A Writer Writes!
I was watching a Thursday night NBA game between Golden State and Cleveland on television as my distraction from the serious side of life. Lebron James had scored some 40 plus points and sat on the bench looking tired. A part of me wondered by the way he looked if he would be too worn out to play the same way against the Indiana Pacers the next night? I thought that because my spouse and I had purchased tickets months ago at $167 a ticket to see Cleveland play the Pacers that next night. Kyrie Irving had already come up semi injured earlier with some type of shoulder injury. But, my thought was surely Lebron can recover from a maximum effort night as it's only about an hour flight from Cleveland to Indiana and he could rest during the day.
Well once we arrived at the game, after spending fifteen minutes searching for parking, it was announced that Lebron would not be playing as it was a back-to-back game and he was at home "resting". An updated story this morning was that Lebron's back was sore so the coach gave him the night off. My immediate thought was this is the new policy for NBA teams and players. Unlike the old school players in the 1960s and 1970s the current generation of players does not play every game because they don't have to. Even though somehow traveling conditions for players, with chartered airline flights, is much better than in previous decades, somehow today's players cannot do what their predecessors did. That being simply allowing fans who paid good money to see you play, actually see you play.
I understand a player and a coach has a right to decide a player's body needs some rest. But, give me the fan the ability to decide that if a star player does not have a league confirmed injury and will not play to rest their body, I should also have the ability to go to the ticket office and ask for a refund or a discounted ticket price. My wife and I paid to see Lebron play along with his teammates. He was not injured, he apparently did not have a family emergency. He had a sore back and wasn't going to put his body through back to back games within a 24 hour time frame. His decision, the team's decision. That is fine. My decision if I had been given the chance would have been to ask for a refund or a discounted ticket price. I didn't get that opportunity. Basically the NBA, and the owners of NBA teams are saying, we've got your money now, so just sit down and watch the game stupid.
Yes, the game was entertaining, but not worth $167 a ticket to see non Lebron caliber players. My decision during the game was that it will be a long time before I purchase another NBA ticket. For the price I paid for two NBA tickets my wife and I could see three Cincinnati Reds baseball games with good lower level seats. In baseball the players push themselves to play because it is truly a team sport and each player knows they are needed.
For those of you who purchase tickets to NBA games, check the schedule of the team whom you will be playing against to see if the team played the night before. If they did than it is likely the team will be resting star players. Don't waste your money on purchasing tickets for those NBA games. Take your family out to dinner and talk to each other. Oh yeah, by the way Cleveland lost the game to the Pacers, Lebron gave us a victory by deciding to rest. Thanks Lebron.
A final thought. I wish I could have seen the old school players like Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain play. I'm sure they were tired and needed rest some games. But they chose to play.
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