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F1Dan88 t1_j0lbs3n wrote

Reply to comment by blogst in Heat place literally every player on injury report after receiving NBA fine ahead of Mexico City game by XXmynameisNeganXX

I flew to St. Louis to see the Cardinals at home for my first time in 2006. A week earlier Pujols hurt his oblique and was out for a month. He was my favorite player and I was bummed I didnt get to see him. I wholeheartedly understand wanting to see your favorite players, but you aren't buying a ticket to LeBron James. You are buying a ticket to the Los Angeles Lakers. And in your example you got to see what you paid for. In the example from this article, the Heat won the damn game, which is the goal. Fining a team who fielded a winning squad against another NBA team for their coaching and roster decisions is a massive overreach and sets a dangerous precedent. The players aren't slaves who "must" play whenever the league wants them to.

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ATL-East-Guy t1_j0leehr wrote

There are plenty of people who are fans of players and not teams. Most folks have their team, and then their favorite players.

Maybe you were a Cavs fan and are ride or die for Lebron so when the Lakers come to town you shell out big. Maybe your kid loves watching Steph shoot threes but lives in Atlanta.

Plenty of scenarios where a person would want to go watch a single player.

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odiezilla t1_j0lemmf wrote

I’m sorry, but basketball is vastly different. People can and do absolutely buy tickets to see individual superstars as opposed to teams. Not to say certain franchises aren’t popular draws, but nobody ever gave a damn about coming out to see the Cleveland Cavs or Philadelphia 76ers. You went to see Lebron and Allen Iverson do spectacular things.

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timothythefirst t1_j0lhz2g wrote

The nba is as popular as it is because since the early 80s they’ve marketed star players over teams. David stern openly said that. And because of that, there’s TONS of people out there who will tell you “I’m not a lakers fan, I’m a lebron fan”, and it’s always been like that.

Baseball has always done the complete opposite of that and not marketed their stars well at all and just rely on teams to capture their local fan base, so it makes sense to hold them to a different standard.

Plus hurting your oblique and missing a month straight is completely different than a star basketball player taking a rest day. No one gets mad at basketball players when they sprain their ankle and miss multiple weeks because that’s an actual injury that you can’t or at least shouldn’t play through. It just pisses people off to see “rest” on the injury report. It’s just like how if you called into work because you had covid they’d understand and tell you get well soon but if you call in and just say “I’m in the mood for a rest day” they’d look at you crazy.

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abqcurl t1_j0lf90c wrote

Just went to a Cardinals game at Wrigley this summer. Of course I was hoping to see Pujols and Molina play but the only day we could go was a day game after a night game. Figured both of them would be resting, especially when I saw they played the previous game. I was actually hoping for the Cubs to tie or take the lead in the late innings so maybe Pujols could pinch hit.

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