On Friday, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that the San Antonio Spurs will be fined $250,000 for sending 4 key players home, instead of playing them in a highly-anticipated nationally-televised game against the Miami Heat on Thursday. Stern claimed that the Spurs "did a disservice to the league and [the] fans" by taking its stars out in its only visit to Miami this regular season "without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way." Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich's decision called for sending Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green back to San Antonio to get some ahead of Saturday's home game against Memphis.
Heat star LeBron James summarized the collective disapproval of Stern's decision across the sports realm in very simple words: "it's not in the rules to tell you you can't send your guys home." Certainly some audience of the game may have been disappointed at not seeing the superstars from the two teams battle on Thursday night, but the fact of the matter is that Popovich and the Spurs had a broader goals in mind: best prepare for the entire season, not just this one game, and he had very justified reasons to rest his players. Thursday was the team's 6th road game in 9 days, and the 4th game of the week. On the flip side, Miami Heat was playing its first game since Saturday, and only its 5th game in 2 weeks. Given the severity of how lopsided the teams' schedules were coming into the game, the Spurs knew they were at a disadvantage, and it was strategically in their interest to rest their stars. Popovich said he had made this decision "when the schedule came out in July."
Stern didn't buy any of such, calling the action an "unacceptable decision." Yet, this is vastly different from the badminton scandal during the Olympics this summer, during which several badminton players from China, South Korea and Indonesia were accused of intentionally losing matches, so that "they could face easier opponents in future matches." There was little disagreement that such act of deliberately losing games was in the violation of the Olympic and sports spirit, and the players were expelled from their blatant actions.
What the Spurs did though, was drastically different from the actions of those badminton players. Many playoff-bound teams rest their star players in the final games of the regular season to give them rest. Sure, it's still early in the season in November, but the lopsided nature of the schedules of the two teams heading into Thursday's game was beyond the control of the Spurs, and they had to deal with this disadvantage. The Spurs made a strategic move, not a move that demeaned the spirit of the game. If anything, the short-handed Spurs over-delivered on expectations, as its usual bench players fought neck-to-neck with the defending-champions. It wasn't until 22.3 seconds left in the game that Heat delivered what proved to be the game-winning shot. The Spur took a gamble that nearly exceeded all expectations. Even if the game wasn't close, their decision was highly calculated, and NBA's decision to fine them dispirits its own sports of strategic maneuvers.
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Friday, November 30, 2012
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