Sports are def entertainment, but basketball is the one sport where championships seem to matter more than anything else as far as legacy goes.

One thing that's kind of struck me about this affair is that it's another illustration of how detached the sports media actually is from sports fans. I completely understand and am somewhat on board with the "how's it get you closer to a championship?" view of the people in favor of load management; I can definitely tolerate arguments that load management is Rational and Good more than I can for arguments that superteams are Rational and Good. Unfortunately though a lot of the people taking that side of argument have the typical NBA writer mentality that anyone annoyed about not being able to see Kawhi or another star due to load management just doesn't get it (or even worse, that it's actually the fans' fault because they're too judgmental about rings and titles above all else, despite the fact that 99% of the discourse about greatness is driven by the media and not the fans anyway).

What's worse to me though is how skewed the perspective is on the part of the people who are supposed to be anti-load management. Kornheiser a few days ago went on a long rant about how pissed off he'd be if he ran ESPN when the Clippers said Leonard was sitting, and I've noticed much of the talk about this has centered on the league and the networks. The thing I don't get is how that's the example you immediately go to instead of the paying fan, which is the main party getting screwed in this scenario. I get that any intervention by the league would ostensibly be for the benefit of the fan, but I don't get why we immediately have to center the networks and the maximization of their contract value when something like this occurs. It strikes me as another case of the meatballs who are central to the economic success of the league simply being alien to the majority of the NBA commentariat.

I’m not going to get angry because some corporations aren’t profiting to maximum capacity. That’s ridiculous.

Steph somehow has earned a reputation of playing worse in the finals and not being good enough to win finals MVP despite averaging better stats in the finals than the regular season.

I will say the NBA should implement some sort of insurance/reimbursement option if a certain player decides not to play the game a fan bought tickets for.

I will say the NBA should implement some sort of insurance/reimbursement option if a certain player decides not to play the game a fan bought tickets for.