Stop Sitting Superstars
Ways and reasons to prevent NBA teams from resting players
Players that love the game they get to play every night are often forced rest because of the head coach. A strategy that wasn’t introduced in the NBA even at its most physical times in the 80s and 90s has now become normal in the modern era. We all must thank and blame Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for being the evil genius behind this tactic. It’s smart to sit players on a back-to-back night in order to preserve them for the rest of the season, but it hurts the product of the league. The reason is simple: the fans deserve better. They miss out on the great experience of coming to a game and seeing great competition between two teams on a nationally televised game. To stop this strategy, I’ve developed some solutions.
Start the Season Earlier
Normally, the NBA preseason begins during the first week of October and the regular season follows in the last week of the month. It would be very beneficial for the league to move the regular season start to September. This will give the league an opportunity to spread out games throughout the season without playing many back-to-back games in a single week. The players will be more fresh on those long road trips and the coaches won’t have a strong enough case to rest their stars.
Penalize Coaches
Too many times in the days or hours before a tipoff, we hear that players like Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard or Kyrie Irving must sit a game because the coach want them to rest. Players should only ‘rest’ (or miss games) because of an injury or off the court issues. If it’s not for those reasons coaches responsible should be fined $2,000, and the amount would increase after the fifth fine — just like the technical foul rule for players.
The Fans Matter
The prices of NBA tickets are expensive — especially when watching teams with ‘stars.’ Throughout the season you may only have one chance to watch your favorite player live, but if the coach forces him to ‘rest’ for that particular game, your experience is ruined and you wasted your money. Fans have a right to be mad because they usually pay to see a specific player, sometimes traveling many miles just to see them play in a specific city. By the time a fan notices their favorite player won’t play, it’s too late to try and get a refund. Star players should only be allowed to sit for home games, since their fans have plenty of opportunities to see them. Another rule should be that fans have the option to get a refund or replace their ticket for any game of their choosing if the player they came to see is ‘resting’ on that particular night.
Final Take
No one wants to spend their hard-earned money on watching backups play over a star player. When this happens, the games mostly aren’t even competitive. There are many rules in place for players to be fined or suspended for their negative actions towards fans, officials, and management. What about the coaches? They also need to be held more accountable for these actions because it ruins the competitiveness of basketball and the fans are the ones who suffer the most for this.
