This is the new thing – NBA players not wanting to play certain back-to-back nights to save themselves from injury and stay fresher for the playoffs.
I’m sure part of the thinking is that the NBA plays an 82 game regular season that essentially means nothing. Other than maybe four teams, everyone gets into the playoffs and those have what seems like ten rounds.
I understand the thinking, but a couple of points.
First of all, these players are making an ungodly amount of money. One year’s salary and you and your family would be set for life. You could even afford tickets to NBA games (well, almost).
Players contend it’s not about playing less, just not as often. When they play they rack up lots of minutes. And that’s fine, except…
When I’m paying a year's salary to see an essentially meaningless NBA game in early December I don’t want to hear that the star I came to see (especially if he’s an opponent) is just going to take the night off so he'll be fresher for May.
Also, where’s the competitive spirit? I come from baseball and believe me, if there’s a player who would rather sit out a game he’s resented by the rest of the team. Yes, it’s a grind. But that’s why you’re getting paid more than Bird and Chamberlain ever made in their prime. Suck it up.
And Chamberlain claims he had sex with 20,000 women -- so he NEEDED a few nights off.
Last month while in Minnesota I went to a Timberwolves game and was shocked that the arena was 2/3rd empty. And they have a good young team on the rise in a terrific venue. I’m sure one of the season’s big attractions is the Golden State Warriors. If I buy tickets well in advance to that game I don’t want to arrive only to learn that Steph Curry is sitting this one out. Or LeBron is sitting out the Lakers game.
If a player is hurt that’s one thing. But if he’s healthy and can play I believe he owes it to the fans to play and play hard. Only screw 17,000 women during the season.
Yeah, I know. OK Boomer.
32 comments :
Somebody once said the reason people went to see DiMaggio in a meaningless game in the middle of the season was that they just might see something they never saw before and would never see again.
Same with Michael Jordan.
(BTW- if you've never heard of either of those two - too bad, your loss).
It's also possible that if Larry Bird had tried some load management he wouldn't have broken down physically so early (1 good season after age 31).
Best Chamberlin joke I ever heard:
"Wilt Chamberlin claims he slept with 20,000 women. I haven't gone to the bathroom that many times."
Golden State is not a draw this year. Both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are injured. Part of the problem is TV is so good. If you have a better view from your living room than why pay the money.
What may change this is when ESPN and TNT demand it by cutting their money for TV.
I can imagine David Letterman (if he was still on Late Show) similarly criticizing the "load management" idea, emphasizing the word "load" (in his own idiosyncratic way of speaking).
Why I've lost interest in pro basketball in recent years -- Alex Ovechkin is never scratched when the Capitals play back-to-back games. Yet why am I using this analogy in Los Angeles? The Angels just lured Anthony Rendon from the Nationals, and despite his talent, the only way he'd become less visible in this market is if he played for the Kings or Ducks...and that following a stretch where they combined for three Stanley Cups over an eight-year period, capped by their memorable outdoor game at Chavez Ravine and a wild seven-game playoff series. And lest we forget, that Kings' Cup in 2014 is the last title won by a SoCal team in any of the "big four" sports, but to KNX and its morning sports reports, hockey barely exists.
I wouldn't mind if the worst officials/umpires were off-loaded as often as possible.
I agree with you, Ken. If the game is worth charging full price, a full line-up should be presented. I don't go to the theater expecting understudies. How about if random showings of movies had scenes cut, or fewer appearances by the marquee actors? Gotta turnover the audiences, doncha know.
Friday Question Musing:
Some jokes just stay with me. There is one from MASH that I think of every time someone orders a dry martini.
And it wasn't even a joke really, more a funny description. It was when Hawkeye was making the worlds driest martini. He said the way to do it is pour the gin in front of a picture of Antonio Benedetto Carpano, the man who invented vermouth. Now that's a dry martini.
Did Larry Gilbert write that one?
Another way to look at Minnesota is that the Dodgers set an attendance record last year. But if you're going to tell me that many bodies were in the seats, I'm going to ask you why I saw so many empty seats in highlights on ESPN (since, of course, you have to live at 338 N. Swizzen Street in Glendale to be able to see the Dodger telecasts). The answer is that the seats sold, and that's what they count.
