Celtics' Joe Mazzulla wants to bring fighting back to the NBA: “What's more entertaining than a little brawl?”

Anyone who follows the NBA regularly knows by now that Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is a strange guy. To me he's weird in a great way. The guy is said to have watched “The Town” two to three times a week at one point in his life, and he has specific thoughts about how to do that actually rob Fenway Parkto the point that he explores exit points when he's at Red Sox games. Honestly, the guy is a sweetheart.

So when Mazzulla appeared on Boston radio and was asked what he would change about the NBA, you knew he wasn't going to give a standard answer. True to his style, Mazzulla explained why the NBA should introduce power plays after fouls to force the attacking team to play man down for an extended period of time, like in hockey.

Oh, and he also wants to “bring back fighting.”

“The biggest thing we're robbing people of from an entertainment perspective is that you can't fight anymore. I wish we would bring fighting back,” Mazzulla said on NBC Sports Boston in a way that certainly didn't sound like he was trying to be funny. “What’s more entertaining than a little brawl? How come they get to clear the benches during baseball? How come they get to fight in hockey? I don't understand. “I just don’t understand why some sports are allowed.” to clear the benches [in baseball]. Not us. We have fun. The other sport [hockey] has one of the hardest playing surfaces and a puck and a stick. And yet we’re not allowed to throw anything down?”

Look, I'm not sure this is such a great idea. I think we can all agree on that. But don't act like there isn't a part of you that gets upset when hockey players drop their sticks. NBA fans are almost universally in favor of bringing some physicality back to the game. Maybe not running around in circles throwing fists, but toughness and competitiveness that lead to arguments in some ways have been common in sports for years. Mazzulla says it still happens in other sports too. It has a certain charm, doesn't it?

Of course, there is real danger here. These are big, strong athletes, and of course you can really get hurt in a real fight (as opposed to the tried-and-true “hold me back” shoving fights of the NBA). Therefore, Mazzula's fighting wishes will never come true.

After the league had to deal with the reputational damage and PR fallout from Malice at the Palace, the NBA never again tolerated anything resembling a fight. Of course, that's the smart thing to do, but that doesn't mean it's still not a fun thought to imagine a world full of hard fouls and the occasional shot on the NBA floor. Joe Mazzulla simply said what many of us were silently thinking. This is a man of the people.