Gregg Popovich made one of the most controversial coaching
decisions when he decided to send Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and
Danny Green home on a road
game in Miami. Nobody is denying that. Where the debate comes in is David
Stern’s decision to slap a $250,000 fine on the roster littered with Hall
of Famers and NBA champions.
The popular position is to side with coach Gregg Popovich.
He is responsible to the San Antonio Spurs for putting them in a place that
best gives them a chance to win a championship. After all, that is the ultimate
goal in sports.
Not only that, but Popovich has proven that he is more than capable of creating bona-fide
championship managerial decisions. Resting Duncan and Ginobili—players well past their prime—is going to be
part of the regular season. Players that are younger have been injured in less
trying circumstances, namely Derrick Rose’s season-ending injury in the last minutes of what was a blowout win, so Popovich appears to be
completely right in deciding to sit his stars.
More importantly, the San Antonio Spurs landed a terrible
stretch of games by the NBA. Six away games in nine days is a bout of
horrendously bad luck and should not have happened, especially when it involves
trekking from Canada to Miami (among other stops, of course). The Heat, on the
other hand, have played one game in
the past week and it was against the Cavaliers.
So while the Heat fans did get the short end of the stick
not being able to see some of the NBA’s best in action, Popovich’s decision was
purely in the best interest of the organization. And the Spurs nearly won the
game, too, so it’s not as if the Spurs gave the Heat a freebie. Taking it at its
surface value, which Skip
Bayless did in Friday’s episode of First
Take, you might say that the amalgamation of these factors means that of
course Gregg Popovich can rest his guys.
Initially, I was also infuriated that David Stern was going
to drop the hammer on one of the NBA’s most respectable franchises. But, that
initial overreaction probably had a lot to do with to the NFL saga that has
gone on between the New Orleans Saints and commissioner Roger Goodell.
The reality is that David Stern was completely correct in deciding to fine the Spurs.
His
words: “[The Spurs] did this
without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way.
Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to
the league and our fans."
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| Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili weren't even on the bench vs. Miami on Thursday. |
Stern articulated the perfect
reason for the fine. Never does he say that the fine is directly because of
benching Duncan and Co., but rather it’s the lack of timely manner that led to the
fine. That is precisely the problem. A personal analogy: as a fan, I have
specifically chosen to watch games that had the best players on the field. Back
in the early days of what is now AT&T Park in San Francisco, Barry Bonds
was bashing home run after home run. I was ecstatic one day to see the Giants
in action.
And while I love cheering on my
home team, my left field seat shows an equally valid intention for paying the
price of admission: I wanted to be entertained by (a juiced up) home run
hitting machine.
But he sat out that game.
Here we are, more than a decade
later, and I still remember that game.
I don’t remember any of the results of the game, but I remember the fact that I
missed the man who would hit 756 career home runs. I was disappointed much for the
very same reasons that Heat fans were probably disappointed (even though they
are spoiled themselves with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade…).
I had spent good money to watch
a game—to be entertained—by some of the best professional athletes in the
world. I gladly would have bought tickets to a different game to see Bonds play
(but since it was a Giants home game, nobody cared, of course). The point is clear: the Spurs
come to Miami once a year. But the fans would rather pay to see most other NBA teams play the Heat than the
second-string Spurs team that comes once a year.
Even though he has the right to choose when to rest his players, the way he did it this time was not right. Popovich is obliged to put
the Spurs organization in the best position to win; however, he also has a
responsibility to the league and its fans to let them know when such prominent NBA
(super)stars will sit out when its for a reason like scheduling.
The integrity of the NBA—and ultimately his paycheck—depend on it.
