The NBA is trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.
Their newly approved resting policy is trying to curb what the league sees as a problem that has gotten out of control; that too often teams err on the side of overly cautious and sit players who are healthy enough to play.
"This is an acknowledgment that it’s gotten away from us a bit, particularly I think when you see young, healthy players who are resting,” Adam Silver said at his Board of Governors press conference yesterday. “And it becomes maybe even more a notion of stature around the league as opposed to absolute needed rest, or it’s just part of being a NBA player that you rest on certain days. That’s what we’re trying to move away from.”
Teams face tougher penalties, up to a million dollars for multiple offenses, for sitting out stars for nationally televised games and in-season tournaments. They also prohibit teams from sitting multiple All-Stars for regular season games.
It’s an admirable stance, but the culture of “championships or bust” has created a situation from which it is impossible to fully recover. It's the COVID of sports psyche: It’s infected too many people at this point, and we’re just going to have to live with it.
For example, I tweeted after the Patriots went down 16-0 “Well, Patriots fans, the Celtics should be pretty good this year.” And one of the responses was:
“By pretty good do you mean falling short once again of winning NBA title? Not much to look forward to.”
By pretty good do you mean falling short once again of winning NBA title? Not much to look forward fo
— warnerj33 (@jwarner33) September 10, 2023
Despite there being dozens of fan bases that would gladly switch places with Boston right now, the attitude is getting to the NBA and Conference Finals isn’t good enough, and fans aren’t satisfied with that as the end result.
And I get it. Boston is a championship-or-bust kind of town. Money should be spent, good players and coaches should be acquired, and we should all get to take a day off work to day drink at Government Center as those players and coaches roll by on duckboats.
And herein lies the problem.
Sports science has advanced to a point where player fatigue is getting easier and easier to measure. We know that fatigue leads to injuries, and so the more fatigue a player is showing, the more likely it is that this player will miss time.
Teams that have heavily invested in these players (Jaylen Brown is making how much again?) have determined that the risk/reward of putting fatigued stars on the floor is out of whack. When a team has its sports science group telling them certain players are at higher risk of injury, sitting a guy for a game feels like a pretty solid decision.
If fatigue increases risk of injury, and Brown is fatigued, then Brown probably shouldn’t risk getting hurt even if he things he feels fine.
That's how the thinking goes, anyway.
Teams and their medical staffs are making these calls 99% of the time. Jayson Tatum is notorious for fighting decisions like this.
“I totally understand, it’s a long season, some guys are a little bit older or managing certain injuries and there’s sports science. For some guys, it’s what’s best for them,” Jayson Tatum said this past March. “I try to never take this situation for granted. I never try to take it for granted … The organization, Brad (Stevens), sometimes wants me to play a little bit less, but we have conversations and it’s as simple as I love being out there, I love playing, I love competing, I love trying to win as much as I can.”
Stevens has said multiple times that Tatum fights the team on decisions to sit, saying “he's one of those - I don't know if it's throwback or whatever - but he does not like to sit."
And that's great. Tatum, like all of us, understands that the people in the stands have paid a lot of money to be there. A family of four going to a Celtic game have to pay hundreds of dollars just for the tickets. Toss in parking, food, and something from the team store for the kiddos, and that family is eating ramen all next week for dinner.
No one is denying that a player sitting robs those fans of an experience. But if the science is correct and one of these stars does get hurt, then what happens to all the fans who don’t get to see that star, or to the team that loses a championship because of the timing of that injury?
The science is the question right now.
“If the science were clearer that players should be resting, we would be favoring it,” Silver said. “And, frankly, I would be delivering the message to the fans even that you want these players to rest at certain times because that’s going to keep them healthier and performing at a higher level and ensuring that they’re on the floor at critical times in the season.”
Strategic rest is a new phenomenon and enough of the people involved believe that it’s necessary. The owners invest a lot of money in their players, and the last thing they want is for their stars to miss games, so they go along with strategic rest so they don’t lose their stars for long periods of time. Players go along with it, however reluctantly, because they know there is a ring at stake, and they will be judged by how many of those rings they win.
There is a very punitive financial system in place in the NBA, and teams with megastar players making the most money have little recourse if those guys go down with an injury. The more money these guys make, and the closer these teams are to the dreaded second apron, the more worried they should be about keeping guys healthy.
So where do teams go from here?
It’s a tough call. There is value in strategic rest. Playing NBA basketball from October to June is tough and there are times where everyone can use a game or two off to rest. Everyone needs a break from work every once in a while.
The league is about making money, but the more money it takes in, the bigger this problem becomes. We all want every fan to see every star in every game, but every fan also wants the players to stay healthy and for their favorite team to win a championship. Wherever the league goes with this, and however teams subvert the rules, we all have to understand that if the goal is to win championships at all costs, then everyone has to give a little.
