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| English: LeBron James playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers Español: LeBron James con los Cavaliers (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The NBA has an 82-game regular season schedule over six months. In response to this, some teams--which happen to be marquee names like the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors--have taken to giving star players like LeBron James and Stephen Curry the night off so they could rest their weary bones. It doesn't matter if the game is on national television, or if fans paid good money to see the best players in the league, only to see him on the bench in a suit and tie.
Usually when a player sits out a game, it's either because he's injured, in foul trouble, or has a disagreement with his coach. You could limit the number of minutes your typical millionaire superstar athlete plays during a game, but that doesn't mean he's not going to turn an ankle or worse on the court.
It's not exactly a glamorous life on the road. There are the plane flights, hotel accommodations, practices, meet-and-greets and all that other stuff before they get to the arena. When the game is over, it's rinse-lather-repeat. Now multiply that times forty.
The NBA has tried to remedy the player fatigue by scheduling fewer back-to-back games during the season, and mandating a week off during the All Star break. But that hasn't worked. It seems the more likely your team is going to make the playoffs, the more likely it is that the best players are going to sit as the season winds down, whether they need to or not.
Come playoff time, however, your team had better be up for it because it only takes four games to determine whether you move on or move out. Unless, of course, it's the first or second round and your team has a commanding lead in the series. So you rest your stars for the next series.
The NBA is in kind of a bind here. They could reduce the schedule, force stars to play in national TV games, or restrict nights off to home games only. But that would run afoul of the players association, certain franchise owners and the league's numerous business partners.
Don't be shocked if this trend of resting athletes hits other sports. Concerns over injuries, concussions and other issues of players' safety have become paramount in recent years. Or it should be, as long as the leagues make sensible decisions regarding when, where and how long their players should play. That, and a good refund policy for fans who want their money back when they don't want to see no scrubs.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves ended their 2016-17 season with a 31-51 record. That's slightly better than last year, but still not good enough to make the playoffs for the 13th consecutive time. Now coach Tom Thibodeau will put on his front office hat, and decide what to do with yet another lottery pick in the NBA Draft to go along with his phenoms Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Wiggins. But hey, the Wolves have a cool new logo and a refurbished Target Center to look forward to, if nothing else.
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Finally, here's our off-the-wall NBA Finals pick: Cleveland vs. Golden State.
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