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The issue of player rest has been a prevalent one during the past month of the regular season, with ABC getting the short end of the stick with back-to-back rating duds due to the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers — two of the most prominent teams — sitting out their star players prior to broadcasts.
The league has since reached out to owners in order to make them conscious of the product the league expects to put out for their network affiliates and broadcast partners, making the issue a sticky one due to the physical and mental toll of a long 82-game regular season.
Warriors point guard Stephen Curry dished on his thoughts regarding the matter.
Article Continues Below“It's an uncomfortable conversation, because as a player, you never think about just taking a day off,” Curry told Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding. “But when you actually are in the position that we are in, you understand how important it is. It's not just playing a game.”
“Waking up after a long stretch of games or a road trip or whatever, waking up and not having to mentally prepare for that 7:30 tipoff is invaluable. Physically, it's nice to get fresh or stay off your legs. But the mental preparation it takes for us to get ready for a game, it's taxing. You undervalue that whole 24 hours, just how important that is.”
The reigning MVP also thought about the issue from the business side, which is losing ratings by the lot when star players rest, as well as fans when they buy a full-priced ticket, only to not find their favorite players on the court, but on the bench taking the day off.
“So for Adam [Silver], he's running the league and obviously he might think it's an issue. I don't think it is,” said Curry. “We've done it one time this year. Last year we did it one time. We're talking about one out of 82 games. I don't think it's something to worry about.
“Obviously you hate to miss Saturday ABC prime-time games, but hey, that's just how the schedule fell (at San Antonio). So hopefully we can smarten up about how to schedule it so we don't have to be put in that position. This has been a thing coaches have done for years and there are certain guys with egos who are vocal about not missing games or whatnot.”
The latter could be seen as a subtle shot at James Harden, who prior to suffering a wrist injury, claimed that he was the kind of player to play every game. A few games later, he was forced to sit out against the Phoenix Suns, missing his first game of the season.
Rest is an invaluable perk for a player, and if timed right, could make a difference between a sluggish performance and a surging pep in his step. The league and players will have to soon come to terms in a provision allowing both sides a fair outcome from this issue.
