Resting of stars cheats fans, devalues NBA regular season
NBA players earn an average salary of $6.4 million a year. They are among the highest-paid professionals on the planet. They travel on private jets and stay at five-star hotels. But they can’t afford to rip off their fans.
Unfortunately, they don’t always listen so well.
While the league reaches new milestones in television revenue, star players find themselves complicit in the latest trend threatening to damage the NBA’s credibility. The league’s best attractions are routinely and strategically rested throughout the course of the regular season. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ marquee trio of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love didn’t even make the trip for a recent road game against the Memphis Grizzlies, alienating fans who paid big money to see the league’s biggest attraction in their only visit to Tennessee.
In the process, they are further marginalizing the 82-game regular season, a cumbersome exercise that now ranks somewhere between fraudulent and con job. Think about it: How many Phoenix Suns fans are now fretting about the Cavaliers’ visit Jan. 7 and whether they’ll see James in uniform two days after a game at the Brooklyn Nets?
“I’m old-fashioned,” former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo said. “Television is television, and there’s a lot of money to be made. But the fan is still the fan. You have to be responsive to them.”
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is frequently blamed for the growing problem. He started the trend years ago, resting aging stars with open disdain. He once sat Tim Duncan for a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, chalking up his official box score absence to “DNP: Old.”
Suns owner Robert Sarver has long been opposed to the unsavory tactics. When Popovich sat Duncan and Manu Ginobili for a showdown in Phoenix, Sarver made a scene on the sideline, glaring at the Spurs bench and flapping his arms like a chicken. And when Popovich did the same in a preseason game nine years later, Sarver took the microphone, apologized to Suns fans and offered them a gift for their forgiveness.
It’s a bad look for the NBA, a league that openly markets its star players, where the name on the front of the jersey is largely a formality. It’s also a show of rebellion from contending teams and concerned coaches who must navigate a season that could include 28 playoff games and in which the championship won’t be decided until June.
Commissioner Adam Silver is aware of the problem but is careful not to meddle in the way NBA head coaches manage minutes and mileage logged by their elite players. The simple solution is to reduce the regular-season schedule so it no longer makes teams play games on consecutive nights. But that won’t happen because games are content, and content is key to the new $24 billion TV deal with ESPN and TNT. Reducing inventory is not an option.
So the league is stuck with a thorny problem. For competitive reasons, teams are not required to play back-to-back games in the playoffs, an admission that the regular season is an inferior product, cramped and untenable. So what are we watching? What are we buying?
Granted, there are no guarantees in sports. A ticket to a game does not ensure that fans will see their favorite players in action, as injuries are always part of the agreement. But teams that rest star players because they need a night off? That can have serious repercussions, turning fans away from the game, making them apprehensive about future purchases.
It’s also clear that this is rarely the fault of those in uniform. Decisions to rest star players come from the top, and for proof, James sounded indignant over the waves of recent criticism.
“I do whatever my coach asks me to do,” James told reporters. “My coach wants me to rest. I don’t buck my coach. That’s what he wants and that’s what we’re going to do. I’ve been in this league 14 years. I shouldn’t have to explain me sitting out a game or not playing games. I’ve played in every arena, including Seattle that’s no longer here. It’s not like this is my first year. I’ve got 14 years. I’ve paid my dues, and more than a lot of guys in this league.”
Yet star players also dictate policy in the NBA, and over the years no one has listened to his coach less frequently than James. Players need to understand their responsibility to the fans and the betterment of the game, no mat- ter what the coach suggests. If they are not injured, they need to play.
At the very least, star players who need a night off should travel to the visiting city and sign autographs for the fans before the game. That kind of interaction would soothe a lot of angst from customers who feel like they wasted their money investing in the sport.
Good luck with that. Colangelo once mandated that his Arizona Diamondbacks players sign autographs for 10 minutes before every home game. Predictably, some players balked, citing their rights under the collective bargaining agreement. The policy was modified so that eight players or coaches would interact with fans before the game, killing the spirit of the gesture.
“It’s a sensitive issue,” Colangelo said. “You need to offer the best product possible to your customers. Fans are willing to understand and accept when injuries happen, especially with the number of games that are played. But when two, three guys are held out without notification? That’s a problem. You can make a strong case that the athlete comes first, but you can’t leave the fan out of the equation.
“This is a problem that has to be discussed among all parties, including ownership, coaches, players and the union. They really need to talk through what is expected and how to serve the fans.”
This season, the NBA has achieved a rare milestone. The league is compelling before Christmas, generating interest and headlines. James Harden is soaring under Mike D’Antoni, Russell Westbrook is still seething at Kevin Durant, Kristaps Porzingis is saving the New York Knicks, and even Philadelphia 76ers fans are excited. But all it takes to ruin the mood is an arena full of unhappy fans, customers who feel victimized by bait-andswitch tactics.
After all, these are the finest athletes in the world. Hardworking fans who splurge for tickets shouldn’t foot the bill for their rest and relaxation.