Buyer beware the back-to-backs in NBA
It’s a growing problem when the stars don’t come out for a regular-season game
The NBA season is just more than a quarter of the way complete and already an issue has arisen that is normally reserved for much later in the year. And it’s not going to go away.
Players “resting” for entire games is a bit of a scourge but impossible to work around and even if it seems to be too early, teams already doing it.
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love sat out Cleveland’s loss in Memphis on Wednesday, Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins took the same night off in Houston; none of them were remotely injured, they just didn’t play because their teams didn’t want them to.
It’s basically impossible for the league to legislate such things as “rest” because of its nebulous nature, and messing with the inner workings of a franchise is not something the league office has an appetite for.
For instance, one of the logical solutions to the problem — for those who see it as a problem — would be to allow teams to give players time off solely for home games, which doesn’t cheat the ticket-buying public in other cities who may plan an entire season of viewing around NBA stars.
The Cavaliers, for instance, only play one game a season in Memphis and Grizzlies fans who may have specifically planned to watch James won’t get a chance until next season.
But that would be seen as the NBA meddling in the rights of individual teams and wouldn’t take into account the road back-to-backs that lend themselves to nights off for the top players.
The league will cut back on back-tobacks next season when they begin play about two weeks earlier than usual thanks to changes in a new collective bargaining agreement and that should help.
But more troubling is the case of Cousins, who sat out Wednesday’s game in Houston for no reason other than a night.
The Kings did not play Tuesday or Thursday so there were no back-toback concerns. Sacramento played Monday at home and will play Friday in Memphis and Sunday in Dallas so it’s not close to an arduous stretch of the schedule.
Cousins’ absence put his team at a decided disadvantage.
The Kings were already missing injured Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore, a fact that didn’t seem to concern the coaching staff or management, who gave the team’s best player the night off.
But if teams are willing to put themselves at a competitive disadvantage for one game to hopefully reap benefits late in the year, there’s really nothing anyone can do about it.
Caveat emptor to the ticket-buying public.