I am okay with giving a guy some rest here and there, but isn't sitting 4 of your top 5 players in the same game a different story? If allowed, doesn't it set a bad precedent when teams start doing this later in the season in games that have playoff implications?
Teams both good and bad have been resting key players late in the season for games that have playoff implications for years. Why should the NBA punish the Spurs for what it has allowed every team to do forever without penalty?
San Antonio vs. Stern: Making Sense of the Spurs' Benching Controversy - The Triangle Blog - Grantland A great, well-thought-out, well-articulated article. I still suspect that gambling has something to do with Stern's faux outrage, though.
Grantland have my favorite sports writers in Lowe and Barnwell. I really like how those guys argue for their cases.
Rethinking this and reading the article, I don't have real problem with it, except I don't think advertising the part about sending them home to rest was a good marketing idea. Even the fans for losing teams show up at their arena to cheer for the superstars of other teams.... and are even happier when their team prevails.....have to think that this story would have a different spend on it all together if the Second Unit Spurs had won the game. Maybe Pop should have kept at least two of them on the bench dressed (and not played them) and the others in suits...what if they had an injury or fight where 3-4 players had been thrown out? One thing for certain Pops, proved that his second unit can possibly beat any team on any given day. As long as they are all rested and grabs a first round home seeding, I would say that the "team" is good enough to make the western conference finals..
That could be another aspect of Pops' plan....not wanting to give the Heat the satisfaction of beating the "real" Spurs if they were to eventually meet in the NBA Finals.
Dictator up to his old tricks... David Stern threatens the San Antonio Spurs for sitting their players, chases down another irrelevant point | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports Couldn't have said it better myself.
Have to wonder if Lawrence Frank had sent his starters Max, Tay and Stuckey back to Detroit to rest midway during the brutal six game road trip out west if Stern would have proposed sanctions against the Pistons...and more importantly would the Pistons rooks and newbies have actually won those games after those guys left
I like the arbitrariness in the system, no-one had a clue of what the consequence would be and the day after a fine of $250k is declared. It could just as well been nothing, a warning, a Pop suspension or who knows. Is there a committee assigned to handle this or is it Stern himself who's judge, jury and executioner?
this thing is crazy; in soccer, this could never happen - a coach may decide to play whoever he wants to, no matter what; how much person does Stern have??? This league is way too much about highlight-reels and ratings
Stern so needs to go..... there have been so many instances of this happening and nothing was said/done in the past...
It happens in soccer too, teams have been fined by FA for resting too many players in the Carling Cup.
I think its funny that a team can just essentially forfeit a game and not really care because the odds of them making the playoffs are so high. Too easy in the nba to make it in. A team like sas cares way more about health than home court. They were 9-1 away this year b/f this game and they Re vets.
