The Warriors resting four star players on March 11 against the San Antonio Spurs has ignited a firestorm argument in NBA circles. Golden State isn’t the only team to use such a tactic, in fact, the Spurs have been employing this for years.
Monday night, commissioner Adam Silver delivered a memo to the NBA’s board of governors, in which he called the issue “significant.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to the league’s board of governors Monday, describing the way teams are choosing to rest starters in some games as “an extremely significant issue for our league” and pressing owners to be more involved in the decision-making process.
Silver also told the owners that the matter will be discussed at league meetings next month after nationally televised games on back-to-back Saturday nights were diluted by decisions to rest star players.
“Decisions of this kind … can affect fans and business partners, impact our reputation and damage the perception of our game,” Silver wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “With so much at stake, it is simply not acceptable for governors to be uninvolved or to defer decision-making authority on these matters to others in their organizations.”
“Please also be reminded that under current league rules teams are required to provide notice to the league office, their opponent and the media immediately upon a determination that a player will not participate in a game due to rest,” Silver wrote. “Failure to abide by these rules will result in significant penalties.”
My two cents: If the end goal of every team in the league is to win a championship in the postseason, the league has absolutely zero right to determine how and when a team rests its players. Those of you pounding your chests that these guys can suck it up and run around for a few hours have never flown across the country for eight straight months. Rest often times goes hand-in-hand with future success. It’s necessary for the human body.
Silver has been a very progressive commissioner. He swiftly removed Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the NBA after racist comments and he moved All-Star weekend away from Charlotte after their primitive bathroom segregation law.
There’s trust in Silver to get this issue right, but he’s teetering on dangerous turf deciding regular season coaching policies.
