The only reason Stern is doing this because he feels Popovich is showing him up, nothing more, nothing less. The guy has a history of making people pay who speak out against him and tries to show them who's boss every once in a while. Stern is like a cop who was bullied when he was young and now tries to make people pay, and he loves it! **** YOU DAVID and much PROPS TO POPS!!
right... And the Warriors didn't tank last year either when they kept using the mighty Charles Jenkins, Mickell Gladness and Jeremy Tyler lineup... Because after all, they had close games and even won one.
I couldn't disagree more. The coach and organization as a whole should be entitled to play or not play whomever they wish. The commissioner shouldn't have any say in this matter. Stern is just butthurt.
Don't know why he would be upset... ended up being an entertaining game with an underdog team (due to resting starters) nearly pulling off the win...
Agree, since Stern is so concerned about the TV and fans why not arrange the game to be played with both teams comming off rest? It's not that complicated, he's looking out for his interest and so are the Spurs Sterns control should never reach into teams player personnel decisions.
They should altogether. It's bad for the fans and bad for the league. In the end, it's business and the NBA has to look after itself. If every coach starts doing this, what will the NBA new TV deal will look like in a couple years? The NBA looked away when Pops wasn't so blatant. He used to rest one or two guys at a time at the end of seasons. Then he started doing it more and more. Now he's sending the entire starting lineup home. And in a game vs. the champion. This looks soooo well for a casual fan... What's next? Erik Spoelstra decides to keep LeBron out of games until February, because regular season doesn't matter and the 82 game NBA season is too long and taxing? NBA is a business, and they have to draw a line somewhere.
How dare the head coach of the Spurs think he can rest players when he so chooses. Does he not know that the Omnipotent Stern controls all??
Thank you. Damn straight I'm complaining solely because he avoided a mega team...exacerbated by it being on TNT...a game i looked forward to watching. I don't know about the media or anyone else in this thread...I'm pissed because it was a relevant freaking game to me and the season. JVG never NEVER would have avoided that game. Michael Jordan and Kobe never would have let Popovich keep him out of that game. People are making this about sticking it to the man. It SUCKS. How can you sit there and say, that's cool, hide from Lebron. So thanks for also agreeing that he's being a p***y by not uses his starters against the Heat, and by doing so he could have designed his "rest ALL my starters" schedule differently to try to win BOTH games. Dude just played 3 of the worst teams in the freaking league right before the Heat.
Perhaps his goal was to test his non-starters by throwing them into the fire. I watched the game. It was pretty good. Several times down the stretch, Pop wouldn't call a time-out. He wanted these bench guys to perform under pressure. He's getting them ready for the playoffs. He knows his main guys are well tested and ready for that, but guys like Mills, and De Colo; are they ready?
How could the Spurs have mitigated or avoided it? Has the NBA ever revised a schedule at a team's request? If the league fines the Spurs, then that's tantamount to Stern saying he has the right to dictate how many minutes each player plays.
Pop is cheating thousands of people who pay too much money for tickets to the game. Even if it's a good, exciting game and even if the Spurs win, people go to see the stars play. I had someone visiting from France and wanted to see Tony Parker play -- didn't care about basketball or know any of the other players, just wanted to see Tony Parker. And, I had to make sure she waited to find out if Pop was going to play him that night or rest him for the playoffs before buying the ticket. Rest one starter here or there is okay; limit their minutes, okay; put to not play most of your rotation is bad customer service. Spurs should give everyone who showed up a discount, as well as the adertisers who bought spots for the game. They deserve a big ass fine for that crap.
That's right Pop, fight the NBA marketing machine putting you in Miami on the end of a 4 games in 5 nights road stretch so they can get Lebron a sure win on national TV so everyone feels good.
Yeah, like Pop was worried that LeBron and the Heat might beat them with their starters playing. He wasn't hiding ****. He's just looking at it long term -- resting his key players in a game they probably (more probable than any other game) lost anyway, which is smart, not cowardly. He's playing the odds. Who gives a crap that the game was on TNT. Coaches should do what best for their team. I don't see how you can argue against that, unless you're a completely egotistic and just look at it from your POV.
I think the Spurs/Pop should be able to do whatever they want. That said, while it's impossible to test, I find no historical evidence that points to his resting of players in any way helping the team in the long-run. Maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn't. I don't know. I just know I don't remember him doing it in their championship years. Sure, their key players were yougner then, but the point still stands...
No it's not. There have been plenty of situations where no one said anything. But Pops is pushing limits. And I don't know what the NBA would do. Maybe they'd look to rearrange programming with the national broadcaster if they knew weeks in advance. Or more likely they'd tell the Spurs to suck it up and we'd avoid this whole thing. I was kind of looking forward to this game, and now they don't even play each other until the end of the season, where Pops will tank again? What if there's 10 Pops in 10 years, will they all be destroying the Wizards, Raptors and Magic on their road trips, and then resting on hard days? Can we just skip the regular season? The NBA has a product and it has to draw a line somewhere.
