{"id":114956,"date":"2024-12-30T11:06:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T16:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=114956"},"modified":"2024-12-30T11:06:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T16:06:58","slug":"rockets-heat-melee-nhl-fighting-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/30\/rockets-heat-melee-nhl-fighting-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Rockets-Heat Melee Lead To NHL-Like Fighting Penalties?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the aftermath of the melee that ensued towards the end of the Houston Rockets loss to the Miami Heat, multiple players are expected to be suspended. At least one, Rockets two-way playmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompam01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amen Thompson<\/a>, almost certainly will. After getting tied up with Miami\u2019s All-Star hopeful during an inbounds pass, the second-year pro swiftly slammed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/herroty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Herro<\/a> on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Heat veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roziete01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terry Rozier<\/a> immediately rushed the 21-year-old, prompting Rockets star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Green<\/a> to defend his teammate. As the bodies piled up, Herro was circling, his pride seeming to tear him in different directions. Thompson came up unscathed, firing a few choice words at the Kentucky product. Heat defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/highsha01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Haywood Highsmith<\/a> and Rockets rising star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sengual01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alperen Sengun<\/a> were also incensed and had to be restrained.<\/p>\n<h2>Could Rockets-Heat Melee Lead To NHL-Like Fighting Penalties?<\/h2>\n<p>Following the mix-up, Thompson and Herro <a href=\"https:\/\/official.nba.com\/pool-report-on-ejections-in-fourth-quarter-of-tonights-miami-at-houston-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">were both ejected<\/a> for fighting infractions. Green and Rozier were ejected for escalating the situation. Rockets assistant coach Ben Sullivan was also ejected due to crew chief Mark Davis taking exception to his language towards him.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Amen Thompson and Tyler Herro fight \ud83d\udc40 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VGp1KBXzJH\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/VGp1KBXzJH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1873555429797797908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was a wild ending to Sunday night\u2019s slate of games but one that leaves a serious question.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NBA: \u201cWe need more ratings!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>League: Get the cameras ready. Yesterday, a face slap. Today a body slam! \ud83d\ude31 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HddVhxZIFa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/HddVhxZIFa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SpursR\u039ePORT (@SpursReporter) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpursReporter\/status\/1873645266013761706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With NBA players fighting <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/28\/tempers-flare-suns-mavs-brawl-players-react\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">with increasing frequency<\/a>, how should the league respond?<\/p>\n<p>Former NBA commissioner David Stern would\u2019ve probably instituted draconian rules in order to curb the violence. Current NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants the game to be clean as well, so much so that players are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NBAPR\/status\/1873500721771131085\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fined for using expletives<\/a> during live television interviews.<\/p>\n<p>However, when considering the discourse around NBA ratings, perhaps allowing more of that physicality (and drama) should be considered without necessarily being encouraged. One way to accomplish this could be to institute a hockey-style penalty system.<\/p>\n<h3>NBA Penalty Box?<\/h3>\n<p>In a league like the NHL, players are often sent to the penalty box for their adverse reactions.<\/p>\n<p><em>Minor penalties <\/em>lead to players being put in the box for two minutes. <em>Major penalties<\/em>, such as fighting, are all but guaranteed to have them spending five minutes in the box. <em>Misconduct penalties<\/em>, which are for particularly egregious offenses, call for 10 minutes in the penalty box. Players are only ejected for <em>game misconduct penalties<\/em>, which usually occur when an opponent is injured by their actions or if they receive two <em>misconduct penalties<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no need for the NBA to affix a glass box to the bench to adapt these rules. Of course, they could if they want to. However, players could also simply be sent to the bench or locker room for their <em>penalty minutes<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the fight that occurred between the Rockets and Heat, players wouldn\u2019t have been ejected. Nonetheless, with so little time left in the game, their penalties would\u2019ve essentially forced them out of the game. These type of scenarios could help players keep their tempers in check without fear of being severely for a momentary lapse in judgment.<\/p>\n<h3>Ratings Booster<\/h3>\n<p>Instituting a NHL-style rule system might also get fans more get fired up, no matter where they\u2019re at. When players involved in a scuffle come back to the court, the tension will add electricity to the atmosphere. Those types of incidents can also lead to team rivalries, which are also good for a ratings boost.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a fine line between chaos and control that the NBA will need to be conscious of. However, if the league can walk that line as well as hockey skates on it, what\u2019s not to like<\/p>\n<p>The best argument would be that it sets the wrong example of how the game should be played. Yet, frustration and catharsis are part of human nature. Severely punishing players for fighting might not be as worthwhile a message as allowing them to be human but creating rules of engagement when tempers flare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the aftermath of the melee that ensued towards the end of the Houston Rockets loss to the Miami Heat, multiple players are expected to be suspended. At least one, Rockets two-way playmaker Amen Thompson, almost certainly will. After getting tied up with Miami\u2019s All-Star hopeful during an inbounds pass, the second-year pro swiftly slammed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":114981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,31,16],"tags":[4703,3256,427,1896],"class_list":["post-114956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-heat","tag-amen-thompson","tag-jalen-green","tag-terry-rozier","tag-tyler-herro"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114982,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114956\/revisions\/114982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}