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Spurs sued for sitting players vs Heat claim they violated state law

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by GRENDEL, Jan 15, 2013.

  1. Yung-T

    Yung-T Member

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    This is becomin f....in ridiculous, if coach decided to sign five D-League scrubs and let them start it's within his damn rights, this is sports and the coach is the only one that decides who plays and who doesn't. This is disrespectful to every coach and 2nd tier or below player in the league and if some fans only attend a game to see stars then it's their fault, it's a competitive sport, not a damn tv show.
     
  2. BONIERO1576

    BONIERO1576 Member

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    Except that even without those guys the Heat nearly lost the game and only won by five. That's a well played, contested, NBA regualr season game. He's acting like he saw a Globetrotters game where they won by 40. We just had one of those expensive "A" games against the Lakers where Pau and Howard didn't play because of injury, how is this any different? These players are older, Pop has a responsibility to limit their minutes.
     
  3. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Contributing Member

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    Seriously? Have you not watched any NBA advertising for the last 2 decades?

    The marketing and idolization of superstar players in the NBA is probably the top thing that will be David Stern's legacy. Not that it's a bad thing. It's just what he pushed, and it made sense, given the times and for the growth of the league domestically and internationally.

    I'm just pointing out its false advertising, to a fairly large degree.

    Not that Pop shouldn't have done it. There are no rules in place that I know of to prevent him from doing it - which makes the fine somewhat preposterous to me.... it's Stern saying after the fact you shouldn't do that. But I do think they should put in rules.

    To continue to Morton's analogy, one could say well what if you prepaid for your meal only to find out that there's a sever porterhouse shortage worldwide and Morton's just can't get one... that's fair... but I'd argue that Morton's would likely let the customer redeem his prepaid meal later, or throw in some other freebies or whatnot.

    Moreover, that's not what's happening... instead it is the GM of the restaurant saying sure we have porterhouses in the back ready to go, and yes you prepaid for your meal which specifically notes you will be getting Morton's very special class of porterhouses, BUT we've decided that we're better off holding onto those porterhouses a bit and just won't serve them to you. If we hold onto them and let them age we can sell them for a lot more later, so that's the better course of action for us. I know you already bought your ticket under the pretense that you'd be eating a morton's porterhouse, but too bad.

    It is a grey area wrt whether the ticket is for a Spurs game or certain Spurs players. And certainly the ticket says Spurs, not Tim Duncan. But again, given the way the league has purposefully marketed star players, and given that with the knowledge that those players would be held out many of those customers (most?) would have had completely different thoughts about whether or not they wanted to go to that game - which was still against the Spurs, just with different players - and certainly what they'd be willing to pay for the ticket, in my opinion the value of the ticket is clearly more in the players you're going to see than the team. As a fan, if I have a limited budget that allows me to see either the Kings or the Heat, I'm buying a ticket for the Heat.

    What if Lebron is traded? What if he is injured? I think those are items that are at least considered when making a purchase. Maybe I won't get to see him if this, this and this happens. But never would I as a fan buy a ticket and take into consideration that Lebron just might not play just because he had better things to do.

    Again, I'm not saying this should be the legal position. I noted I don't think the Spurs should be sued. But I DO think the league needs to make it right - by virtue of "refunding" the fans in question if necessary and instituting policies that deal with this issue ahead of time, not retroactively on a Stern case by case basis.
     
  4. wekko368

    wekko368 Member

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    Are you confusing NBA advertising with endorsement deals from Nike/Adidas/Coke, etc...?

    Your analogy doesn't work b/c in your analogy, the customer doesn't get the porterhouse whereas Popovich did indeed field a roster of San Antonio Spurs.

    Actually, it's black and white. The ticket is clearly for a Spurs game and not for certain Spurs players.

    You seem to be missing the big picture. Fans paid to see a game between the Spurs and the Heat, and that's what they got. They may have not seen the players they wanted to see, but every single player that Popovich played was a Spur.
     
  5. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Contributing Member

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    So, I guess you don't watch NBA ads then. I'm talking about ads FROM the NBA. On NBATV and TNT and elsewhere.

    Some examples... note all the focus on faces, players names on back of jerseys, etc.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x22EAQA4D5g
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imMGR9bUYQw
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VljaFYMyx-Q

    not going to keep searching... all their commercials are like this. The NBA promotes names... if you don't know this, you're not paying attention


    In one example of the analogy the customer did indeed get a porterhouse... just not the one they expected. in other examples, they get other cuts, but again not the premium one they expected.

    this is the heart of the issue.