But I'll second Ken's motion and add this: the meaning of the NBA regular season was brought home to me by a humor piece about the NHL. At one point, the league had 21 teams, and 16 made the playoffs. A columnist did a piece about how the five teams that didn't make it filed a class action discrimination lawsuit against the league.
The only NBA game I ever went to was at the Oakland Coliseum when the Warriors played the Celtics because I wanted to see Larry Bird in person. It was when his back was so bad he layed on a towel on the sidelines. He only played a few minutes but otally worth it. I also got to stand next to Maute Bol, all 7 foot six inches of him. That was amazing.
Okay Boomer was going to be my first line! Dang it! Sure it was about yesterday's post, but still!
I think it is an important statement to make, i.e. not playing and extending your career, but something should go with that -- different number of games per season, changes in salary, something.
To bring it back to you and a potential Friday question, what is the most number of episodes you think you can do in a season before actors and the writers are starting to phone it in because they're just tired? The number has decreased for other reasons over the years, 26+ was common long ago I think, but lately 22 seems to be considered "high". Lots of procedurals tap out between 20-24, and some below 20 even.
I rarely feel I need to see "more".
I would be fine, honestly, to see one game a week in most sports, kind of like NFL schedule but know that the team is going to work their ass off when they play.
On the other hand, baseball and basketball are two of my least favorite sports...baseball seems too slow to me and getting worse as you've written, and basketball seems like hockey if you got rid of goalies. You score 50+ times per side? That's a sport?
Let the rumble begin.
P.
Maybe the comparison is to pitchers, who work one day out of five. And even then, how often do you see a complete game?
Somebody brought up Letterman. It seems like Colbert needs a vacation every month, and making small talk with actresses is hardly as demanding as LeBron's job.
I always thought Wilt Chamberlain may have exaggerated just a smidge.
It’s consumer fraud, plain and simple.
I blame the owners who allow it and still,charge full price.
Don't tell Carl Ripken Jr he could have sat out a game to "save" himself
I'm not sure if the NBA does this, but MLB teams charge extra for "Premium" games. How would
you like to pay extra at the beginning of the year for a mid season "premium" game, only to find out the star player(s) were taking a day off?
SFV, You beat me to the "understudy" point.
Congrats!
M.B.
I agree.
M.B.
Part of this has do to with the player-driven "Super Teams" whose eyes already are fixed on May and June. While there have always been really good and really bad teams in the league, the current set up creates a handful of teams that have enough good players that they can give one or two of them nights off and still have a chance to beat most teams. Or they can give all their top players a night off, and even if they lose, it's not going to affect their position in the standings or their home court advantage in the playoffs.
The reality of that is why the NBA's currently talking about shortening their regular season. Whatever loss of revenue they might see from the fewer games, it's offset by the lower bad will they'd get from fans, especially those who pony up $250-$500 for great seats for when the Lakers are in town to play their 5-31 team, only to find that LeBron's still back in L.A. because the Lakers can beat your 5-31 team even without him (Mr. Dolan!).
NFL teams that have made the playoffs will sometime sit players in Week 16-17, while MLB teams will sit players during the regular season at times. But with nine people on the field (and 10 in the lineup in the AL), it's less noticeable then with the NBA, where 20-40 percent of the starting lineup might be resting for a mid-season game. That's bad for attendance and for the TV ratings.
Don't have to worry about this as I have a big screen TV and am also too cheap to spring for tickets to see a good team. In DC this means the Caps and the Nats are out of my price range. I don't feel like paying $100 to sit in the nose bleed seats next to the Stanley Cup Champions banner. Nor do I feel like paying $25 to see the woeful Wizards.
The load management thing in the NBA started with the Spurs resting their veterans en masse at the end of long road trips. The NBA fined them for that, but they also agreed not to do send teams on anymore 4 games in 5 nights road trips.
Always some risk is getting tickets for sporting events in advance. Back in 1976 I was living in Seattle and some of my friends got together to buy tickets for the Sonics upcoming season. This was the first season after the NBA-ABA merger- and they got excited when they saw the home opener was against the Neta, led by Julius Erving. Doctor J coming to town! Gotta get tickets for that! They did, and then maybe two days before the start of the season the Nets sold Erving to the 76ers for $3 million (the Nets owner need the cash to pay the Knicks for "invading" their territory).
