The question of resting stars is now boiling in the NBA.  We touched on the issue last week and concluded that NBA teams' duty to keep players fresh hasn’t always been properly balanced with their need to keeps fans and networks entertained.  Shortly thereafter, Adam Silver passed out a memo to the teams warning that too much rest, without proper notice to the league, could bring back the stiff fines that David Stern used to levy. There were many loud responses.  Let’s focus on the responses … [Read more...] about NBA and Rest: Is There Science Behind It?

The new normal in the NBA is to give stars copious amounts of rest, even if that means the stars don't play every game.  Teams have made sure their stars do not play too many nights in a row and, as a consequence, stars are rested even for marquee national television games.  The latest example occurred last Saturday night, when the Cavs sat the big stars for an ABC primetime game and the result was that viewers got to see Kay Felder and not Kyrie Irving in a blowout win for the Clipps.  The NBA … [Read more...] about On Resting Stars and Television Concerns