Gregg Popovich says Adam Silver “bent over backwards” to make rest rules work for everyone

Gregg Popovich is the Godfather of resting players. He’s been doing it for nearly a decade as a strategy to extend his best players’ primes. The rest of the league recently adopted it, and it caused a big fuss in NBA circles because fans missed out on watching their favorite players.

Now, with everyone on the bandwagon, the league has also embraced resting players and has put together a strategy that would eliminate the need for coaches to rest their players.

Popovich is loving it.

Popovich praised the league and the rule, the quality of the game would improve because of it. Popovich, specifically, had nothing but praise for NBA commissioner Adam Silver for making the effort in creating the rule.

“He has bent over backwards to try to figure this stuff out, listening to the players and the coaches and the GMs about what can be done to help the players be even more productive and have longer careers,” Popovich told the San Antonio Express News.

Popovich’s effusive praise of Silver’s effort and the rule overall is a great sign for the league. This shows that both the league’s front offices, coaching staffs and players can all work together to come up with solutions that benefit everyone in the long run.

Players can continue to get the days off they need, but should now be able to play a few more games here and there where they may have rested in the past. There are less back-to-back games than ever before and less stretches where teams are playing four games in five nights. Fans are happy, coaches are happy with their best players available, and the league is happy with fans watching a great product.

It was a win-win for everyone involved and a pretty common-sense solution, but it doesn’t always work this way in some leagues. That’s why Popovich is vocal here with his praise of Silver and the effort it took to get things done.

Silver’s approval rating as commissioner is through the roof right now. He’s preached transparency and understanding from the beginning of his tenure and has followed through with it every step of the way.

From the big picture issues like the Donald Sterling situation, the All-Star game in Charlotte that never was, the league’s new rules on rest, and its experimentation with the All-Star game, Silver has taken all the right steps.

He hasn’t been perfect — the league’s policy on players kneeling during the national anthem is still worthy of questioning and exploration. But he’s shown a willingness to shake things up, and sometimes that’s all that is needed to make a better product for everyone involved with the league.