LeBron James and company recently sat out of a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Clippers sparking an ongoing debate about players willingly sitting out games. The discussions began a few years back as Gregg Popovich started to frequently rest his players throughout the season. The “problem” peaked in 2012 as Popovich was fined $250K for resting four players on another nationally televised game against the Miami Heat.
In a video posted on Cleveland.com, LeBron talks about why he believes resting players has again become an issue.
I don’t understand why it’s become a problem now? Because I have started to sit out a couple games?
It is interesting that LeBron feels it is only being discussed now. Even as a reporter attempted to list other players who have been criticized for resting, James insisted that it was because he is now taking games off.
He is a dominant figure in the league so he does spark lots of conversation but this goes back many years. James did credit Popovich, however, with the start of resting players but interestingly enough said he didn’t get much backlash. Even though Pop was fined almost 5 years ago, in a game against the Heat when James played in South Beach… You can watch the full interview below.
