If you were going to watch one of the so-called greatest basketball players of all time, would you want to see him actually playing? Or would you rather watch him stay on the bench because he needs rest? It is a serious question because in the NBA now, coaches are deciding to sit their star players in order for them to rest up. One prime example is Lebron James because he has sat multiple games in the past two or three seasons for rest. Basketball lovers from all over the world go far out of their way in some cases to watch him play, but more likely than not, they can catch him sitting the bench. I know Lebron is not the only player doing this but he is considered to be one of, if not the best basketball players ever, and if he can’t fight through playing basketball for 15-20 minutes a night, then he just needs to think about retiring soon.

The Cavaliers are the biggest culprit of the whole sitting star players idea because they have sat on multiple occasions their “big three,” which consists of Kyrie Irving, Lebron and Kevin Love. All three of those players have been an all star at least four times in their NBA career. Earlier in the season all three Cavs’ stars sat as well as Pelicans’ center Demarcus Cousins and Spurs’ forward LaMarcus Aldridge  sat at the request by either their head coach or people higher up in the organization.

Not only is this a problem with the fans not being able to see their favorite players live and in action, but, according to sportsbusinessdaily.com, ESPN are paying the NBA upwards of $1.4 billion a year to broadcast the games, and if star players aren’t playing then it cheats them out of money because fewer people will watch. That is a problem because, like I said, if ESPN is paying the NBA $1.4 billion, then every time someone doesn’t watch ESPN could lose money, and if teams are sitting people multiple times during a season, the money starts to pile up. It might not be a huge amount of money, but it is still probably frustrating for ESPN and other broadcasting channels.

“Decisions of this kind can affect fans and business partners, impact our reputation and damage the perception of our game,”  NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote in a memo sent to all teams, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “With so much at stake, it is simply not acceptable for governors to be uninvolved or to defer decision-making authority on these matters to others in their organizations.”

Although I think that teams should not sit star players, I do understand that there is more that goes into it. For example, Lebron is aging, and he probably needs more rest than others, and it probably helps him out in the long run to be able to sit out a game here and there. Also some players may be coming off recent injury, so it would help them to be able to sit out once or twice a in a stretch of games.