
Mazzulla responded with an even more radical proposal: a power play.
“Basketball is one of the few sports where there is no power play,” Mazzulla said, as seen in the video player above. “…Let’s say you get a technical foul, or a take-foul, you get that one chance, but you don’t really get rewarded for it because if you miss it, you don’t get the reward for taking the foul .
“So there should be a power play where if you make a taking foul or a technical foul you have to play five against four for five seconds or three passes.”
In hockey, players have to go to a penalty area for two minutes while their team plays with shorthand. Mazzulla would like to see a similar setup in basketball, but with a shorter time frame and the player serving his “punishment” on the other side of the court.
“I think we need to introduce power plays where, instead of taking the ball out to the side, if you commit a foul, the player goes to the other side of the half court and only crosses the half court circle after three seconds.’ said Mazzulla.
That’s a pretty creative proposition, even if it’s unlikely the NBA will consider such a drastic change anytime soon. But we imagine commissioner Adam Silver would choose Mazzulla’s power play over the coach’s other suggestion to change the rules.
“The biggest thing we’re robbing people of from an entertainment standpoint is not being able to fight anymore,” Mazzulla said. ‘We have to bring back the fight.
“I mean, if you want to talk about robbing the entertainment league, what’s more fun than a little scuffle? How come they’re allowed to clear the benches in baseball? How come they’re allowed to (fight) in hockey? And every time someone gets clubbed, you don’t have to go to the monitor to see if a crime has been committed.”
If you know anything about Mazzulla, this is extremely on-brand for the Celtics coach, who regularly practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu and enjoys martial arts.
“I just don’t understand why some sports are allowed to leave the benches,” Mazzulla added. “They have bats and weapons. We don’t, we just have a ball. I mean, the other sport has one of the hardest playing instruments on the surface: a puck and sticks, and yet we’re not allowed to throw a little bit down.” bit?”
No word on whether Mazzulla will be invited to the next NBA rules committee meeting, but we’d pay to see him pitch some of these ideas to Silver and Co.
