Cavaliers GM David Griffin got a call from the league office shortly after the team announced its decision to rest three stars for Saturday’s nationally televised game, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were all held out of the contest with the Clippers, which was shown in prime time on ABC. The Cavs made the move because they are facing a back-to-back situation with a game tonight in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
It was the second straight game that the network was missing star power, as the Warriors rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala last week, while the Spurs were missing Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge for medical reasons.
Griffin said an NBA representative called him “seven minutes after it was announced” to express displeasure with the decision (Twitter link).
The game turned into a rout early as Los Angeles pulled away for a 108-78 victory on a night where ABC was competing with the NCAA Tournament for the attention of basketball fans. The network’s broadcasting crew ripped the Cavaliers throughout, with Mark Jackson calling the mismatch “an absolute joke” and Jeff Van Gundy labeling it “a prosecutable offense.”
Shelburne passed along Griffin’s explanation in a series of tweets:
- “The decision made itself. Kyrie left the last game with a knee injury so we weren’t going to have him play both games of a [back-to-back].” (Twitter link).
- “Kevin Love is rehabbing from knee surgery so he’s not going to play both ends of a back to back.” (Twitter link).
- “[Kyle] Korver is legitimately injured so u pick the game ur going to be the most competitive in and that’s the one Bron needs to play in” (Twitter link).
- “I can’t make [Bron] drag himself through this tonight by himself and then have everybody else play tomorrow and still not win.” (Twitter link).
Griffin added that he sympathizes with the league, but injuries dictated the Cavaliers’ actions (Twitter link). When asked about the $24B in television rights being paid by ABC, ESPN and TNT, he responded, “Yeah, and they’re paying me to win a championship.” (Twitter link).
But did they give Steve Kerr and the Warriors a call? I don’t think so
They probably did, it’s just that Kerr didn’t tell the media
I guess you are right
Spurs have done this for years….why is this a problem now?
Because television is involved and they pay those big salaries. If the TV deals go down because ratings decline, those multi-million dollar salaries will go down as well. Players thinking that those salaries will NEVER go down will be sadly mistaken.
Really, rest your stars against a playoff team and play them against one of the worst teams in the NBA. They must really be afraid of the Lakers. As a Cav’s fan I’m embarrassed for them. I want the players healthy for the playoffs also, but I also want to see them compete against the better teams and not the bottom dwellers.
This. Why rest against a playoff team AND it being a nationally televised game? Would make more sense to rest against the Lakers. Then their excuse would be acceptable.
But the Lakers thank you for the guaranteed loss today.
They seriously chose to nationally televise a game on the back end of a back-to-back. If they would just fix the schedule so that the elite teams aren’t playing each other on back-to-backs then this wouldn’t even happen.
Same thing with the Warriors and Spurs last week. It was the second game in as many days. The league has to fix this for their TV money, not the teams and their coaches.
the nba is complaining because with the stars out it hurts there rating agents the NCAA TOURNAMENT.
Yeah like Adam Silver is going to do anything about it!!!!
Here is an idea. If your going to rest your star players then the visiting team should pay the difference in the ticket prices to those watching. If the teams are going to play games then have them have to sit a player for a minimum two games in a row unless they are coming off injury. I have no problem with Love missing a game but the other two is a joke. Same for GS, Spurs or the the Lakers who have now shut down two players or the Suns who have shut down 3.
The problem with a two-game sitdown is that teams will lie and make up minor injuries for players so they have to sit only one.
Why blame the visiting team?? Franchises sell tickets to see the home team not the visiting team. If your customers are coming for the guest instead of the host then you have bigger problems.
The Cleveland Cavaliers Front Office Management, has worked relentlessly in maintaining their roster’s performance efficiency. Additionally they are absolutely disappointed that their might be a proception of them resting players.
You know what that’s a pretty good idea. You going to rest a guy make him sit two games. I like that. So it penalizes the team as well as the fans of game one… you’ll probably lose two games if you sit your stars…..not a bad idea.
