David Stern has fined the San Antonio Spurs for sending home four of their starters (Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Danny Green) prior to Thursday night’s game against the Miami Heat on TNT. Stern released a statement prior to the game indicating that “substantial sanctions will be forthcoming”. Defending his decision to rest his starters in their 4th game in 5 nights, Gregg Popovich explained, “It has nothing to do with the Miami Heat, or TV, or anything…You deal with the schedule as best you can and do the wisest thing for your particular team.” Stern ruled that the Spurs did not inform the Heat, media or league office in “a timely way” and therefore determined that the Spurs “did a disservice to the league and our fans”:
“The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case. The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team’s only regular-season visit to Miami. The team also 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.”
at 9:21 AM
So now a basketball team cannot run its own operation witjout consulting the league? I don’t blam Popovich for resting his starters. After all, four games in five nights? Seriously? If that scheduling happened to the Lakers–which will never happen simpky because they are the Lakers–Kobe would be whining and pouting about being tired and the league would do everything it could to placate poor Kobe. Unfortunately, Stern is extremely hypocritic when it comes to his treatment of the league as a whole. Stern rules and does what is in Stern’s best interest. Period. This wasn’t about punishing a team for resting its starters amidst a grueling schedule, it was about David Stern asserting his power and totalitarian authority over a business he has guided to the brink of ruin over the last thirty years through questionable decision making (or complete apathy for the negative impacts on the game) such as out of control player salaries, basic game rules that no longer matter to the league (remember when traveling was taking more than two steps without dribbling or passing? Or when putting you hands on an opposing player was a foul…let alone your entire arm or body? Or when players complaining about a call were whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct?). Then there is the whole Seattle Supersonics debacle where Stern allowed close personal friend Clay Bennet to move a a successful, respected franchise from the league’s thirteenth largest market to the dead last smallest market that exists in pro sports. And for what…so his college buddy could have a team in his hometown? How preposterous!
David Stern will continue to display his meglomaniac ego until the day he retires because everyone must know that he’s in charge! Talk about a Napolean complex. Too bad the team owners have allowed the little tyrant to continue his reign of destruction over a once grand league, instead opting to turn it into a show; another form of entertainment. Thanks to David Stern, the NBA will never be the same; and I will never watch it in person, or on tv ever again.