San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich understands why the NBA wants to cut back on teams resting their starters. After all, it was Popovich who started the trend as he began to sit his aging core years ago to preserve their legs for the playoffs and Finals runs.
Gregg Popovich on rest: ‘We’ll get together a lot better than the Republicans and Democrats.’
Pop was the one who made resting players popular in the first place.
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The result was proven. Popovich’s Spurs have claimed five NBA championships since he took over as Spurs head coach in 1996 with the same group of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili.
Now, other teams are following his blueprint, and the NBA isn’t happy. Commissioner Adam Silver sent out a memo to team owners, urging them to be more involved in the decision-making process as it relates to resting stars. Popovich understood both ends of the spectrum.
“We’ll all try to figure it out. We want to do the best job we can because it is entertainment,” Popovich said, according to AP’s Jon Krawcynski. “We love the basketball and that’s what we do. We’re all purists in that sense. But we know how the salaries are paid. We’ll get together a lot better than the Republicans and Democrats. And we even say things that aren’t nonsensical and delusional.”
Most recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers rested LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love during a nine-day span that featured two sets of back-to-backs on the road. A week earlier, the Golden State Warriors rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green against the San Antonio Spurs. Both were nationally televised games, and both were blowout losses for the teams resting players.
On Tuesday, James said the NBA didn’t have a problem with teams resting players until he started resting. He invoked Popovich’s strategies in his argument.
“Listen, man. [Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich] has been doing this 10 years, 12 years, 15 years and everyone’s like, ‘You know what? That’s the smartest thing Pop has ever done,’” he said, according to Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon. “Give his guys a couple games off and here they go, five championships.
“It’s the smartest thing. But some of our coaches in our league don’t have the stature that Pop has, and our head coach doesn’t have it, so [Tyronn Lue] gets killed for it.”
It seems a tweak to the NBA’s scheduling might do both sides a great justice.
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