So what will happen now? Will teams have to make up fake injuries in order to rest players when they want to? This is all just silly.

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They will have to notify the Miami Heat in a timely manner.






Even if they are playing Sacramento.

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Or how about rest players without sending four out of five starters home.

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You don't seriously agree with this garbage, do you?

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Don't you ever change that avatar, KS.

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So, I'm curious ... and probably ill-informed ... and a dumb-ass ... but I'm not fat ... okay, that's a lie ... but I'm not a three-legged cricket, so I've got that in my favor.

Anyway, my curiosity lies with the Spurs organ-eye-zation, insofar as what if they decided to really drag the process out (even knowingly in vain, perhaps), or even just say something in legalese along the lines of "suck our collective dicks, we ain't payin' shit".

I'm not suggesting they will ... I won't even necessarily say that it's an intelligent option ... but what if they did? How would the league respond? Are there protocols in place? Do they decree that all games are forfeit until the fine is paid? Do they have legal authority to seize the funds by prearranged legal avenues as part of the Spurs' membership contract?

Kinda something to discuss if it gets boring, kinda something to consider just for the exercise of figuring out what might happen just for the sake of personal edification.

I'm writing for shit, and I'll stop now. Other than to ask KS to go back to the bear ... I enjoyed it very thoroughly.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

You're a man after my own heart Tiny.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

For fucks sake, this is professional basketball we are talking about. Do professional basketball players really need to have support? Give me a break. Maybe they can work out getting all the mothers of the players to bring snacks and drink pouches for after the game too...

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

We're on fire tonight!

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It was my way of asking you to be kinder and gentler...so to speak.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

Hi.

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So you're no longer message board gay? That would hurt me.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

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Fuck that. I'm gonna test you:


Hey, what are you wearing dude?

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

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Watch this movie Baby Mc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YUGlOG ... ata_player

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Why? That's probably not in the best interest of the team.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I would say the best interest of the league overrules the best interest of any team. Fans, and advertisers, are paying premium dollar to attend and watch these shows (and that's what they are - shows). The league needs to provide a semblance of competitive balance, and the players should have no other priority but to appear at their events.

Look, everyone understands players have injuries and need rest, and there is a ton of leeway granted in that regard. But, this is pretty brazen, having the starting lineup not even in the same city the team is playing in. People say the fine establishes a precedent - well, so does the notion of players skipping road trips. It would not be good for the league for that to become a regular thing.

Also there is the appearance of impropriety from a gambling standpoint.

It's also interesting to note, Sammy Sosa is ruined in this town because he left a game that he wasn't even playing in two innings early, in the final game of a crappy season.

This is a CSFMB Sports Minute by newper.

So ridiculous. I would LOVE if Doc Rivers and Mike D'Antoni and Scott Brooks would call each other and make a deal to sit their guys on any given night. At the bare minimum, Stern needs to lay down the rules that determine whether you will get a fine or not. If not, do we need to have every coach clear their personnel plan with Stern before every game? Many feasible scenarios have been brought up today and yesterday, but a great one is if Rose is healthy with just five games left in the season, and they decide just to sit him, is that an offense?

The problem is any given regular season game in the NBA means jack squat because there are too many and too many teams make the playoffs. Send the top four from each conference, and you might see some change. What else could Stern be defending -- gamblers that are expecting starters that aren't there? Throwing of games to end up in the lottery (yeah, that -never- happens.) I know this is fresh in my mind, but wow such a hit to a legacy of a sports commissioner. He should move on out of there. I expect the people to defend Stern consist of CGS and few others.

What if Rose was healthy and you just want to give him a break in the game so you sit him for 7 minutes in the 3rd quarter? Will Stern say that is bad? If not, why not put out the rules as to what is legal and not legal as to resting players? And then we can play the game where we say all of these guys have nagging injuries and they need a day off. The whole thing is bullshit; sorry that the NBA got embarrassed, but fix your system and you won't have this happening again. But please make an argument as to why this fine exists. Obviously the offense was sitting starters, but (in my mind) a valid reason was given for this, so I would love to hear a detailed explanation as to why this fine was levied.

