Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald, via Associated Press
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said he believed that the players, who had played five games in eight days, needed rest.
And to think what would have happened if they were given a three-day weekend.
The coach of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team gave four key players the day off Thursday, sending them home from Orlando on a Southwest Airlines flight — with Business Select boarding passes, presumably — instead of taking them along for the team's game in Miami.
The coach, Gregg Popovich, who has won four National Basketball Association championships and is the longest-tenured coach in the league, said he believed that the players, who had played five games in eight days and are scheduled to face another of the league's top teams on Saturday, needed rest.
David Stern, the league's commissioner, objected. He vowed to impose "substantial sanctions" on the Spurs, then followed through by fining the team $250,000 for the couch day, raising a significant question for bosses everywhere: when is it unreasonable to give someone the day off?
After all, the star center Tim Duncan did not call Popovich and fake-cough into the phone. The All-Star guard Manu Ginobili did not forge a note from his mother saying he was sick. And point guard Tony Parker did not just happen to schedule a doctor's appointment at the same time the game was set to tip off.
Popovich willingly gave them a break, a decision that, to some observers, appeared no different from a partner at a law firm giving some worn-out associates a day off before a big trial. Or a company president telling employees to take off Fridays during the summer.
"I don't think he did anything unethical," said W. Michael Hoffman, the executive director of the center for business ethics at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. "I'd also say that if Stern decides to sanction, that would be closer to an ethical discussion. To sanction him for Popovich trying to do his job the best way he determines? That is what leaders of any organization are hired to do. Popovich's primary obligation is to the team."
Examples abound of similar situations in sports, including several previous instances involving the Spurs. Most recently, Popovich rested three of his top players last April in preparation for the playoffs. Nevertheless, in the last two seasons, the Spurs finished with their conference's best record but failed to reach the N.B.A. finals.
In baseball, managers routinely give players days off during the season, and it is virtually expected that a catcher will not play in a day game if he played in a game the night before. To carry the parallel even further, Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, did not threaten the Washington Nationals with punishment when the team shut down the wunderkind pitcher Stephen Strasburg, not allowing him to pitch late in the season as a way to protect his arm.
"If the N.B.A. punishes the Spurs for sitting players, it opens up a huge can of worms," Steve Kerr, a former N.B.A. player who now works as an analyst for TNT, wrote in a Twitter message earlier Friday.
Stern, however, was apparently unconcerned about setting a precedent. He said in a statement that the Spurs had violated a league policy that deals with "resting players in manner contrary to the best interests of the N.B.A." He added: "Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans."
Hoffman acknowledged the conflicting ethical obligations in the Spurs' situation — Stern's emotion came from what he apparently perceived as an act disrespectful to the fans and the game, while Popovich felt compelled to act in the best interest of his team — but cautioned that imposing discipline was wrong if there were no specific guidelines given ahead of time.
"Are there rules on how many players have to play?" Hoffman said. "Are the coaches trained by the league on what their obligations are to the fans in terms of using players? Maybe this is something that will raise the issue."
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