    Legally, perhaps. Non-legally, not so much. As a customer I would make a COMPLETELY different buying decision if I knew who was playing that night, regardless of the final score. That means I am making my purchasing decisions not because of the team that is playing, but the players.

    You seem to be missing the big picture. Fans paid to see a game between the Spurs and the Heat, and that's what they got. They may have not seen the players they wanted to see, but every single player that Popovich played was a Spur.
     
  6. SuperBeeKay

    SuperBeeKay Member

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    Should Miami be sued for almost losing to bench players of the spurs?

    stupid lawyers
     
  7. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    No, the product is not a basketball game any more than paying to see a Rolling Stones concert without Mick Jagger is just paying to see live music.
     
  8. superfob

    superfob Mommy WOW! I'm a Big Kid now.

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    Why stop there then? If I'm a fan of Royce White, I should be able to sue the Rockets for a refund because he isn't playing? He's on the Rockets team isn't he so I can reasonably expect him to play at any given night.

    Going back to the food analogy, this would be like suing McDonald's because my big mac did not look exactly like how it was shown on TV. The cheese was a little more melted.

    Question: Are the Rolling Stones still the Rolling Stones without Jagger? What about Queen with Adam Lambert?
     
  9. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    Um, Tim Duncan is a former MVP, a four time NBA champion, and the long time face of the franchise. Royce White has never played a damn game.
     
  10. Fyreball

    Fyreball Contributing Member

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    So this lawyer is basically saying that the outcome of the game was inconsequential, because if I recall, it actually ended up being an incredibly competitive game. My initial question to this guy would be, "Why do you go to the games??" If he's there to see a competitive basketball game between players who are at the top of their game, then that's exactly what he got. However, if he's there to watch Tim Duncan or Tony Parker play, then as a judge, I would probably say, "Better luck next time." I can understand the NBA fining the Spurs because that goes against the competitive spirit of the league, but for an individual to sue makes no sense....unless he is simply suing for the exact price of the ticket. For him to try and make a financial profit from this is frivolous at best.
     
  11. wekko368

    wekko368 Member

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    Which one do you think holds up in a court of law?
     
  12. wekko368

    wekko368 Member

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    Or maybe you're paying too much attention and seeing things that aren't there. I watched those 3 youtube clips you provided. I would hardly describe them as "marketing individual players".
     
  13. Spacemoth

    Spacemoth Contributing Member

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    Burn all lawyers ;)

    Methinks a few prominent Clutchfans are lawyers themselves.
     
  14. el gnomo

    el gnomo Member

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  15. el gnomo

    el gnomo Member

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    YES. That would be AWESOME.
     
  16. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    None. A settlement is private and doesn't involve the courts, so no legal precedent is set. The whole thing is secret and protected by a nondisclosure agreement so no one knows what the NBA paid, if anything.

    As for the false advertising, I don't buy the argument that the NBA can throw up any two rosters as long as they wear the right logos. In general, I don't think the courts would entertain a suit like this if a player were injured or sick or out for personal reasons. But, what Pop did was particularly egregious, sneaking 4 rotation players out of the city under cover of darkness. Probably the Spurs could prevail in the end, but I don't think it's obvious the guy has no case -- the Spurs really did cheat fans out of their money on that night.
     
  17. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    Similar case by Florida Marlins season ticket holders who renewed after the 1997 championship on renewal forms that included pictures of a whole group of players that were traded off en masse before the season started. They alleged they were ultimately sold a product they never would have bought...or at least never would have paid that much for.

    They lost. That was Florida law. DTPA in TX is an interesting choice for this though. I'm curious to see if there's a resolution that we're made aware of.
     
  18. ItsMyFault

    ItsMyFault Contributing Member

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    Waste of time. This is going no where. Stupid attempt to make some money back.

    Florida has some of the stupidest people in this country.
     
  19. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Contributing Member

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    I've noted in all my posts that i didn't think the lawsuit had any merit... But i still took issue with the action.

    Reading comprehension fail on your part.
     
  20. AstroMechPLZ

    AstroMechPLZ Member

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    This is stupid. What if Pop plays his starters for 1 minute to circumvent this? Still sue? What if starters play 5 minutes? Where do you draw the line?
     

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