The NBA has very strict rules when it comes to fights during games. Simply put, they are not allowed. Any player who throws a swing is guaranteed to be ejected from the game and almost always faces a suspension. Any player who leaves the bench area during a fight will also be suspended. Marcin Gortat would like to see the fighting rules tweaked quite a bit.
During a very entertaining interview with ESPN.com’s Kyle Weidie, Gortat was asked if there are any rule changes he thinks would help the NBA game.
“I would say I would loosen up a little bit the rules about the fighting fines,” the Washington Wizards center said. “That’s what I would loosen up. Because today you go to an ice hockey game, and the one thing they’re waiting for is a fight, you know what I’m saying? So if they could set it up something like that in the NBA. That if there are two guys and they have a problem, if they could just separate everybody. And these two people that have problem, if they could fight …”
He wasn’t joking.
“Quick, 15-20 seconds, throw few punches, then referees jump in and break this thing up,” Gortat continued. “I think the game … these two guys, they resolved their problem. They’re both suspended and they’re leaving. But end of the day, they fix the problem between each other, fans are super excited, and I think that would be a pretty cool idea [chuckles].”
If Gortat is proposing that players be allowed to fight but get suspended afterword, he’s not really proposing that they be “allowed” to fight. That would simply mean referees don’t make an effort to break anything up and the penalty for a fight remains the same.
Gortat, who is 30 and in his seventh NBA season, is obviously an eccentric guy. As we all know, the fighting thing will never fly. He’ll have to stick to taking his frustrations out on towels.
