[Strikeout King]

San Antonio Spurs Coach Greg Popavich is facing sanctions from NBA Commissioner David Stern for sending key players Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker home to rest before the Spurs home game on Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

[Strikeout King]

You have to be F'n kidding me? A Coach sends his players home to rest and he get's in trouble for it? How much more can the NBA get stupid. David Stern can't retire soon enough



ekff your thoughts?

[Stardust]

^ Yeah SK, it's stupid! Tell that to the guy who spent $200 each for a ticket for him and his son to take to see Tim Duncan. Lets have perfectly let guys in the first month of the season REST!!!! Let's see when the Indiana Pacers play the Lakers, someone spends $500 to see Kobe and D-Howard, but the coach wants to rest them....

It's one thing to rest guys at the end of the season, everyone does it. But to rest your entire core, NO, that's BS!!!!

[zaga_fan]

It was also a television game that the NBA was paid a lot of money to have on the air and a lot of sponsors paid to have their commercials aired while that matchup was being televised.

I know we all want to cry about Dictator Stern doing whatever he wants - but if he doesn't put a stop to this then there won't be an NBA

[judgementday]

Yeah, I would have been upset if I didn't get to see the starters play....if you are too tired early in the season then maybe it is time to retire.

[Stardust]

Its a coaches decision to sit guys, that's fine. But to send them home, not even to show up at the arena cannot be justified. For the fans who pay money to see superstars, make them at least show up. Put them in their suit and go sign autographs. At least the fans get access in a league that is totally marketing players not teams.

[baller4lyfe]

This is dumb.

[Wildcatk23]

Are nfl teams fined for the same thing?

[Stardust]

^ NFL Teams don't rest players the first 2 weeks of the season, which this is the equivalent to! All sports at all levels rest players and it is a common and known practice to do it the last week of the season, when all sports and their fans expect it! A fan who purchases a ticket at the season understands the risks, not a fan who purchases a ticket for the first month. Plus players travel with their teams and are accessible for the fans at least to view. So to send them home to rest is completely unprecedented and the WRONG thing to do to your paying customer

[baller4lyfe]

Professional sports teams are a business. Businesses in the United States are free to operate how they see fit. If he chooses to sit his players, that's his own prerogative. The free market will dictate the response to this decision. If fans are upset with it, they will stop coming, and the organization will suffer, and be forced to respond.

The same goes for the Miami Marlins trade. This is basically the same as if the President fined Apple because he wasn't happy that the new iPhone doesn't have the features he sees fit. Free markets work. Communist governments like the one David Stern runs do not.

[Stardust]

What uneducated sports fans actually think David Stern RUNS the NBA??? Seriously??? Who employs David Stern. We go through this crap every year, whether it's KHSAA, NCAA, MLB, NFL!!! Commissioners are figureheads who are directed by their bosses (Schools or Owners). Leagues have ZERO authority - NONE PEOPLE - NONE!!!! A figurehead of these leagues have No Jurisdiction and cannot make ANY ruling without the direction and support of their bosses! People, if you have issues with David Stern, then market your anger at the ONLY ones that makes HIS decisions, his boss - The owner of the Spurs and 31 other owners.....

[crazytaxidriver]

Roger goodell??

[zaga_fan]

Professional sports teams are a business. Businesses in the United States are free to operate how they see fit. If he chooses to sit his players, that's his own prerogative. The free market will dictate the response to this decision. If fans are upset with it, they will stop coming, and the organization will suffer, and be forced to respond.

The same goes for the Miami Marlins trade. This is basically the same as if the President fined Apple because he wasn't happy that the new iPhone doesn't have the features he sees fit. Free markets work. Communist governments like the one David Stern runs do not.

Professional sports teams are a business...
under the umbrella of their respective sports league.

If the Spurs get by with this...
other veteran teams will do it...
less people will buy tickets...
less people will watch it on tv...
the TV contract will be harder to renew and not worth as much money...
and the NBA will have a problem with conducting everyday business.

We have to realize that not too long ago the NBA was pitching the idea of revenue sharing because only a handful of teams are pulling a profit.

[Bloody Harlan]

I know the NBA is a business, but it is a strategic sport as well, last time I checked. If they guy wants to rest his players, then that's his perogative. If all the league is worried about is pleasing the fans, then they should create their own rosters, call the season a "tour," and stop keeping score. If the NBA wants to ensure that players are rested, then they don't need to be putting teams on 2 week long road trips.

[Ballers]

I know the NBA is a business, but it is a strategic sport as well, last time I checked. If they guy wants to rest his players, then that's his perogative. If all the league is worried about is pleasing the fans, then they should create their own rosters, call the season a "tour," and stop keeping score. If the NBA wants to ensure that players are rested, then they don't need to be putting teams on 2 week long road trips.

I was waiting on someone to say something like this.
Good post.

[zaga_fan]

I know the NBA is a business, but it is a strategic sport as well, last time I checked. If they guy wants to rest his players, then that's his perogative. If all the league is worried about is pleasing the fans, then they should create their own rosters, call the season a "tour," and stop keeping score. If the NBA wants to ensure that players are rested, then they don't need to be putting teams on 2 week long road trips.

The Olympic committee disqualified participants for using "strategic" moves like this past summer.

[LWC]

This is an issue that I am on both sides of. Coach should have the freedom to make those decisions. However, the NBA has to look out for the fans too. I like Dusty's compromise: rest them but require them to be in the arena.

[LWC]

This is an issue that I am on both sides of. Coach should have the freedom to make those decisions. However, the NBA has to look out for the fans too. I like Dusty's compromise: rest them but require them to be in the arena.

[Demarcus ware]

IMO this fine is absolute BS, since when can't a coach do the coaching and use strategy?? Now, yeah he could have made them make the trip and support their teammates which IMO would have been the right thing to do regardless. If i was in those rested players shoes i think i would have wanted to at least been there for support of the ones playing...

[vundy33]

I don't like this, at all. If Stern didn't want something like this to happen then they shouldn't have screwed SA so bad on their schedule...