The matter of NBA teams resting star players during nationally-televised games has boiled over, and LeBron James thinks it’s only become a problem because of him.
Things really began two weeks ago when the Golden State Warriors rested their top players for a Saturday night game on ABC against the San Antonio Spurs. The Cavaliers did something similar the following week, resting LeBron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love for the first game of a back-to-back in Los Angeles, and got pounded by the Clippers.
The NBA was not happy about what the Cavs did and called them about it within minutes. NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly was most upset that the Cavs did not disclose their plans to rest their stars hours before the game as is required by league protocol.
The issue of teams resting players has truly bubbled up the past few days, with the league sending a memo to owners asking them to get involved since resting star players is bad for the league’s relationship with fans and TV partners.
James was asked on Tuesday about Silver’s involvement in the matter and said he believes it’s only an issue because he’s involved.
“Adam’s great. Adam is fantastic. I love what Adam is doing for our league. But I don’t see how that — I don’t understand why it’s become a problem now. Because I started to sit out a couple games?”
“It is the case. It’s absolutely the case,” James said. “C’mon, man. You guys know the real.”
“[Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich] has been doing this for 10 years, 12 years, 15 years,” James said. “And everyone was like, ‘You know what? That’s the smartest thing Pop has ever done.’ You know, give his guys a couple days off and here they go, five championships. It’s the smartest thing. But some of the coaches in our league don’t have the stature that Pop has, and our head coach doesn’t have it, so he gets killed for it. So, I gotta keep winning to help my coach be able to have a reason why he can sit his players.”
James is somewhat right and somewhat wrong. Popovich was crucified in 2012 when he notably gave the league the finger by sitting his stars for a heavily hyped Thursday night TNT game against the Heat. Just because he’s been doing it doesn’t make it OK; the league doesn’t like when he does it, they don’t like when the Warriors do it, and of course they’re not going to like it when the Cavs do it without giving any warning.
James is the best and most well known player in the league. It’s always going to be an issue if he’s not playing games on the biggest stage the league has. And it’s always going to be an issue if other teams sit their star players for nationally-televised games as well.
