Written by Ramona Shelburne at ESPN.com
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has called the practice of teams resting marquee players “an extremely significant issue for our league” in a memo sent to team owners Monday and obtained by ESPN.
In the memo, Silver informed teams that the issue will be a prime topic of discussion at the next NBA board of governors meeting April 6 in New York and warned of ”significant penalties” for teams that don’t abide by the league’s standing rules for providing ”notice to the league office, their opponent, and the media immediately upon a determination that a player will not participate in a game due to rest.”
He states that it is unacceptable for owners to be uninvolved or defer decision-making on this topic to others in their organizations, who may not have the same awareness of the impact these decisions can have on “fans and business partners,” the reputation of the league and “perception of our game.”
After the Cavaliers decided to rest their Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love for a 108-78 loss to the LA Clippers on Saturday, Cleveland general manager David Griffin said the league office called him shortly after the team announced its decision.
But the GM also said it isn’t his job to appease the league and its television partners (which include ESPN).
“They’re paying me to win a championship,” Griffin told ESPN. “I’m not overly concerned about the perception of it. We literally had one guy rest tonight, and everybody else was reasonably injured, so I don’t feel like we did anything terribly egregious.”
On Monday, ESPN released a statement about teams resting their star players during nationally televised games.
“As always, our aim is to serve NBA fans with the best matchups involving the league’s top stars and we share the fans’ disappointment. We understand this is a complex issue and we’re working closely with the NBA to best address it going forward from a media partnership standpoint,” the statement said.
It was the second consecutive week a team that had been to the Finals rested multiple star players in the nationally televised game on ABC. A week earlier, the Golden State Warriors sat Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala for their Western Conference showdown against the San Antonio Spurs.
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