NBA Commissioner David Stern has levied a whopping quarter million dollar fine against the San Antonio Spurs and Coach Gregg Popovich for not playing four of their star players against the Miami Heat last week in Miami.
Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Danny Green and Tim Duncan flew home before the nationally televised game even started thus unleashing the wrath of the Commissioners’ office.
Since when does the NBA start telling a coach who he can and cannot play?
According to Stern’s office, the Spurs’ actions were in violation of a league policy, reviewed with the NBA Board of Governors in April 2010, against resting players in a manner contrary to the best interests of the NBA.
The Commissioner said, “The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case. The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team’s only regular season visit to Miami.
The team also did this without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans.”
In a statement released moments before tipoff of Thursday’s game, Stern stated,
“I apologize to all NBA fans. This was an unacceptable decision by the San Antonio Spurs.”
This does not happen much in today’s NBA. The idea that the Spurs were supposed to notify the Heat, the media and the league office in a timely manner implies that something would have been done differently if everyone had known well in advance. What would that have been?
Despite missing six of their top eight scorers — in addition to the four guys already mentioned, Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson were out with injuries — the Spurs battled to the final minute before Miami pulled away for a 105-100 victory.
The fine is tied for fifth-largest in NBA history, trailing only the $3.5 million Minnesota was penalized for signing an illegal contract with Joe Smith and three $500,000 sanctions: Dallas owner Mark Cuban, comments about officiating in 2001; the Knicks and Nuggets for an on-court brawl at Madison Square Garden in 2006; and Heat owner Mickey Arison for unauthorized comments made on Twitter during last year’s lockout.
So far, no individual punishments have been laid on Coach Popovich for his controversial decision to rest his star players.
