Stat, I agree with you. The coach should have the right to play his players whatever way he wants. The NBA is at fault for scheduling 4 games in 5 days for the Spurs.
Pulling back the curtain on this drama, I'm beginning to wonder what's happening backstage. Stern works for the league, which is another way of saying he's accountable to the owners. The simple explanation for his strong action is he just acted as he thought best without regard to what any of the owners thinks. Okaaaaaayy. I doubt that. I'm guessing he got a scathing call from the Heat (and before the Heat called him they probably lined up a number of other owners to get on board) to slap down the Spurs with a $250,000 fine. If something like that was the case, "...this means war..." amongst the NBA owners. I doubt the Spurs organization is going to take this crap lying down. I'm betting they're doing their own wagon circling. We'll see who is the bigger group. I'm also betting Stern steps down soon "having achieved greatness for the NBA during his tenure... blah....blah....". His bosses are the owners, not the other way around. The fine was against an owner, not a player. I'm sure that doesn't settle very well in San Antonio.
Who knows what the real reason for the fine is, but on the surface Stern is saying because they didn't notify the league with ample time. I can actually understand that from a gambling perspective. The reason why injury reports were created in the NFL is so that no one had "inside information" on who would play week to week. I have no idea how the line shifted prior to this game and the news becoming public, but wouldn't surprise me if some people profited from this because they saw them leaving the facility and heading to the airport...
The Spurs finished playing 10 of 13 games on the road and Pop said he had that game targeted for rest before the season started. It was the end of a long road trip, he wanted to prevent injuries and he wanted the team to be fresh for the Memphis game. Miami is in the other conference and didn't mean jack. Memphis is in the same division and a win could be a determining factor for playoff seedings. Apparently the strategy worked as they beat the Grizzlies last night.
The NBA has more "behind-the-scenes" gambling issues that end up being privately swept under the rug than all of the other major sports. This instance absolutely has to do with those issues, and it's why Stern stepped in and did what he did. On the surface, it's "detrimental to the NBA" and "they didn't tell us with enough time," but in locked conference rooms, it's "a bookie from Vegas saw them at the airport and quietly changed his line." No one will ever convince me that Michael Jordan's first "retirement" was because of his dad's death... it was because of issues like these that Stern has to delve in to. That said, I'm glad Stern is retiring.
