So one of the biggest topics of the past few weeks in the sports world has been the new trend of teams playing games without their star players under the guise of resting them for the postseason. While this has been going on for a few years now, the topic seems to have been especially newsworthy recently because ABC has a new deal with the NBA to broadcast primetime games on Saturday nights, and obviously, since these are marquee games, they have featured the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. Those teams have responded to recent broadcasts by playing without LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala. The decisions by those teams, as well as many other contending teams, to rest their best players has brought about a ton of criticism and a call for something to be done.
First, let's focus on what the league is about in 2017. You can judge a player based on statistics, style of play, MVP awards, and all types of other things. But in 2017, as the league markets its star players before even its own teams, these guys are playing for one thing. They are playing for championships. Stephen Curry and LeBron James are two of the biggest names in the sport. They both have won multiple league MVP awards. In the world we live in today though, those awards mean nothing. All that matters is how many rings these guys have. Curry has one. James has three. Ask any NBA fan to put those guys in historical perspective and the first thing that will be mentioned is how many titles they won. If you don't believe that, then just ask Kevin Durant. Scoring titles? MVP awards? Those things mean nothing because he has never won a title. NBA superstars are like NFL quarterbacks. Their legacies begin with the amount of rings they have, and it is by far the most important part of how they are viewed in comparison to players of the past. So then why are these guys being hammered for resting here and there with the bigger goal of winning a championship in mind? It's because the fans and the media can never be satisfied.
Resting players started years and years ago with Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs. The best players on his teams were aging guys, and they were given games off here and there with the bigger goal of an NBA championship in mind. How did that work out? Popovich has five championship rings to show for it. Not bad, right? When he was doing it, he was praised. An 82 game regular season was grueling, and all that matters in the NBA is the postseason. Therefore, sacrificing a few games here and there in the regular season is totally fine. However, in 2017, that state of mind is completely wrong, and it is a hindrance to the sport. People can say that all they want, but until I get any legitimate proof otherwise, then those people are wrong.
I have heard people say that the teams and players owe it to the game to put forth their best effort every night. That seems totally logical. If a Warriors fan pays for a ticket to a game and then ends up going and watching a team led by James Michael McAdoo and JaVale McGee, I understand why they would feel disappointed. NBA tickets cost a lot of money, and fans expect to see their teams at full strength each and every night. However, would that same fan sacrifice one regular season game for the chance to see his or her team win another NBA title? I bet they would. Would a Los Angeles Clippers fan love to sit down on a Saturday night and watch their team face off against a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was playing its top players? Of course they would. But would that same fan rather change the channel that night and then sit down one night in June and watch the Clippers beat the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals? I bet they would. This is just another example of sports fans having the real power but refusing to exercise that power.
If resting players here and there during the regular season made no difference, then why are so many teams doing it? It is a question that could have been asked to baseball players two decades ago. If taking steroids didn't make you hit more home runs, then why are you taking them? The guys took them for a reason. These teams are sitting these players for a reason. People smarter than you and I use all kinds of analytics to study these things, and if teams pay them to make such decisions, then who are we to question them? If organizations wanted our opinions, they would have hired us. But they didn't. They hired people who say that resting players periodically will benefit a team in the long run.
Old, hard-headed men say that resting players wouldn't be accepted "back in the day." Well do you know what was being said about those same guys when they were playing? Those same guys were being viewed as a bunch of babies just like the players of today are being viewed.
Wilt Chamberlain played in the league from 1959 through 1973. Do you know how many minutes per game he averaged for his entire career? 45.8. Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing recently said that they don't believe in resting players and were hailed by thousands as tough guys who had an old-school mentality. Do you know how many minutes those guys averaged per game in their careers? Jordan averaged 38.3 and Ewing averaged 34.3. Over the course of an 82 game regular season, that means Chamberlain played 3,755 minutes, Jordan played 3,140 and Ewing played 2,812. You know what that means? Jordan and Ewing were soft compared to Chamberlain. Sitting out for 10 minutes each game? Step it up guys, you've got nothing on Wilt.
We watch baseball now and are used to things like long relievers and closers. During this past World Series, it was almost like the Indians and Royals were racing to which team could get to their bullpen fastest. Do you know what Walter Johnson or Cy Young would say about something like that? They would be appalled at how soft modern day starting pitchers were. When they played, there was no such thing as a relief pitcher. If you started a game, you ended it as well.
The point here is that while the game of basketball still is based around putting a round ball through a round hoop, there are a ton of things that change from year to year, and especially from generation to generation. So for anyone complaining about teams resting players here and there, then stop buying tickets or stop watching the games on television. Until fans start doing that en masse, no one is going to remember the Cavaliers playing shorthanded against the Clippers last Saturday. 10 years from now, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James are going to be judged, first and foremost, based on how many titles they won. No one is going to remember them sitting out one game in the middle of March. Fans and media have made the NBA about nothing but winning championships, and if this is part of that process, then they just need to deal with it. Maybe Patrick Ewing doesn't approve of it, but when someone mentions Patrick Ewing in terms of his historical impact on the sport, what is the first thing that they bring up? It's that he never won a title. If he took a few games off here and there during the regular season, then maybe he wouldn't be known as someone who never won a ring. Tim Duncan, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry might have taken some games off, but I bet that Ewing would love to have traded places with them when they were polishing their championship rings and he was spending his summer wishing that he could have accomplished what they did.
Daily NBA Update: Golden State and Cleveland are the clear favorites to reach the NBA Finals, but they have both been unspectacular in recent weeks. I still fully expect those two teams to be the last two standing, but the Celtics, Spurs, Rockets, and Wizards are not exactly going to roll over in the playoffs.
Daily Rangers Update: Henrik Lundqvist missing time may hopefully end up as a blessing in disguise, but this team is in the same position it has been in for years now. Anything less than a Stanley Cup will be unacceptable, and at this point I just don't see that happening.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: The regular season is getting closer and closer, and this is, sadly, probably the best time of the year for Arizona. Hopefully when the calendar turns to June we will still be within shouting distance of the top of the division, but I am not setting my expectations very high.
Daily Giants Update: The draft is about a month away, and I like what the team has done thus far in free agency. The addition of Brandon Marshall makes our receiving corps one of the best in the entire NFL, and I liked the signing of D.J. Fluker, who can play multiple positions on the offensive line. I still think that adding another offensive lineman would get great, and any depth we can get on the defensive side of the ball will be great as well. We are still months away from mini camp, but I like how the team looks right now.
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