HOF'er Karl Malone: "If you don't have at least 10 yrs experience, get your ass playing. It's not work, it's called playing. Besides. tell our underpaid service members & police & first responders to rest. Dammit, they can't." Source Source ____________________________________________________________ http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...-rest-coach-job-compete-championship-not-game "I don't think the NBA can do anything about it," James said following the Cavs' 125-120 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. "At the end of the day, it sucks at times where certain guys have to rest, but certain guys need rest. "And it's a long, strenuous season and the NBA does a great job of putting the schedule together as best as they can. You're going to have back-to-backs. You're going to have certain games where certain things fall on certain nights, but a coach's job is to figure out a way for their team to compete for a championship, not compete for a game." "Obviously it sucks at times because certain games you only play in certain cities once, or you play certain teams once on their home floor, but for me personally, I want to play in every game," said James, who has played in 63 of the Cavs' 69 games this season. "I wanted to play last night but my coach felt like it was best that I didn't play last night, so I'm going to go with my coach and he's never steered me wrong." The league apparently found some fault in Lue, however, as Cavs general manager David Griffin told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne he received a call from the league office shortly after Lue's decision to hold his players out was announced. "I mean, it's stupid," Lue said Sunday when asked about the league's reaction. "Kyrie didn't come back the game before, knee soreness, Kevin just had his first game back, we needed two days in between each game. It's OK, though, whatever. It's stupid." Irving pointed to San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich's experience with the tactic normalizing the practice for the rest of the league. "Honestly this has been a topic probably for the entire season," Irving said. "It's coming into light more or less when Pop did it for four years running resting his guys. I can't stress enough how important rest is. You've got veterans who have come before us who play 82 games that have their opinions and we're just in a different time now. The smart way of taking care of your body and understanding what the important goal is at the end of the season -- it's at the forefront of our minds. We're playing for a championship run, playoff run." Irving also defended the Cavs' decision, pointing to the busy part of Cleveland's season when it occurred. "This is our sixth game in eight days and I don't think anyone realized that," he said, miscalculating slightly as it was their sixth game in nine days. "We're not here to complain about it, but honestly playing basketball six games in eight days is a lot. But we prepare our bodies for it and I don't have any ill will toward the NBA being disappointed, or the fans because I totally understand. And then from the flip side of being a professional athlete, I understand my point of view and it's going to outweigh anything." James was asked if, in his role as NBA Players Association vice president, he had any opinion on the players' obligation to play in marquee television games considering the nine-year, $24 billion TV rights extension that was negotiated with ESPN/ABC and Turner in February. "Well, I've been part of six straight Finals and every single season and every single Finals has been bigger and bigger and bigger and better and better and more people have tuned in," James said. "So, I don't see there's a problem going on with our league. There's nothing bad at all with our league right now." Last year's NBA Finals series between the Cavs and Golden State Warriors averaged 20.28 million viewers per game, making it the most watched series on average since 1998 -- Michael Jordan's last Finals with the Bulls, which averaged 29.04 million viewers per game. "The NBA has done a great job," James said. "Listen, you can't take nothing away from [former NBA commissioner] David [Stern], what he's done. From what [current NBA commissioner] Adam [Silver] is doing right now. It's the greatest game and it will continue to be that."
If durant wasn't a poon and went to the east instead of the Warriors maybe Lebron would think about seeding. Instead baby durant tried to piggy back and stayed in the west.
NBA is now a water down league. The games are a lot less competitive than it used to be, thus a lot less meaningful. Too many bad teams, not enough talents, higher salary cap and super teams are slowly killing the regular season and TV ratings.
People always use this type of argument even though it's flawed. If you pay for Kendrick Lamar, it clearly says Kendrick Lamar on ticket and if he doesn't show then it's obviously false advertising. If those people on Saturday looked at their ticket it says Cleveland vs. La clippers. Everyone playing was a member of those teams even if they were the 12th man or all bench warmers. It doesn't say Cleveland featuring Lebron Vs. La clippers featuring CP3 on the ticket.
Semantics. So you're telling me when you make a decision on whether or not you go watch a certain basketball game, you don't consider who's going to be on the court at all? Who in their right mind would not care about paying for Lebron but getting Iman Shumpert? When you have variable pricing, this is pretty close to fraud.
yeah because when people buy cleveland or clips tickets they really want to see austin rivers or richard jefferson play or when your team plays the GSW and it's priced much higher because you want to see ian clark right
really they're not. the stars make the league and that's who people want to see and unless you're just oblivious to what the nba is then you have at least a general idea of who you are wanting to see when you decide to attend a game.
What does it say on the ticket? As long as it was Cleveland vs clippers and not a official D league team playing instead of Cleveland, then the obligation is complete
since its obvious that you don't invest any $ into any of these then that's probably why you have to ask
Okay let's say you go eat at a restaurant that sells the best steak. Everyone pays extra for this amazing steak because everyone knows that they use grade A beef cooked by a michelin star chef. You go one day and pay top dollar for this amazing steak, but it turns out that day the michelin star chef needed rest and they were out of grade A beef and so they get a local McDonald's burger flipper to cook grade D inner city school cafeteria beef steak. You wouldn't complain since it's still technically steak?
The problem with resting healthy players is that fans make plans and spend money on the assumption that these stars will be playing. So, I have no problem with it so long as you deal with the expectations. Set the rest policy and the rest schedule at least tentatively before fans buy so that market prices can reflect the anticipated quality of the product. And, as players get injured or rest schedules change with the realities of the season, keep the public informed so they can change their plans as necessary. If they did that, I'd have no problem with it. Having Pop announce right before the game that he's going to sit his best 3 players after people already bought tickets and arranged their days and even traveled for the event isn't cool at all.
Apples to oranges hyperbole. If a restaurant has to go get food from another place then it's nothing like players resting. Is local McDonald cooker a part of this fine restaurant? Probably not. Everybody on a NBA team is a world class athlete who would be awesome in a lesser league. Don't use apples to oranges hyperbole
not really . however it does show everyone here you have never invested any $ into these sporting events so you obviously wouldn't have a clue to understand much of what people were saying here.
Okay since you're being outrageously pedantic about this, let's replace the McDonald's burger flipper with the Michelin Star chef's sous chef and the grade school meat with Grade B meat that the restaurant carries. My point still stands. You pay for one thing, you get a worse replacement, you have legitimate reasons to complain.
