Last week was a sad one in the NBA. America's beloved sideline reporter Craig Sager lost his battle against cancer and the NBA universe paid a great tribute to him. He made sideline reporting fun. He got a lot of attention for his outlandish suits and the reactions to it from the coaches and the stars. Thats probably what made him a star, but he was much more than just his clothes. I liked his demeanor and his casual style of questioning, which he actually leveraged effectively to ask tough questions. We also heard great stories after his passing that we had no idea about. For instance, Dennis Rodman shared with the world how Sager saved his life by talking him out of a potential suicide attempt back in 1993 when he was done in Detroit. No wonder there is genuine affection for him from across the league. I was pleasantly surprised and also happy to see the league going the extra mile to pay tribute to a sideline reporter as if he was a star ex-athlete or a owner. From various eulogies on TNT to Steve Kerr's speech at the Oracle arena to the funky jerseys that several teams sported on the bench, Sager deserved it all. RIP Sager! We will all miss you and your colorful personality.
The other big news from the NBA last week thats on my mind is the Cavs stars staying back home for the road game in Memphis. They were all rested as the Cavs are real good and don't need all the weapons all the time. Plus they can afford to lose a game or two and might actually be better off giving their stars some rest since they know they are going to have a long and fruitful playoff run extending the already marathon NBA season well into June. This is really a tough one for me since there are valid arguments to be made on either side. First off, resting players randomly mid-season is a trend popularized by Greg Popovich and right there you know there is a legitimate reason to do it. Pop is no fool! This, among other kinds of rests that he forced on Tim Duncan is probably what extended the hall of famer's career by another 2 or 3 years. Coincidentally, the Spurs retired Duncan's jersey today. There are not many stars in today's sports more synonymous with their team as Duncan is with the Spurs. Congrats to Timmy and the Spurs. But coming back to the topic of rest and why Pop and others do it, teams benefit from it and they are free to do whatever they want. The coach is paid to win a championship for their team. If he decides resting LeBron in mid-December helps that cause, he should totally be able to do it.
But NBA is also entertainment and fans are the customers. There was a guy in Memphis holding a sign that read "I paid $800 and drove 4 hours to see this game." Therein lies the problem. NBA owes it's fans a great entertainment product. This is especially true now since the greedy sports world has moved to "dynamic pricing" the last few years where the already crazy prices are even higher for the Cavs game or the Yankees game or the Patriots game. At least, this was not the case back in the day when sticker prices stayed the same for all the regular season games of a team and only the scalpers charged you more for the sexier matchup. Now that the league itself is doing legalized scalping, they have to make sure the stars show up to justify those prices. I don't know if the Grizzlies charged a premium for LeBron, but I would guess they did. It's in the league's best interest to ensure LeBron plays if he can except when he is injured. Stars like Jordan and Kobe always played and honestly, you are a professional athlete paid millions to play basketball. Is it too much to ask that you show up and play? I understand the season is long and rest does the body some good come playoff time, but the league must start enforcing some rules and make some changes to make sure this random resting doesn't happen.
The other thing that gives me pause aside from the "team should do whats good for them" argument is that, we have traditionally accepted stars and starters resting the last game or 2 of the season in preparation for the playoffs. In fact, this is so common that most fantasy football leagues wrap the season up in week 16 week and don't even play week 17. This end of season resting happens in all sports. So how and why is resting in the middle of the season different or worse? I don't have a great or a legally enforceable answer to that, but it is worse because fans do expect some uncertainty at the end of the season. If Cavs were playing the Grizzlies on the last day of the season, fans probably might expect LeBron and even some of the Memphis stars to be possibly rested. So they may not plunk down 800 bucks for those tickets. It is a lot harder to predict mid-season which game or when these stars can or will be rested. NBA can't run it's business like this. Though I have to agree I don't know how they can legislate against this either. They can't tell the coaches how to do their job. They can't say resting is allowed in game 81 and 82, but not games 15 or 36. They also can't differentiate between coaches not playing a bench warmer versus not playing LeBron James. Even if they make these rules, what happens if the team cooks up some fake injuries to rest the stars or start LeBron and bench him after 3 mins?
The league can't do much, but it can remove back-to-back games and make the season a little less stressful for the players. That will also improve the quality of the regular-season games as the league today loses a lot of good matchups to the dreaded tired legs from back-to-backs. Aside from that, I don't know how the league can control this, but I do know they have to. NBA is a business and all the owners have a collective responsibility to make it work. May be they just get them all in a room and ask them to cut it out. May be outlaw resting through an agreed convention rather than bargained regulations. I love coach Pop, but this is one ugly contribution of his to the game. Customer is king and NBA better internalize this notion. Stars drive this league and their game is the product. People pick up the schedule as soon as it's released and check when LeBron is coming to town. When the Warriors are playing the Spurs etc. If the league can't deliver on that schedule, we have a problem. Commish Adam Silver has been good with a lot of things including the Sager celebrations. Hope he steps in and gets this fixed too. If you need rest against a bad team, play hard for 20 mins, blow them out, and rest the second half. This is exactly what Jordan did when he came to my town back in the day. He played, he dominated, and he rested, all in one night. I paid a premium, saw him play, and went home happy. Everybody won. It's not that complicated. Just play!
