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Stern is all about $$$. him.
Stern: NBA will discuss resting players
NEW YORK -- Players resting at the end of the regular season will be discussed among NBA executives, though commissioner David Stern doesn't see anything coming of it.
With a healthy LeBron James set to miss his fourth straight game Wednesday night, Stern said he is putting the matter on the agenda for the board of governors meetings Thursday and Friday in New York.
"We're troubled by it, because it would be our preference that healthy players play," the commissioner said during his annual pre-playoffs conference call.
"But sometimes players play at different levels of being nicked or bruised and we never wanted to get into the business of sending out truckloads of doctors analyzing whether a player was actually nicked or bruised, and we understand the issue," he said.
However, it sounds as if it will be left up to the teams to decide if they want their stars playing in meaningless games at the end of the regular season.
"I think it's a fair item for discussion," Stern said. "I'm not sure that the policing function is something that the league and the owners will want to get deeply involved in, but it's a point and I'll be expressing my views to the governors in the executive session."
Stern added he will talk to the Chicago Bulls' representative to the board to get a better idea of what happened between coach Vinny Del Negro and vice president John Paxson. Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that Paxson shoved Del Negro twice in the chest and had to be restrained in a confrontation over Joakim Noah's minutes after a March 30 home game against the Phoenix Suns.
"If it happened -- if it happened -- it's not something that should and we'll be talking to Chicago about that," said Stern, who couldn't predict if there would be any league punishment.
"I don't have our entire list of what we've done, but my guess is over the years we have taken action of some kind if teams engage in conduct that's detrimental to the league," Stern said. "I want to understand better, exactly how detrimental this was and what actually occurred."
Stern watched as the issue of healthy players sitting out was debated at the end of last season's NFL regular season. The NFL is now trying to schedule as many division games as possible in the final two weeks of the 2010 season in hopes of more meaningful contests that will eliminate the issue.
Now Stern's league has to decide if it faces the same problem.
The Cavaliers haven't played James since clinching the NBA's best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. While fans in Atlanta, where Cleveland plays Wednesday, would likely prefer to see the league's MVP, the Cavs have plenty of reason not to play him.
The Boston Celtics' le defense was ruined last year when Kevin Garnett missed the postseason, and late-season injuries this season to the Milwaukee Bucks' Andrew Bogut and Portland Trail Blazers' Brandon Roy will hurt their playoff chances.
"We watch and look at the risks of always playing, like a Brandon Roy, who did play on Sunday and was injured," Stern said. "But our inclination is that this is a matter of the teams to look at and look their fans in the face. To look their compe ive colleagues in the face and make, hopefully, the right decision."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5088363
Stern is all about $$$. him.
w....t.....f
NFL style playoffs would reduce the number of occurrences where a playoff or potential playoff team has nothing to play for...
he's trying to get the fans what they pay to see..... just like the nfl
It's his job to be all about the money.
lebron is a baby. "I WANNA REST!!!!!!!!" if i were the cleveland front office, id say "i pay your check, you will play when youre healthy. youve never had injury issues, so we dont want you rusty for the playoffs, you will play. its not the fault of exhaustion that you choked against the magic. threaten to leave, i give a . if you cant give us a le, you. welll suck for 4 years, then draft another half-schooled re that sells our tickets."
lebron feels en led to special treatment, and im sick of it.
teams that have the option to rest their best players and the records to afford it, deserve it.
His coach is telling him rest because he carried his team. I doubt that Lebron asked for this rest.
The simple solution is to cut the rigorous schedule of 82 games down to 60 or so.. that would get rid of the many back to backs .. shouldn't ever be a B2B game IMO
To me, this is a non-issue. The teams should be allowed to do what is in THEIR interest. This is sort of a makeup for them having no say in players playing for NTs.
Frankly, if this is mandated, teams would just flat out lie and say player 'X' has a mild ankle sprain, sustained in practice.
So he rather have his star players play a meaningless game, possibly get hurt and miss the playoffs?
Makes sense.
Yup...and it's my job to tell him to go himself.
/threadSo he rather have his star players play a meaningless game, possibly get hurt and miss the playoffs?
Makes sense.
It would be impossible to police the 'players sitting out games at the end of regular season" scenario.
Every sport has situations where the team deems it necessary to sit/rest players. How would the league possibly police this?
Which players would be the ones where it is deemed they have to play if healthy? All Stars? All NBA players? Regular starters in the league? What about top 6th men players?
Like someone said earlier, teams would just come up with ficticious reasons why a player is sitting, like a sprained pinky finger or something like that.
What if a player is playing like crap, and the coach benches him? (for example, Sasha Vujicic)
I remember many years back, when the Lakers didn't bring Magic, Worthy, Byron Scott on a road trip for the final game of year against the Portland Trailblazers (the Lakers had already clinched best record in the league), and the Lakers got blown out. The league fined the Lakers for that.
I can see Sterns point of view. if you are a fan paying money to see certain stars and they are sitting out even when they are healthy then you are not getting what you paid for. if its your first NBA game and you are going to see LeBron James or Kobe, or even if its your first Spurs game and you want to see Manu or Tim, only to find out they are resting, well then iam pretty sure you would be upset about it.
its kinda like going to a concert and finding out the main act is going to sit this one out because they have a bigger gig tomorrow. similarly in the NBA, its not fair to those who are paying to see compe ive basketball.
then you have the teams point of view where if a player like LeBron, Kobe, Manu, Tim get hurt on in the last game then it completely blows their chances of a championship. everything they had worked hard for, to get the #1 seed out the window.
its a tough call.
82 games is simply too much. While I enjoy 6 months of non-stop basketball to watch, the schedule is exhausting on most of the players and increases the chances of injuries.
I understand that the more games are played, the more money comes in, but if you have league pass, you can watch that it also produces some awful streches of games between lottery teams tanking with half-empty arenas.
I guess a schedule of 60 games or so would keep things more interesting for everybody.
If you want to watch LeBron, and his 30 national TV appearances aren't enough, buy ing League Pass. It's not a hard call. It's not difficult. Teams should be able to act in their own interests.
How bout 10 fewer games a year and best of 5 in first round
the NBA is a successful endeavor, people desire to watch NBA games and players, how is reducing it (teams or games) the solution to anything?
the regular season just needs to mean more, you shouldn't let over 50% of the teams into the playoffs, and there needs to be more incentive to be the top team out of the regular season, so give 2 teams a buy, only let 6 in (per conference)
I know plenty of people who can play bball at the rec center or the park 3-5 times a week just fine, and these guys aren't necessarily in shape, don't get paid, have a day job, and don't sub out, etc.
so you're saying NBA players are just bunch of gigantic pussies?
NBA play is at a level so far above your average "rec center" game, it's not even comparable. The physical toll on NBA players is enormous. It's not easy to play those 82 games, let alone the additional games in the playoffs, where the intensity is even greater still.
are you ing stupid? the cavs front office and coaching staff are the ones saying to rest LeBron for the playoffs. your blind hate and snobbery is the worst of its kind.
I'm sure they know what they're getting into when they sign that multimillion dollar contract, and to my knowledge, none of them have turned it down or negotiated a lesser deal for fewer games...
In fact, I'm pretty sure a majority of NBA players would be more than willing to play 10% more games for 10% more money...
Which would equal 20% worse games.
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