If Adam Silver ever let Joe Mazzulla take over as NBA commissioner, let’s just say the league would look a whole lot different.
Mazzulla made headlines two weeks ago during his weekly radio interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Zolak & Bertrand by proposing that the NBA institute power plays and “bring back fighting.”
But the Boston Celtics head coach has plenty more ideas to change the game — especially when it comes to the NBA Cup. Mazzulla was back on Zolak & Bertrand on Thursday and made the case for expanding the league’s in-season tournament, which is now in its second season.
“I’m sure every sport wants a version of another sport, but I think it’s really cool in soccer and even basketball overseas where you’re playing in three leagues at the same time,” Mazzulla said. “Like, Tuesday is a Cup game but Saturday might be a domestic league game. That shift in psychology and balancing all that is really fun.”
Mazzulla is a big fan of European soccer. He’s admitted to studying Manchester City extensively after they won four consecutive English Premier League titles and has met with the club’s legendary manager, Pep Guardiola, on several occasions.
Clubs in top European leagues compete in several domestic and international tournaments throughout their regular season. Premier League clubs, for example, participate in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup (both domestic) but also can qualify for the UEFA Champions League and Europa League (which pit them against clubs across Europe), all while they compete in traditional league play.
Mazzulla says he’d be on board with a similar model in the NBA.
“It’s always cool studying the games,” Mazzulla said. “You’ll see sometimes (with the) FA Cup or Carabao Cup, it’s like, you still want to win it. Sometimes the superstars do rest, and to me it validates your team, your bench, your roster, it validates that even more.”
“I love the idea of it,” Mazzulla added of potentially having multiple in-season tournaments. “It’s fascinating. Imagine having like three NBA Cups? Like, you’re playing 35 domestic league games and like three other Cup games?”
Mazzulla said prior to Boston’s NBA Cup opener against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday that he’d prefer the NBA Cup games not count toward the regular season and be their own separate tournament. He reiterated that stance Thursday and admitted he’d also like to see the tournaments go international.
“What if you did 72 (regular-season games) and 10 (NBA Cup games), so you have to fill a 10-game tournament?” Mazzulla said. “… That’d be cool if there was like a Champions League in the NBA where you played EuroLeague teams or played teams from different countries. Like, that would be cool, too.”
Mazzulla saved his boldest take for last, however, suggesting the NBA look into the “loan system” that European clubs have where players can go to other clubs “on loan” for a finite period of time before returning to their original squad.
“It’s a good system,” Mazzulla added. “I mean, you get a player on loan — because it prevents situations where you have to put a guy into a trade that you still kind of believe in, but you have to do it. You could loan him.”
It’s hard to see the NBA ever agreeing to that system — imagine having to watch Payton Pritchard play for a rival like the Philadelphia 76ers before returning to Boston? — but as always, Mazzulla deserves points for creativity.
Check out Mazzulla’s full interview in the video player above.