My name is newper.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

i'm sure they all went to a strip club

If the Spurs had held on to win the game (they were leading with 43 seconds left), things would really be interesting. He should have fined the Heat for not blowing them out.

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I guess our main disagreement is you think Pop has an obligation to the best interests of the league whereas I'm pretty sure he only has an obligation to the best interests of the Spurs. But I would also say this has nothing to do with gambling or Sammy Sosa.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

But if Pop is the only coach that does this, it could give him an advantage. So other teams will have to start doing it too. Maybe eventually teams will realize they're better off not playing their stars at all for the first four weeks of the season. At some point, the integrity of the league starts to suffer.

I think every team should be obligated to put forth their best effort in every game. Obviously there can be a wide interpretation of "best effort", but, this particular instance is clearly outside of that. Of course in retrospect it was a very close game, but, you can't make judgments like this on a results-oriented basis.

Yeah I guess we just see the game different. Thinbs seems to agree with you. I think every head coach of a contender has an obligation to do his best to win a championship, and that's what Pops was doing.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Which all clearly indicates that you are correct.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I agree. It's also Stern's job to oversee the entire league. Last year was a special case with the jam-packed schedule, but playing in a full six-month season, a commissioner of a league as star-driven as the NBA can't give teams carte blanche to pick out writeoff games, especially, yes, showcase national telecasts. Both Popovich and Stern thought in terms of their own big pictures.

People are going so slippery-slope fallacy on this thing, there should be Hanna-Barbera bongo drums playing as people's feet flail around and they yell "whoOooOOooOOOooAaaaAAaaAAA!!" No, Dan Bernstein, this business with the Spurs does not mean that coaches will get calls from David Stern when they sit their starters for rest/foul trouble in the third quarter. In fact, they probably won't even be scolded for DNPing one veteran starter, or perhaps two. Maybe it just won't be too much to ask that coaches not put 80% of a starting lineup a thousand miles away.

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Well there is a slippery slope... when does the fining stop?

Pop brings the players to the game, but they don't dress and sit on the bench
Pop brings the players to the game, they dress and do warmups, but never play.
Pop brings the players to the game, they dress and do warmups, but don't start, and only play 5 minutes a piece.
Pop brings the players to the game, they dress and do warmups, start, and only play 10 minutes a piece.
Pop brings the players to the game, they dress and do warmups, start, and only play 20 minutes a piece.
Pop brings the players to the game, they dress and do warmups, start, and only play 30 minutes a piece.

What's the line? What's the rule? He needs to come out and say what the rule is. You can't go fining teams $250K because you feel like it. There has to be some rule that was violated and some guideline as to what that rule is.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I'm not the kind of crackerjack legal mind you'd have to be to make it airtight, but you should need to have x amount of players accounted for on the premises, whether dressed or scratched. Having four players 100% unavailable by virtue of their being time zones away from the game affects the integrity of the game. Call up D-League bodies if you have to send people home, but you shouldn't be allowed to be that shorthanded. That's what I have a problem with more than the fact that it was Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, et al who weren't there.

I know it's different in hockey, because you have to use the whole buffalo in hockey in ways you never have to do in basketball, but there were a few games in recent NHL seasons wherein the Flames and Devils had to dress fewer than the required 20 players because of salary cap issues. 19 and 17 respectively, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure how it was ever addressed that breaking the cap rules superseded breaking the gameday roster rules, but it was a distinct disadvantage, and wasn't fair to the people buying tickets to the game, because essentially not having a fourth line as the Devils did those nights catches up with your legs and yields a poorer product. YES I KNOW THE GAME WAS CLOSE THIS TIME, but you shouldn't be allowed to sabotage yourself so blatantly. There has to be some greater good spoken for here.



You left out the key part of the "slippery slope" phrase, which is that it is a fallacy. Anyone who thinks that playing only 30 minutes could yield disciplinary action is either coloring outside the rhetorical lines or a pure idiot.

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