The other big news from the NBA last week thats on my mind is the Cavs stars staying back home for the road game in Memphis. They were all rested as the Cavs are real good and don't need all the weapons all the time. Plus they can afford to lose a game or two and might actually be better off giving their stars some rest since they know they are going to have a long and fruitful playoff run extending the already marathon NBA season well into June. This is really a tough one for me since there are valid arguments to be made on either side. First off, resting players randomly mid-season is a trend popularized by Greg Popovich and right there you know there is a legitimate reason to do it. Pop is no fool! This, among other kinds of rests that he forced on Tim Duncan is probably what extended the hall of famer's career by another 2 or 3 years. Coincidentally, the Spurs retired Duncan's jersey today. There are not many stars in today's sports more synonymous with their team as Duncan is with the Spurs. Congrats to Timmy and the Spurs. But coming back to the topic of rest and why Pop and others do it, teams benefit from it and they are free to do whatever they want. The coach is paid to win a championship for their team. If he decides resting LeBron in mid-December helps that cause, he should totally be able to do it.
But NBA is also entertainment and fans are the customers. There was a guy in Memphis holding a sign that read "I paid $800 and drove 4 hours to see this game." Therein lies the problem. NBA owes it's fans a great entertainment product. This is especially true now since the greedy sports world has moved to "dynamic pricing" the last few years where the already crazy prices are even higher for the Cavs game or the Yankees game or the Patriots game. At least, this was not the case back in the day when sticker prices stayed the same for all the regular season games of a team and only the scalpers charged you more for the sexier matchup. Now that the league itself is doing legalized scalping, they have to make sure the stars show up to justify those prices. I don't know if the Grizzlies charged a premium for LeBron, but I would guess they did. It's in the league's best interest to ensure LeBron plays if he can except when he is injured. Stars like Jordan and Kobe always played and honestly, you are a professional athlete paid millions to play basketball. Is it too much to ask that you show up and play? I understand the season is long and rest does the body some good come playoff time, but the league must start enforcing some rules and make some changes to make sure this random resting doesn't happen.
The other thing that gives me pause aside from the "team should do whats good for them" argument is that, we have traditionally accepted stars and starters resting the last game or 2 of the season in preparation for the playoffs. In fact, this is so common that most fantasy football leagues wrap the season up in week 16 week and don't even play week 17. This end of season resting happens in all sports. So how and why is resting in the middle of the season different or worse? I don't have a great or a legally enforceable answer to that, but it is worse because fans do expect some uncertainty at the end of the season. If Cavs were playing the Grizzlies on the last day of the season, fans probably might expect LeBron and even some of the Memphis stars to be possibly rested. So they may not plunk down 800 bucks for those tickets. It is a lot harder to predict mid-season which game or when these stars can or will be rested. NBA can't run it's business like this. Though I have to agree I don't know how they can legislate against this either. They can't tell the coaches how to do their job. They can't say resting is allowed in game 81 and 82, but not games 15 or 36. They also can't differentiate between coaches not playing a bench warmer versus not playing LeBron James. Even if they make these rules, what happens if the team cooks up some fake injuries to rest the stars or start LeBron and bench him after 3 mins?
The league can't do much, but it can remove back-to-back games and make the season a little less stressful for the players. That will also improve the quality of the regular-season games as the league today loses a lot of good matchups to the dreaded tired legs from back-to-backs. Aside from that, I don't know how the league can control this, but I do know they have to. NBA is a business and all the owners have a collective responsibility to make it work. May be they just get them all in a room and ask them to cut it out. May be outlaw resting through an agreed convention rather than bargained regulations. I love coach Pop, but this is one ugly contribution of his to the game. Customer is king and NBA better internalize this notion. Stars drive this league and their game is the product. People pick up the schedule as soon as it's released and check when LeBron is coming to town. When the Warriors are playing the Spurs etc. If the league can't deliver on that schedule, we have a problem. Commish Adam Silver has been good with a lot of things including the Sager celebrations. Hope he steps in and gets this fixed too. If you need rest against a bad team, play hard for 20 mins, blow them out, and rest the second half. This is exactly what Jordan did when he came to my town back in the day. He played, he dominated, and he rested, all in one night. I paid a premium, saw him play, and went home happy. Everybody won. It's not that complicated. Just play!