In that Spurs-Warriors game last week only Golden State was at fault. Aldridge was dealing with a preexisting heart condition that had kept him out in the past. Kawhi was in concussion protocol and couldn’t play. Parker and Dejounte Murray had injuries that held them out for the previous game and most of the game respectively against OKC. Golden State chose to rest the stars even before they knew that all four of those Spurs weren’t playing. If you are resting you should have to sit two. It’s unfair to fans. They talked in the GSW-SAS game last week about a family who had driven all the way from Mexico(I think they said it was an 8 hour trip) to SA to see the sons favorite player(Steph) and he didn’t play and the entire trip cost the family 1000-2000 dollars. This also happened around Christmas when a bunch of Cavs fans wanted to see Lebron in Memphis and it was their Christmas present and Cleveland rested the big 3 and they didn’t even make the trip to Memphis. Sad and pathetic you get paid millions of dollars to play 82 games and unless you are injured, dealing with a family death, birth of child, etc. that’s what you should do.
GSW is the only team selling tickets to see Steph.. Also the coaches choose to sit guys not the players….
If you’re selling tickets, then it’s for you to provide the show, not your visitors. If you want to see LeBron, be smart and go to Cleveland. Don’t expect Memphis to provide you a player that isn’t on their team.
Why be idiots and act like the NBA is controlled by one entity. This is exactly why teams rest on the road. They owe it to their home fans to provide, the away crowds are for their respective teams to provide for.
SA is at fault because you know they jacked up those ticket prices when GSW came to town and promised something that they couldn’t provide. It’s a sad day when I read all of your comments blaming the VISITING TEAMS for this. Wake up.
Maybe if the Lakers were relative it would be worth jeopardizing the Cavs star players health. They’re preparing for the playoffs as the rest of the premier teams are. Silver’s a joke.
The only way to really stop this is if a player is a regular starter, then they should have to declare a legitimate reason for not playing.
And “rest” shouldn’t be one of them. Also, if they try to use “injured” as an excuse, make it a mandatory 3 or 4 game mini-injured list that they have to sit out.
That way, at least teams will think twice about doing this. I realize a lot of tinkering and adjusting will have to be done with this idea, but it’s a start.
I have no sympathy for “resting” players. You get paid mega-millions. Get your a$$ on the floor and give the fans, league, and sponsors what they paid good money for.
So tired of these soft players.
This is a very good idea. Although I would make it 5 games minimum.
Lol you act like it’s the players’ fault when the coaches make the final decision. We should just force players to play every game even though they might be hurt (Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in this case) right? I mean you do realize that playing a professional sport isn’t just like going to work right? They don’t just show up at the arena an hour before the game, play, go home, and then sit around and wait for the next game. Between practice, travel, and actually playing, there’s not much time for players to just “rest” during the season.
If you’re going to rest your star player(s) do it at home, not on the road point blank period.
If your team is on an extended road trip, your players are showing obvious fatigue, and you are looking at the back end of a back-to-back, and your star goes down and loses a couple weeks, a month, or the rest of the season –> are the fans winning. What if they go on a losing streak because the players aren’t at full capacity, and miss the playoffs by a game – are you going to be happy because at least they played THAT game?
Coaches and players are paid to win championships. People like to see the stars play, but ticket prices get jacked up when teams make the playoffs and win championships. Having a half dozen (or less) of the televised games come up short on star power due to resting players is not going to move the needle compared to managing the top teams towards the playoffs. I feel for those fans who made special plans to see a particular player at a particular game and missed out. But I would feel for those fans who’s star was sidelined for a month of games because of stupid coaching. I feel for the Golden State Warriors fans whose team didn’t have the legs to hold on to a 3-1 lead in the Finals after pushing for a fan pleasing REGULAR season record. Not saying that is why the Cavs won, but it was a contributor by a smart coach making a poor decision. Much like the Cavs didn’t have the depth to avoid exhausting Lebron when Kyrie and Kevin were both sidelined the year before.
Which do you prefer, a team that plays a season of top quality basketball, or a team that doesn’t monitor the performance of their players and coach accordingly.