All I know is if some "kid" says "O.K. Boomer" to me, they're going to get punched in the face. Or nuts if they're a basketball player.
Agree 100%, Ken.
As a long suffering Wolves fan, I can tell you they are not up and coming, they have been lousy since Garnett was traded to Boston, and the fans are tired of it, although I didn't know attendance was that bad. I think Leonard is taking this load management to extremes. Curious that it only applies to stars, you never hear about a role player who may play as many minutes as a star needing a night off. I think fans should have the option of exchanging their tickets for another night if they have the bad luck to be attending when a star is sitting out.
Total - that may be, but Bird's back problems started when he decided to gravel his mother's driveway instead of, as a multi-millionaire, hiring someone to do it. Crazy! :)
Larry Bird would take nights off too. Only he did it on the court- one game he shot only left handed.
I wonder if Wilt hit his 20,000 by double and triple headers some nights.
Wilt's claim of "20,000" was published in 1991 when he was in his mid-50s - simple division puts the lie to this.
(Terry Gross asked Gene Simmons on Fresh Air about his claim of 4,000+ - he stated that he had a polaroid photo of each of them)
Not so long ago, when Shaq was "our guy" (one of them before the Lakers dealt him to Miami) I was relieved when he was taken off the active list due to various injuries. A review of his career shows that he played in fewer than 68 of 82 games in 11 separate seasons.
Not so long ago "Pop" started benching his three 30-something future hall-of-famers - once notably at Miami when they had James, Wade, and Bosh. I believe he was even fined for it once or twice.
As for "ungodly amounts of money", remember the the various managment teams control that money - at least to whom it's paid - even if they are on the hook for all (most) of it even when a player is injured (the so-called "guarantee"). And, I'll note, if team revenues didn't support it, the amounts would be more "godly".
Imagine - Katy Perry's "earnings" were $135-million (according to Forbes in 2015) - which begs a question - can auto-tune be used in a live concert?
The Warriors certainly had a good excuse. Steph Curry and others are out with injuries. The Timberwolves have the worst average attendance in the league at 14,880 in an arena that seat 19, 356. They are 10 and 15. They have only made the playoffs 9 times and been over 500 ten. Maybe pro basketball was more of a big deal when George Mikan played. Of course no one cared about the NBA back then. Hockey is a much bigger deal than the NBA in Minnesota. My son lives in Minneapolis and we have gone to Wild games. The arena is always packed The only other area I have been to for hockey is the United Center in Chicago The noise is pretty comparable. While baseball is my favorite sport there is nothing like seeing a hockey game in person.
I thought "load management" had to do with changing diapers. I need to get out more.
In the 1961-62 season, when the NBA played 80 games rather than 82 as is the case now, Wilt Chamberlain played all 80 games -- and averaged 48.5 minutes per game (thanks to overtime games).
That was the season of Wilt's 100-point game and 50.4 points per game scoring average.
Last month the Warriors started a lineup of one undrafted, two late second round picks, one late first rounder, and a sixth pick considered a bust. Of the four stars still on the team, two were out long term with injuries, the other two out relatively short term. A quarter of the season through, they have the worst record in the NBA due to all the injuries (there were others too, to the point where they should consider changing the name to the Wounded Warriors)
Not only did Wilt play almost every game - 79+ games per year in 12 of his 14 seasons (and he was injured in one of the other 2) but he averaged 45.8 minutes per game for his career! He played nearly every minute of the 1045 games he played.
Finally a topic I feel I can contribute to!
I'm with you on frustrations with the level of rest that Kawhi and other stars are leveraging their way into. You're right that the regular season is mostly meaningless.
But, as other mentioned, the Warriors suck this season. Check the standings.
Also, as others mentioned, the Wolves are not up-and-coming. Nor is Minneapolis considered a very good NBA market by most people speaking about the league; simply put, the Wolves are at best the 3rd-most popular sports team in the state.
A bit more research would have been helpful for this one, Ken ;)
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