If the coaches believe that resting their players improves their chances of winning a championship, then yes, that's a good thing for them to do.
Resting their players or sending them home to rest? If Stern didn't fine the Spurs' organization for doing this, you can be assured that a lot more coaches will not even bother their stars flying with the team late in the season if they have games locked up. These stars are already spoiled. Now they can earn their paychecks just chilling at home??? Ridiculous.
You're the one that asked why injured players go to the games. I was pointing out that you were wrong. Sorry that you made the comparison to injured players.
Show me a law that says fixing a gambling event is illegal. When you go to Vegas you know the odds are stacked against you and you choose to bet. There is the illusion that you can win money created through images and the media, but very few do. There is no law that says rigging a sporting event is against the law, and therefore criminal.
If the players aren't playing, who cares if they're on the bench or at home? Seems like a silly thing to care about...
The "rule" does exist dude. It is clearly in the Owner's Franchise agreement with the league. This "rule book" is confidential and not made public. But it exists and this penalty is an example of it. This "rule" has been applied before. This isn't the first time, and Adam Silver also alluded to such a rule in his quote last April that is quoted in this thread. The owners are (through Stern) punishing the Spurs owner for pissing off TNT and the sponsors. Do I care, no. I'm not defending this. I'm just trying to wind down our disagreement. Don't argue with this. There is precedent for this, and your argument about Stern and the ramifications of this symbolic fining are still 100% valid without you also claiming that no rule exists. You weaken your argument when you say that. Your argument is fine without claiming the rule doesn't exist. Drop that part of it, if you want to be taken seriuosly. Chill dude. Next time I'm in Houston when Dave2000 and I set up a luxury box CF.net event at Toyota Center and if we meet, we will be friends. Until then...you are p***y for defending Popovich.
I don't think it's silly. I think that's the professional thing to do. Say the Heat/Spurs/OKC have their seeds locked up with 15 games to go, from then on, those organizations decide to have LBJ/Wade/Bosh, TD/TP/Manu, KD/WB stay AT HOME for the entire month to rest up for the playoffs. AND they will be getting paid to stay home.
nice post. For those who think I can't be objective about this since I vigorously hate the San Antonio franchise so much, I give you francis 4 prez. I've always said that francis 4 prez is the best poster in the Dish. Dude has an uncanny, well-educated and skilled ability to call plays and outcomes in game threads. If Clutch ever starts a TV channel for broadcasting the Rockets, francis 4 prez is our Color Man.
Easily solved, DNP - Coach's decision (attendance detrimental to championship aspirations)... ; ) When the Bulls were on their second 3-peat run, never heard of them resting their superstars even when they were running riot record wise. I guess they were more durable.
Not even Phil Jackson could tell Michael Jordan to fly back home and not face Lebron. This is just another example of how much a p***y Ginobody is..."You mean I can't play against Lebron tonight, Coach. OK. I will fly home." Think about it,,,the dude only gets to play against Lebron twice a year...and doesn't have too many good years left. And Coach made him fly home. I would be so furious as a star player if my Coach told me to take my ball and go home versus suiting up against Lebron. freaking p***y. I'm so glad I'm not a Spurs fan.
I thought it was clear that I don't care either way. Its neither a "good" or "bad" thing, from my perspective. Teams should decide, on a case by case basis, what's in their best interest. It should be up to them, and no one else. If the league wants to put a rule in place that players must travel with the team whether or not they are playing, then do so and then dole out the punishments in a consistent manner.
Did you read the Adam Silver quote? He said: So it looks like Adam Silver doesn't think any rule was violated.
Pop is operating under the assumption that the Spurs will play the Heat at least 6 times this year. And that's what he's preparing his team for.
In 1998, Jordan was 34 years old, and he had taken almost 2 years off to play baseball. Pippen was 32 (and missed half the season). This year, Duncan is 36 and Ginobili is 35.
Duncan has not averaged more than 31.3 minutes for 4 years. Manu has only averaged more than 30 minutes TWICE in his entire career. Tony Parker is 30 and he hasn't averaged more than 32.4 minutes in 4 years. Please, those guys haven't played big minutes for a very long time. Rest? LOL. Lebron James has played a full year of basketball and he still shows up when he's injured or cramped up. Kobe is 34 and he averages 37 mpg. Rest???
Then WHY HAVEN'T THEY BEEN DOING IT? Spurs have been doing this for years. They had a DNP-Old last season. The only reason this is an issue is because Pops decided to do it on the big stage, otherwise you wouldn't hear about it. Also, the Spurs can do it because they can afford to do it, and it's their pejorative to do so. Other teams can do that too if they want, except most teams don't have that luxury. And why does it matter anyways. There are far more serious issues on the line. How many teams have blatantly tanked over the last few seasons? How many teams were penalized for tanking? How many teams have adopted the tanking strategy because Stern hasn't done anything about it? Why did Stern choose this game specifically under these circumstances? It has nothing to do with integrity of the game, or winning, or competition. It's Stern's ego and profit that instated this fine, nothing else. If he wants a rule to prevent coaches from doing this, fine he can do just that. Except he doesn't, and he stepped way over his boundary in this case.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....with-it-unless-discretion-was-abused/related/ In April of 2010 after a meeting of the league’s Board of Governors, David Stern addressed the media, as is his custom. The topic of when teams should or shouldn’t be able to rest players came up then, and Stern said he and the teams discussed it. No conclusion was reached in terms of outlining exactly when it was OK for teams to do so, but Stern said it would be on the league’s radar, and that he believed it should ultimately be left to each team’s discretion — unless that discretion was abused. From Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today: While Stern and owners do not publicly detail every discussion from those meetings, Stern indeed told reporters at a news conference on April 16 that owners discussed resting players. “And we also had what I would call a spirited discussion on the subject of players being rested down the stretch. And I think it’s fair to say that there was no conclusion reached, other than a number of teams thought that it should be at the sole discretion of the team, coach, general manager, and I think it’s fair to say that I agree with that, unless that discretion is abused. “And so it’s something we’ll be watching carefully with respect to next season, recognizing that it probably should be a team issue, and I’ve seen my colleagues in other sports deal with it or not deal with it, particularly in the NFL this last time leading into the playoffs.” Flash forward now to November of 2012, and the San Antonio Spurs seem to have discovered the level of abuse it takes, in the eyes of the commissioner’s office, for that discretion to be punished. As you may have heard by now, the league fined the Spurs $250,000 for resting Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green for Thursday night’s nationally televised game in Miami against the defending champion Heat. All four starters were perfectly healthy, but Gregg Popovich cited the team’s schedule, which had the Spurs playing their fourth game in five nights, as the reason for giving his starters the night off. Whether you agree with Stern’s decision or not, and despite there being no formal rule in place detailing when this is OK and when it isn’t, we now know that the subject was at least discussed with team owners not that long ago. Based on what we know now, the fact that the Spurs not only rested four starters for a marquee game, but flew them home that morning feels like a slap in the face, and seems to be in line with the abuse of discretion Stern was talking about. With this discussion having already taken place, Stern clearly felt that he had to do something about it.
