Adam Silver Warns Teams Of Resting Players

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/245360/Adam-Silver-Warns-Teams-Of-Resting-Players



Adam Silver Warns Teams Of Resting Players



MAR 20, 2017 9:29 PM


Adam Silver has called the practice of teams resting marquee players "an extremely significant issue for our league" in a memo to league owners Monday.

In the memo, Silver informed teams that the issue will be a prime topic of discussion at the next NBA Board of Governors meeting April 6 in New York and warned of ‎"significant penalties" for teams that don't abide by the league's standing rules for providing ‎"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 said that it is unacceptable for owners to be uninvolved or defer decision-making on this topic to others in their organizations.

On Monday, ESPN released a statement about the teams resting their star players during nationally televised games.

"As always, our aim is to serve NBA fans with the best matchups involving the league's top stars and we share the fans' disappointment. We understand this is a complex issue and we're working closely with the NBA to best address it going forward from a media partnership standpoint, " the statement said.

RAMONA SHELBURNE/ESPN



bob
MY NOTE:  Sounds good on paper, but how are you going to enforce it?  LeBron sits out a game.  Just before the game the team puts out a bulletin that he has "the flu".  What is the league going to do?  Watch him to see if he sniffles?  Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of shutting this, and tanking, down by almost any means possible, I just don't see how they will make it work.  Furthermore, this has to have teeth because Steve Kerr, Tyronn Lue (and certainly not Pop!) will give a shit if there isn't a significant penalty associated with violating this league rule and money isn't going to cut it.  The money teams make by getting further into the playoffs with rested players will offset most financial punishments. Silver says there would be "significant penalties" for violators. Define "significant", Commish. A 2nd round pick for the first offense? A first round pick for the 2nd? Who do those picks go to, you still have 30 picks/round, or not? How about docking the team's salary cap next year? Instead of having the $107M cap like everybody else the offending team only has $102M to play with? Just some ideas I'm throwing out, but there MUST be teeth behind this, or don't waste your time.

This statement was no doubt spurred by a complaint from the media who is paying DAMN good money to air these games and they had the LA Clippers playing the emasculated Cleveland Cadavers.  The reason why players are making SO much money now is because of the league's TV deal.  Well, time to pay the piper.  Nothing is free.

From the Celtics' perspective, Brad has said he has no intention of resting players, so this doesn't really affect us. However, it does put Cleveland in the position of playing LeBron and Irving in their up-coming 4 b2bs.


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Tough to enforce unless you place emphasis on pairing/match ups  in the playoffs on the last 25 games of the season or something along those lines and the W/L record.


112288

like you said Bob, no way to enforce it. Teams will simply say a player got sick or tweaked a knee or something.

the threat of losing a draft pick ( or how about the league taking wins away form the current season?) may cause teams to not be as blatant as the Cavs were against the Clippers though.

If team management determines that it is in the best interest of the team to rest players - I for one, as a fan, am willing to to take a hit, and watch a game where the team is playing with bench players. After 65 plus years of watching games where players were being rested it doesn't bother me at all.

swish

Rest in front of the home fans. Won't go over well. There is no simple solution.


Wonder when the next TV deal is made how much this will be discussed?

beat