Poppovich Sits Top Players, Stern Gets Mad & Fines Team $250K

[B.I.G.Poppa]

San Antonio Spurs to sit 4 of top 5 scorers vs. Miami Heat - ESPN

It would be hilarious if the Spurs still beat the Heat lol.

[key2win]

As of right now, Spurs are up by 4 points. LOL!

[gladdyontherise]

David Stern is a loser.

[key2win]

Seriously Stern is going to fine the Spurs for sitting their best players? LOL!

Pops has done this for years for a few games every season. What is the big deal?

[leiber88]

I think the only reason this game is different is because it was a marquee tv game when only two games were being played tonight.

[B.I.G.Poppa]

I think the only reason this game is different is because it was a marquee tv game when only two games were being played tonight.

That's true. It's not the head coach's responsibility to think about that though, he's paid to make decisions based on the team.

[key2win]

Spurs almost won the game. They were in it until the end literally. Considering their top 6 players didnt even play, they should be ecstatic of how they played tonight.

[B.I.G.Poppa]

Heat almost got bested by...Gary Neal??? Nando De Colo?? I guess they weren't trying again or something lol.

[jwgreen68]

Spurs almost won the game. They were in it until the end literally. Considering their top 6 players didnt even play, they should be ecstatic of how they played tonight.

And the Miami Heat should be embarrassed!

[jwgreen68]

I doing see how it's any of Stern's business whom a coach decides to play/sit. More than likely, TNT complained because it probably lowered their viewer ratings.

[jwgreen68]

Heat almost got bested by...Gary Neal??? Nando De Colo?? I guess they weren't trying again or something lol.

If Gary Neal hadn't played like an idiot the last 2 minutes of the game, the Spurs might have won.

[tndcollectables]

I feel the Spurs did win. Its because all the stars didn't play. If Stern wanted this to be the marquee game maybe he should have had the schedule favorable for BOTH teams. He had the Heat and Queen James well rested and the Spurs were playing 3-4 games in 5 nights.

[whitney777]

The Spurs are one of the brightest and most successful organizations in all of sports. Popovich made the right call. I've heard people say it would've been better to rest 1 player at a time for multiple games. That wouldn't have made any sense. It was better to be short handed in 1 game as opposed to consecutive or multiple games. Additionally, the effort and energy that would've been needed to guard the Heat players would've been unnecessary in this situation. Veteran teams need to preserve their bodies for the playoffs. San Antonio knows how to prepare. Popovich has been resting players periodically for years. Stern has never made any objections to teams resting players the week before the playoffs. He was only upset about the ratings of a nationally televised game between two elite teams.

[key2win]

David Stern stumbles again in his failed culture war against the Spurs, fines franchise $250K - Yahoo! Sports

Stern is an idiot. So happy this moron will be gone soon.

Before the emperor of the NBA leaves his Olympic Tower office, this is the holy war that those within the San Antonio Spurs' extended family expected David Stern to eventually wage on Gregg Popovich and his program's culture. The commissioner burped that terse, threatening statement promising "substantial sanctions" to the rogue state of his totalitarian nation on Thursday night. This has been a long time coming out of the commissioner's office.

And yet, once more, Stern's tossed a temper tantrum that left everyone around him embarrassed, humiliated and wondering why he insisted on staying until February of 2014. All these years, Stern and his underlings privately complained and moaned that no one wanted to watch the Spurs, that they destroyed his TV ratings, that they were uninteresting, unappealing and impossible to market to the masses.

And now, this act of condemnation for Popovich – which resulted in a $250,000 fine for San Antonio handed down by the league office Friday evening – would be bathed in the ultimate of twisted irony: Without the Spurs' stars, Stern was selling that the NBA logo had been desecrated, that a public trust had been betrayed.

Suddenly, Stern had to issue an apology to NBA fans because Popovich sent his stars home to San Antonio at the end of a long road trip. No one in Miami bought a ticket to watch Tim Duncan and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, because those players are relevant to no one in Miami. Mostly, they come to watch LeBron and D-Wade, or they don't come at all. Few people watch the Spurs on national television – unless they're playing the Heat or the Los Angeles Lakers – and that's because the Spurs never deliver the dysfunction and self-destructive bents that fuel the sport's storylines.

Stern once declared that his fantasy NBA Finals would be the Lakers vs. the Lakers, and no one laughed in San Antonio because they understood Stern was stone-cold serious. And well, if there was a little "Bleep You" out of Popovich toward Stern after shipping his players back to San Antonio after five games in seven nights, it was beyond understandable.

[whitney777]

What a joke!