A breaking story so far this week is the controversial San Antonio Spurs' decision to rest their starters in Thursday's game against the Miami Heat. Head Coach of the Spurs, Gregg Popovich, sat Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Danny Green, and Manu Ginobili; in fact, those players didn't even make the trip out to Florida. This has angered basketball fans, and Commissioner David Stern. Here's why neither have a right to complain.
As a Head Coach of a professional team, regardless of the sport, you have to make the hard call. Of couse, you want to be as competitive as possible, 24/7. But in order to stay highly competitive, you have to keep your players healthy. Thus, you have to be proactive, and lay back. You have to lose some, to win some. This is what Coach Pop tried to do. He wanted to avoid letting his players become fatigued. This back fired, and it obviously shouldn't have.
I can understand why fans could be mad. They paid all this money to watch all-stars, and it turns out they've been benched. I've been there, done that, personally. But, David Stern needs to stay out of it. If he turns out to follow through on his statement, and sanction the Spurs, he would be abusing his powers. So, he needs to back off.
Gregg Popovich made the right call. Everyone else needs to respect his decision has a coach. There is emotion here, where emotion does not belong.
How would you feel if you spent $200 on tickets and another $200 on parking, bad food and Souvenirs. For your trouble your son goes home disappointed that he didn't get to see his heros play.
ReplyDeleteI know this guy that drove his son 4 and half hours to Nashville to see the Red Wings. Eight starters didn't play that night and ultimatley he and his son didn't get to see Lindstrom play and never will as he retired at the end of that season.
Would your opinion be different if Babcock sat Lindstrom to rest him?