The Shrine

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/88472 ... op-players

The weird thing about this is I'm reading a bunch of people saying the lawsuit is frivilous because you're supposed to watch the team, because when the Miami Heat comes into town and you wonder why all the ticket prices has an extra 0 at the end, it surely is for the rich history of the Miami Heat have in basketball as opposed to the fact that LeBron James currently plays for the Heat. The NBA has a history of fining heavily for teams that purposely rest their players because it's bad for the image. I think there's an issue with assigning blame since it's mostly just a coach going rogue (Poppvich) so the Spurs could just say coach has authority to decide who is ready or not, even though Poppvich didn't even try to pretend he was resting these guys in a protest (no bogus injury and they didn't even come on the plane to Miami). I mean I get that at some levels as fans you shouldn't always expect to see the stars if there's an incentive to sit them but usually teams at least come up with bogus injuries so that you cannot just say they're outright lying.

The players are the product. You pay to see that. Why do you think OKC suddenly became a big-time draw, or the Mavs after decades of mediocrity, or the Pittsburgh Penguins after they were so bankrupt that Mario Lemieux got majority ownership after he became their biggest creditor with the $38M they owed him on his contract? It ain't because of the name on the front of the jersey