Think about it people who are defending Popovich's p***y strategy. Every star player and contending coach in the League looks at the schedule when it is released and circles games on the calendar. This is what Pops did: Toronto (pansies: remember to play starters) Wizards (LOL: play the starters) Magic (Boy they are in tank mode now...play the starters) Heat (Lebron ... ****, lets avoid this and say we are resting the starters) His job is to not be a p***y. Fact is: No other coach or team that you or I can name has ever avoided a defending champion. The rest argument is complete BS. Now, if you want to say it is Strategic for him to hide his hand from the defending champions, fine. But that BS too, because that means he should do that to OKC and the Lakers, too. right?
I think you're absolutely right. They could have sat everyone against the Wizards, still won that game, and be ready for the Heat. This might have been a defensive move to not let the Heat see how they match up to the Spurs, but I think it's more likely Popovich wanted to stick it to the league for what he sees as an unfair schedule, so he picked the most damaging game to skip as some kind of power play. But, he's not more powerful than Stern, and he's getting reminded of that now.
It's common sense. David Stern is a lawyer, so I'm sure he's aware of the ramifications of punishing people who don't break rules. How about a tipjar wager? I doubt that the team owners agreed to give Stern the authority to punish their organizations at his discretion.... No offense, but are you trolling me?
He knows that the NBA has only a handful of elite teams. They can easily win most of their games and make it to the playoffs just by winning against the majority of NBA garbage. Why not rest against the HEAT, what do they have to prove to themselves. This is the regular season. Get your wins, stay healthy, don't show your hand to the teams you know you will play in the playoffs or possible Finals and call it a day.
So obviously your line of argument is correct because you agree with heyp? They own their team. And if anything more people watched last night because of the "controversy" and they got to a see a good basketball team almost upset a team of All Stars. Pretty good entertainment to me.
exactly. I can't comprehend any other reason except it was Popovich protesting the NBA Schedule -- which I would actually have no problem with if true....I suggested this as something Pops might be doing about 10 pages ago. Just wish he'd man up and admit it. If his strategy is to tank or hide his hand from the Heat, then the league should sanction the Spurs Owner by droping them from any upcoming nationally televised games and give those dates to teams who don't play games like this.
I'm not sure what sort of wager you're thinking of. Would this be a bet that Stern won't be able to actually to assess a penalty? That seems a little unfair to you considering what we saw with 'basketball reasons' where it was pretty plain that Stern did ignore the rules (there was a caretaker appointed who was supposed to play the role of owner so there would be a chinese wall between the league and the Hornets, and then Stern stepped over the wall to kill the deal) and not one owner had the balls to say (in public anyway) he couldn't do that. So, even if you were right that he doesn't have the authority to fine the Spurs, he'd probably get away with it anyway.
Dude, the league has several precedents of fining an owner whose team sits their starters. Quit saying the Spurs are not breaking any rules, because you don't actually know that, whereas I can site precedent. OK. stop it. There is a "rule book" agreement between owners that is not made public; it's a CBA equivalent agreement that is between owners that they keep secret. We can assume, since the fines have occurred before, that there is a clause in the agreement stating you can be fined for doing what Pops did. Not the coach, but the owner.
The things you mention, that's not a slippery slope, they need to fix tanking. And they've gone a long way towards fixing Sterling situations. The new CBA and revenue sharing model heavily incentivizes proper spending. Hehe. Well, if the Spurs are so individual, why do they still get revenue sharing? Don't look at it as a punishment then. The NBA is just giving the Spurs their freedom back and taking the revenue sharing away. If the Spurs don't want to help the TV side of the business, then clearly, they don't want the benefits either. And if the Spurs aren't sending their players to Miami and hurting their ticket sales, then Miami has to be paid extra for sending LeBron to San Antonio.
Exactly. If I were Pat Riley, I'd wait until game day in the San Antonio away game, and sit Lebron...and say "sorry, he needs rest." The Spurs owner would explode!!
What is more deserving of a fine? A. The Spurs strategically resting their starters. B. The Warriors withholding information about Bogut, this quote of him says it all:
I would definitely be disappointed if I were a Spurs fan who spent money of really good tickets. But I would still not be in favor of any sort of punishment that the league may impose as a reaction. Did Pop do a disservice to Spurs fans by sitting his stars? Yes. Was it still within his rights as an NBA coach? Absolutely.
Let's broaden your thinking with a smidgeon of objectivity. This works both ways. Maybe Pop doesn't want to show his hand because knows he can adjust during a playoff series better than Spoelstra. Wrong. Holt wouldn't give a flip because of what Pop has done the last several years. Perhaps you are just being sarcastic. Can you admit it was a knee-jerk temper tantrum for Stern to issue a statement DURING THE GAME instead of waiting until the conclusion? I can just see the veins about to burst on his forehead and the smoke coming out of his ears. Watching you and others pitch a fit is awesome and I am grateful Pop did it. Teams should have the right to rest players as they see fit and the NBA has no business intruding on that.
This is the league's fault, not Pops. The coach is responsible for his players, and to achieve the best results from his team. If he uses unorthodox strategies that ultimately lead to one of the best results, then it's up to the league to change the rules.
^^ durvasa posted an old NYTimes article earlier in this thread. We can assume it's happened since then, as well.
