Doesn't matter how its built. In no shape or form was the league injured last night, with the exception of Stern's overreaction. The league likes superstars. If the Heat had also sat LBJ, Wade, & Bosh, than yes, but you still had 3 superstars in a fantastic game.
If this is true, that's ridiculous. Detrimental to whom? - Stern's ego?. It's just one game out of the whole season. So what should be the basis for Pop's decision? "Well I want to rest my starters as part of my long-term plan for this team's success (as I have done before), but, maybe I should do what's best for ratings. Yeah I think I'll choose to go with what the league thinks is best for ratings and the fans who are here tonight. I would hate to upset the fans and the NBA brass, so I'll choose that over my long-term plan for this team's success." I couldn't see a coach with integrity making that decision.
Yes- as did many other teams. I lived in Chicago at the time, of course the chance to see the matchup of Dreamteamers was heavily featured in promos.
The student isn't always a carbon copy of the teacher: Commissioner Adam Silver even said the following last April after the lockout, when asked about teams purposely sitting out healthy players: “This is a unique season and fans understand that competitive strategy is part of what goes into coaching this year … The strategic resting of particular players on particular nights is within the discretion of the teams … And Gregg Popovich in particular is probably the last coach that I would second-guess.” You can't tell me the difference between this season and last is $250,000. If so, it is you who is beyond hysterical.
It's a blatant conflict of interest. The NBA is structured to have 82 games. That means a lot of games wouldn't matter. A coach's job is to coach and handle his team roster. That means, he may choose to give more minutes to certain player in some games or give them less minutes in others or none at all if he chooses to. His job is to maximize chances of winning, and with 82 games he has the right to deem what games are more important for him or not. Stern just fined a coach for trying to win a championship.
You are painting this black and white, and I suspect you understand it. The NBA marketing is built around stars battling stars. It seems safe to assume that many casual fans weren't impressed, both in arena and when it comes to TV ratings.
You are taking Silver's quote out of context. He prefaced his statement by saying his comments were about the Lockout compressed schedule. Last year is an anomaly. Don't say it wasn't.
Stern DID NOT FINE A COACH. He fined an owner....the 250K is coming out of the owner's pocket. It's symbolic. Fining an owner $250k is like fining Lebron $5k for flopping. Y'all are making too much of the affect of this fine. It's not going to change anything. It is symbolic like a flopping fine. Doesn't change the fact that Pops ducked the Heat. p***y.
One right move in the line of many awaiting! I really hope he fixes many issues lile this. The one thing i dont mind from stern is the strictness in some areas lile flopping and on court problems, game decision stuff not at all.
Y'all aren't going to get a rational argument about the Spurs from heypartner... dude's hatred for the Spurs has clouded his views.
Regardless, it was still punishment for Pops managing his team, which Stern has no business sticking his nose into. He just created a disastrous scenarios where cases of blatant tanking, sitting players before playoffs etc. have to be accounted for as well.
ASSUME I'm betting casual fans were very happy. Only casual Spurs fans would be unhappy. Viewership was up from the only information I could get. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...y-all-stars-beyond-scared-straight-mo/157986/ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...delphia-project-runway-all-stars-more/159727/
Lol Popovich ducked the Heat? Please.... They had a much more important matchup coming up against the Grizzlies who were in the same division and they played 4 games in 5 days while the Heat rested for five days. What kind of bs matchup is this? Maybe Emperor Stern should have actually thought about making the schedule more fair. Then again he hates the Spurs because they are winners that happen to bring low ratings. Not good for the market you know.
No they didn't stand up. Not like JVG would have. If you want to make a statement and stand up to the man about the ****ty NBA schedules, then you would just say that. You wouldn't hide behind a lame excuse that "i'm resting my starters" You would say, "I am withholding my starters because the NBA schedule is wrong for the game." That's what JVG would have said. But that dude would never withhold his starters against a defending champion...so we would never know what JVG would do. Because JVG is no p***y.
Stern knows the line up card belongs to Poppovich, but the bookies have a business to run. He just wanted to make an example out of San Antonio. The game was still competitive, but many bookies had to stop taking bets for this game once this was announced. If every team did this Vegas would lose a lot of money.