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I really thought the NBA was a sport, man was I wrong. I guess that's why I know who the finals match ups are before I know the Wrestlemania main events are
I don't get why the league didn't say "Hey, there were no rules in place for this and it had been totally fine before, but now, we don't like it. So IN THE FUTURE, you'll be fined if you do this."
Makes too much perfect sense I guess?
I really thought the NBA was a sport, man was I wrong. I guess that's why I know who the finals match ups are before I know the Wrestlemania main events are
Because other teams won't be fined if they do it in the future, as they weren't fined when they did it in the past.
I fully believe the league was trying to set up the Spurs with this game, Pop sent them a big FU and Stern flexed his muscles.
I agree about the game seeming like a "set up loss", but I'm not 100% on it being an "FU" to the league. I think it's more a matter of, "well obviously we're handicapped this game, so it, let's just chalk it up as a loss and get our bench some time and use the game as a glorified practice". Pretty damn good practice imo too. The Austin Toros nearly beat the NBA champs in a legit game.
What kills me is, that sorta thing should've been celebrated as an amazing underdog performance. Some type of you'd see in a movie. Like in Major League: Back to the Minors, where the minor league baseball team plays the big league Twins team and wins. Instead, Stern s on it because it isn't what he wanted. him tbh. Can't wait for him to retire.
This game was to be a passing of the torch, so to speak, an exit of the Tim Duncan/SA Spurs era of low ratings and glaringly absent Spurs players in NBA, TNT and ESPN promos and the entrance of champions who are also popular and sell things. The league that built itself around two franchises going head to head for decades didn't readily welcome in other participants. Now you have a 4 time champion SA Spurs who, by reading the article, you would think would be featured on major sports outlets in NY and LA, but they aren't. Even league promos don't often feature them, oh you might see Tim's face in the back of some promo just as a token appearance. Joe Johnson gets more play and we know he's been ruling the league for years.
The ESPN power rankings front page photo had the usual suspects but no Spurs players, even when the Spurs were number 1 in the rankings. If it's about promotion of the best players, someone else isn't holding up their end of the deal. However, it's not about promoting the best players. It's about promoting the most popular players (which seems redundant) and it shouldn't even be about individual talent anyhow. Basketball is a team sport and that's never been practiced more than in San Antonio with the Spurs franchise. I can understand media outlets focusing on individuals, but the NBA should focus on teams. They don't unless your team is the Lakers. The NBA is going the way of reality TV, with focus more on drama than on the compe ion of the game. They are being helped along by media outlets who also want ratings. Instead of offering great basketball and the media reporting it, the NBA is becoming a puppet to the media; the cart is now in front of the horse. Stern opens his mouth to the media before any consultation with the league office or the Spurs office, then Pop gets a front page ESPN layout and article that even 4 rings couldn't get him. He would have been 2nd or 3rd story had they won the ring last year, just behind Howard's decision and Lamar Odom's reality TV show.
This is something many Spurs fans (especially here) don't even raise an eyebrow about, but then when suddenly the league commissioner pretends the Spurs big 3 are prime time TV at it's finest, the obvious should be stated.
But it's not about what Pop did. It's about who he did it to. He did it to TNT, Lebron James and DWade, three of the biggest money makers for the league.
Should Pop have been fined? Maybe, but he should have been given that ultimatum at the beginning of the season, or even during the extended lockout last season. The league has time to appoint a committee to study flops but not time to inform franchises of the fine lines of resting players?
It's going to get very interesting come April.
Stern needs to retire now! All the bull is building up on him. The majority of the people disagrees with his latest stunt and they also disagree with almost everything he does lately. How is he is going to fine a team that play and operate with the highest of standards for something that is a legal practice anyway? Very shady. It makes you question everything he has done in the past. I really believe he has tried really herd in the last 5 years to keep the Spurs from reaching the Finals. Hes all about marketing and money and the league has failed the Spurs when it comes to marketability. The Spurs are the model franchise for all sports but for some reason they are not even as marketable as the Denver Nuggets. That is a shame! The Spurs has the greatest power forward of all time in Tim Duncan and two of the most engaging and creative players in Ginobili and Parker. Just because they dont go out and get a million endorsement deals, beat there wives, on their fans, get caught with drugs, fight on or off the court, or scream and beat their chest after every dunk or layup, somehow they are not marketable. The NBA tries so hard to get the next Jordan, Kobe or Lebron that they quit caring about the ones who deserve the attention as well. Stern!
