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Pop should be fined. You can't just sit people if they are in good enough shape to play. Sure the schedule sucks, but every team has some games that are hard schedule wise.
It's a big F.U. to Stern and the schedulers who always favor the big market teams so i'm always a huge fan when Pop does this.
Pop should be fined. You can't just sit people if they are in good enough shape to play. Sure the schedule sucks, but every team has some games that are hard schedule wise.
It's a delicate balance. Most compe ive players (and coaches) are concerned about one thing: winning. Entertaining the fans is a secondary byproduct to that; people watch to see their team try to win.
I know that doesn't jive with Stern's responsibility of making the league profitable, and quite honestly: I personally don't care. He's already skewed the league towards the major markets in the name of profitability. At some point, he needs to realize this is a sport, not a show. If people want a show, they should go to a movie or Broadway or WWF.
Every team can also rest their players if they want to during those games.
Tbh, Stern screwed himself with one of the most unbalanced schedules I've ever seen. You can't have the old Spurs playing four in five nights and have the Heat playing the their first game in five nights and expect Pop to not at least consider pulling some sort of shenanigans. The schedule-maker needs to update his software if that type of unbalance is even allowed to be spit out.
Regarding Stern's reaction, I think Bruno is partially right. In the past, Stern has told coaches and front office people that have moved on from the Spurs organization that they won't be able to get away with the stuff that Pop gets away with. Pop has been grandfathered into being allowed to do things others aren't allowed to do (such as treat media like second-class citizens, refuse to wear a mic at halftime, be short with sideline reporters, shield his players from interviews, hide his practice locations on the road, etc, etc, etc). Stern can't do anything about Pop sitting his players either but you can bet he'll send a memo to the other coaches discouraging the practice.
As far as wondering if Stern will go to Pop directly ... I doubt it. Pop can point to the ridiculous schedule and Stern won't have a response.
Pop = badass
Saw this comment on ESPN.com and thought it was pretty funny:
"The Heat were thinking about giving their 3 most important guys the night off, too, but then there would be no one to ref the game."
They probably flew Tim, Tony, Manu and Green on Southwest to help offset the impact of the upcoming fine......
but how could he ever objectively enforce a rule against it ?
exactly, pop would bring up an even more uncomfortable issue for stern, that of questionable scheduling.
Even funnier would be Pop letting Coach Bud have the game tonight.
LOL that would rule. Maybe Pop will get himself tossed in the first quarter just for good measure.
That would allow Pop to get out of talking to Sager.LOL that would rule. Maybe Pop will get himself tossed in the first quarter just for good measure.
Same problem in soccer with meaningless cup games and a rule in some countries is to have at least a certain number of starter from a game to the next one.
For the nba it could be that you have to play at least 2 or 3 starters from the last game
But it doesn't fix it at all. You can still rest your star duo or even play the stars only one minute...
Failol par per etc
Lets be real, if the Spurs make it to the finals, the refs will be helping the Heat all the way. If OKC thought they got screwed last year, then the Spurs would get worse. It doesn't matter if the Spurs played the Big 3 or not tonight. Might as well protect the team's health and prepare for Memphis, which is the more relative threat at this time.
What is the most problematic for the league isn't that Pop trashed a game, it's that he did it in a prime time nationally televised game.
Making a hard rule to avoid coaches to give DNP-rest to players will be nearly impossible. However, Stern can do at least two things:
- He can give more constraints to the NBA scheduler to avoid teams being tempted to trash a nationally televised game. You can imagine news constraint like "teams can't a play a nationally televised game if it's their 4th game in 5 days or if it's at the end of a b2b with a flight above a certain distance..."
- Stern can talk to the owners and tell them that teams trashing nationally televised games could cost them a lot of money because TV incomes could slip. If they want to keep the league profit at its level, they must keep their coach, one of their employee, away from such moves.
friggin clown. What's wrong with protecting the team's health against the Washington Wizards. It would sting a lot more if one of the big three got injured against a winnless team without their two best players. I think actions speak louder than words. Pop is afraid of the Miami Heat and he doesn't want his team to lose confidence going forward so he took the coward's way out. Green is pretty worthless though. He could take a month off and nobody would notice.
Last edited by Hoops Czar; 11-29-2012 at 06:15 PM.
It isn't just because it was nationally televised, it was a road game and the sell out crowd just pissed away good money to see to elite clubs. Nobody's paying to see De colo and Mills get lit up by Wade and Lebron. I expect a pretty hefty fine.
Long enough.
One of us has a reading comprehension problem, unless the above post means "yes, OV, you were exactly right".
@ESPNSteinLine: RT @JeffZillgitt: Adam Silver in April: "Strategic resting of particular players on particular nights is within the discretion of the teams"
That's what it meant, I was agreeing with you.
Sureeeeeee
Agreed. I don't even think it helps the Spurs. But if Pop really was going to do it. He should have done it against the Raptors or Wizards. Those games mean nothing win or loss.
Why does a win against the Heat mean more than a game against any other eastern conference team?
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