Greg Popovich says "suck it" to the NBA.

[PKM]

The Heat fans who forked out hundreds of dollars, and drove for hours to get to the game, expected to see the Spurs best effort.

Every team should be giving their best effort every single game.

I'm sure the network that paid tens of millions to broadcast the game also expected to see the best effort.

If people start expecting less than the best effort, prices start going down. Not good for the league.

Such a liberal. Holy hell.

[HeavenHarris]

i, for one, would welcome lower prices.
please lower your expectations everyone.

[franklin]

I was talking about the broke upper bowl folks attending their only game of the season. I doubt the people spending $1000s to sit courtside will be too upset. Half of them were probably gifted the tickets anyway and don't even follow the team.

I'm sure those upper bowl tickets in Miami are pretty expensive, especially for a big game like this one.

Oh so now you're looking down your nose at "broke" people who can only drive hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of dollars per ticket. I guess we're supposed to fly private class from Los angeles before we're considered first class citizens by you.

[SaltyDawg]

Oh so now you're looking down your nose at "broke" people who can only drive hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of dollars per ticket. I guess we're supposed to fly private class from Los angeles before we're considered first class citizens by you.

Whatever you say man.

[PKM]

Whatever you say man.

Are you talking down to a genius? That's dangerous. You should always seek enlightenment and knowledge.. who better than those that are intellectually superior, obviously?

[Gyp Rosetti]

The Heat fans who forked out hundreds of dollars, and drove for hours to get to the game, expected to see the Spurs best effort.

Every team should be giving their best effort every single game.

I'm sure the network that paid tens of millions to broadcast the game also expected to see the best effort.

If people start expecting less than the best effort, prices start going down. Not good for the league.

Jesus, you're short-sighted. Let me tell you something. If Pops kept his starters out there for 35 minutes a night for their careers like many teams do, these guys may have already retired, and the Spurs as a whole would be much, much ****tier, thus making their value and worth to the NBA much, much less.

But besides that point, any fans who expect anything are douches. It's not their team. They don't look out for the best interests of the players and therefore of the team like Pops does. But maybe he should just listen to Salty, play them 35 minutes a night for the fans, let them get injured in the process, and be one and done in the playoffs, thus ****ing the fans infinitely more pissed off. Or should they just play through injuries too for the fans? Ya know, because they paid some money.

Get over it. We're entitled to nothing. **** happens. Injuries. Births. Deaths in the family. Guys miss games and this is an anomaly, not a trend.

[franklin]

Jesus, you're short-sighted. Let me tell you something. If Pops kept his starters out there for 35 minutes a night for their careers like many teams do, these guys may have already retired, and the Spurs as a whole would be much, much ****tier, thus making their value and worth to the NBA much, much less.

But besides that point, any fans who expect anything are douches. It's not their team. They don't look out for the best interests of the players and therefore of the team like Pops does. But maybe he should just listen to Salty, play them 35 minutes a night for the fans, let them get injured in the process, and be one and done in the playoffs, thus ****ing the fans infinitely more pissed off. Or should they just play through injuries too for the fans? Ya know, because they paid some money.

Get over it. We're entitled to nothing. **** happens. Injuries. Births. Deaths in the family. Guys miss games and this is an anomaly, not a trend.

Its real sad when millionaires see healthy young men as lowly sport for their spectator feast. Has this country really degraded to Rome status this fast? Who cares about the health of citizens as long as the front row gets their entertainment...

[PKM]

Its real sad when millionaires see healthy young men as lowly sport for their spectator feast. Has this country really degraded to Rome status this fast? Who cares about the health of citizens as long as the front row gets their entertainment...

In all seriousness, I am curious.. have you ever made yourself a student of the Roman Empire? I only ask because I did and I named my company (one that I sold in '05) after that era. I collected Roman Empire era artifacts that were awesome. I became fascinated with that time period.

(That was probably weird, so ..)

[Hack]

I love Pop. Dude is an awesome coach. I love that he has the stones to do thing his way, instead of being worried about what people think. I would love to have him as our coach.

[The Thriller]

I love Pop.

But I'm not a big fan of this.

[SaltyDawg]

Jesus, you're short-sighted. Let me tell you something. If Pops kept his starters out there for 35 minutes a night for their careers like many teams do, these guys may have already retired, and the Spurs as a whole would be much, much ****tier, thus making their value and worth to the NBA much, much less.

But besides that point, any fans who expect anything are douches. It's not their team. They don't look out for the best interests of the players and therefore of the team like Pops does. But maybe he should just listen to Salty, play them 35 minutes a night for the fans, let them get injured in the process, and be one and done in the playoffs, thus ****ing the fans infinitely more pissed off. Or should they just play through injuries too for the fans? Ya know, because they paid some money.

Get over it. We're entitled to nothing. **** happens. Injuries. Births. Deaths in the family. Guys miss games and this is an anomaly, not a trend.

Maybe he should just sit them all season and only put them out on the floor for the playoffs. Maybe every team should start doing this. Careers would be lengthened, and injuries to star players would be reduced.

Or, maybe the Spurs could just do what everyone else does and give 100% every game. When players get old or get hurt you find replacements. This is part of the game.

Hopefully Stern teaches them that integrity is required. If they're too old to go a full season then maybe it's time to call it a career.

If the Spurs players were already retired from playing too many minutes, some other players/team would have already taken their place. It's the league's version of natural selection.

[WhiskyPriest]

I absolutely agree with Pop's decision. He has an older team, and he shouldn't risk killing them for one game. Also, where was Stern's high and mightiness during Golden State's tankapalooza last year? At least the Spurs are being honest about not playing their stars.

[WhiskyPriest]

For the people that are upset with this decision,

I am curious. Are you as equally upset when NFL teams rest their starters after clinching the playoffs? I consider this an equal analogy because there are so many playoff spots in the NBA and the Spurs are clearly on pace to get to the playoffs.

[Julie Greengiant]

I thought nobody liked watching the Spurs because they were "boring"

Won't this make them less boring or something?

[SaltyDawg]

I absolutely agree with Pop's decision. He has an older team, and he shouldn't risk killing them for one game. Also, where was Stern's high and mightiness during Golden State's tankapalooza last year? At least the Spurs are being honest about not playing their stars.

For the people that are upset with this decision,

I am curious. Are you as equally upset when NFL teams rest their starters after clinching the playoffs? I consider this an equal analogy because there are so many playoff spots in the NBA and the Spurs are clearly on pace to get to the playoffs.

What Golden State did last season absolutely warranted punishment. It not only warranted severe punishment, but it should have lead to rules changes in how the lottery works. Maybe make lottery position outside of the top 3 less of a guarantee. Like the way it used to be.

I also think it cheats the fans when NFL teams tank games. It's more understandable for an NFL team though, because there are so many more injuries in an NFL game.

To be clear, NBA teams also rest stars after a playoff spot is clinched. This was not one of those situations. The Spurs just decided to tank a game. Their playoff seeding is absolutely not clinched at this early point in the season.

If the playoffs started next week and the Spurs were locked into their playoff seed, I'd have much less of a problem with this. But as it stands right now, the Spurs just tanked a meaningful regular season game.

The integrity of the game shouldn't only be important in the playoffs.

If Pete Rose got banned from baseball for life for betting on his own team, it shouldn't be okay for the Spurs to be openly tanking meaningful regular season games.

I realize they (and other teams) have done this before, but that doesn't make it right. It should have been punished all those other times too.

Remember when the league told Malone he'd be punished if he skipped the all star game? Now it's okay for teams to openly tank pretty big regular season games?