pretty solid overall take.
if Stern has one gift, it's the same gift that Jerry Jones has, is they know how to create a circus and trainwreck for casual viewers. They definitely live by the old adage, "bad publicity is still good publicity" or whatever the saying goes. So this is why both Jerry and Stern don't create good teams or products, but they know how to draw in viewers to stupid drama.
Which is why Stern loves him some Lakers. What's better than a circus than having actual celebrity bags watching, since our culture is obsessed with celebs, reality TV etc...
Spurs are really the an hesis of that. Holt and Pop seem, imo, to be about building something that can run as efficient as possible, which makes so much sense from a business and basketball perspective. Our focus on the game and being professionals seems to fly in the face of what Stern is trying to market. And I hate to say it, but our finals ratings seem to be pushing his point.
Now you could argue that if Stern wasn't a ringleader of a circus, he'd do a better job promoting teams like the Spurs. that's what Woj was arguing, that the failure of our marketability rests more on Stern.
As for me, I do think this was an FU by Pop, so in that sense I could see why the Napeleonic Stern got butthurt about it. But once again, Stern goes for the ridiculous drama angle by going overboard. He's created so many issues and paradoxes with this fine, and I think Pop knew that, which is why everyone is laughing at Stern for it. But as much as I despise Stern, he probably figures as long as people are talking, it's good for his vision of the league, similar to Jones.
Pop plays the long game. He'll bide his time to see what develops. He's not worried.
Didn't violate any policy but he should be fined more. A-grade journalism
Nothing is going to change in April. Stern made it clear that the fact it was early in the season was a factor. I get the feeling he's never really liked it in April but tolerated it since playoffs are so close.
Same fans pay in April. The only difference is that matchups aren't marquee like they are this time of year.
Stern is playing a dangerous game. He should use that opportunity to set and define boundaries instead of just ad hoc fine slinging to appease TV execs.
The NBA under Stern has valued "personalities", dunks, bling, and general excess. The NBA product gets very tired because there are so many teams most of which play horrible Team basketball. Whats left? Individuals and their excesses.
This is not a league that values TEAM or quality of product. It values the shallow show and quan y of product. It does not work anymore. The Celtics and Showtime Lakers who actually played Team basketball with star quality are gone. The Spurs are a Team without players who thrive on excesses given to individuals.
Which is why I love watching these Spurs. It would be even better with a 50 game season and only 4 teams from each conf. making the playoffs. But because of the shallow nature the league is built on, we get hyped excess in every way. Pop is not resting people with a 50 game season... and a real chance of not making the playoffs until we have actually accomplished the task.
Stern is old and tuned in to old ways. Goodbye and thank you. Now go and eat 80 giant bowls of lettuce. And pretend it tastes wonderful. Thank the chef, tell him its the best food you have ever eaten until the next bowl. Its the Stern NBA way.
When I go to a home game for my team in whatever sport I follow I could not give a e about who the other team plays or leaves home. Show me a single Miami fan that has lost sleep over the big 3 and DG not being present.
The "disservice" to the NBA as a sport, and not as a mere business, is done any time Joey Crawford and Bill Kennedy set their feet on a basketball court.
Notably in playoffs.
Stern wanted Durant and James in the finals. He got what he wanted.
Period.
The "disservice" to the league as a sport, and not a mere business, is done anytime a Gasol ends up in LA for nothing, a Howard ends up in LA, again for essentially nothing, a Paul ends up, once and for all in LA, for a bit more than nothing plus a miraculous draft the following year.
Now the Stern guy is bringing it to a whole new level: a coach/franchise can be fined even he/it did not break any rule.
There are two questions which are relevant here.
What did this "journalist" write, when all the above mentioned facts happened?
Is he on the NBA payroll -which would be fine with me- or is he a complete idiot?
I'd pay someone to choke that ass-clown, John Smallwood.....
............it was a joke man.
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