Recently, a lot has been said of teams across the NBA landscape deciding to rest their star players. Team owners and coaches feel that they should be able to rest their players whenever they so choose. However, Adam Silver and the league office argue that players sitting out creates huge revenue problems and a let-down in terms of fan experience.
While there are valid arguments to be made for both sides, there is still no resolution to the issue. Instead, the league office continues to shell out fines to the teams that hold players out for rest.
The Cavaliers, as most fans of the team know, sometimes hold players out. Earlier in the season (March 18th), head coach Tyronn Lue decided to rest the Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love in a nationally-televised road game against the Los Angeles Clippers, much to the dismay of the NBA and many fans at the arena.
Quite a few former players have chimed in with an opinion on the idea of resting players. Dennis Rodman, one the greatest to ever clean glass in the NBA, recently told CBS Sports that Michael Jordan, his former teammate with the dynastic Chicago Bulls, would have never taken a day off.
After hearing Rodman’s remarks, Charles Oakley, a beloved Clevelander and “old-school” NBA legend, posted a message on his Twitter account in support of James. As he often did in his playing days, Oakley laid the wood.
Alright, we all know Jordan was, well — Jordan. Most concede that he was the greatest basketball player on the planet during his playing days. It’s hard to say if we’ll ever see another talent like him. What it all boils down to is the fact that the NBA has changed. For the most part, the days of towering centers and banging in the paint are gone. Enter a new style of play, filled with smaller, stretch types of lineups.
While the game may have evolved, staying on the good side of injury reports has always been a priority for teams — no matter what era of hoops you grew up in.
