LaMarcus Aldridge Out Indefinitely With Heart Arrhythmia | March 11, 2017
The Spurs will be without one of their most important players for the foreseeable future as LaMarcus Aldridge tends to a health issue.
On Saturday morning, the Spurs announced Aldridge would be out for an indefinite period of time due to a minor heart arrhythmia. Heres the statement they released on the matter.
During his rookie season, Aldridge was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which causes an accelerated heartbeat. he missed a few games that season and had a procedure prior to his sixth season in the league to again address the problem. Heres hoping this current heart condition is one Aldridge can return to full health sooner rather than later from.
WONDER WOMAN | Trailer #3 OFICIAL en EspaƱol (HD) Accion 2017
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Producer Charles Roven discusses the Amazon heroines journey from the comics to Batman v Superman, her solo film, the Justice League and beyond. By Scott Collura
Producer Charles Roven has got several superhero movies on his long list of credits, not the least of which are the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight films. More recently, though, hes helped bring to the screen Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and very soon, Wonder Woman.
I spoke to Mr. Roven when he was still shooting Wonder Woman last year, as the production neared the end of its time in England and was preparing to move to Italy for its Themyscira scenes. Read on for the full chat, where we discuss adapting the Diana Prince of the comics, introducing her in Batman v Superman before her solo film, setting the movie during World War I, and more.
Some minor spoilers follow.
IGN: The decision to set Wonder Womans solo film in World War I is very interesting. It"s not a time period we"ve seen a heck of a lot of in movies these days. Can you talk a bit about that decision?
Charles Roven: One of the reasons that we picked World War I was we felt that it [worked] in terms of that war and what it meant to Diana. Diana was raised on Themyscira with the lore, the history of the Amazons, and the Amazons, you know from the canon and the New 52, were created to be inspirations towards mankind. And [they] helped promote peace and goodwill amongst men and mankind. But at some point, they were enslaved by mankind and they had to break their shackles, which is why they wear the bracelets, as symbols of that. And they were given Themyscira by Zeus.
But they"re always training and they"re warriors, and there"s great pride to their abilities, their fighting abilities, etc. And even though they haven"t had any war on Themyscira, they"re used to fighting being an honorable thing. They"re used to one on one combat, or even if it"s armies fighting each other, ultimately that great legacy of fighting hand to hand. The best warrior wins. There"s a lot of contact, and World War I was the first war where that changed, where it became more remote. You were killing people -- whether it was through guns, through rifles, through mortars, through bombs, through gas attacks -- that you didn"t even know, that you never looked into their eyes. And it ceased to be what I would call an honorable war. And so we wanted that culture shock. And those images of no man"s land and the trenches and fighting for years against an enemy that you really don"t see, who"s a hundred, two hundred yards next to you, but you never see their face, we just wanted those images in the movie because we thought that it would be very, very symbolic to her.
IGN: Can we talk about the challenges of debuting Wonder Woman in Batman vs Superman, knowing that you were then going to give her her own film shortly thereafter?
Roven: Obviously we had the goal of making our character very compelling and interesting and exciting, and hopefully making you engage with the character so that you would want more. Obviously that"s the big goal in terms of Wonder Woman. But in terms of making Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, we wanted to make sure that, on the one hand, you had these two amazing icons and clearly and interestingly explained why these two guys would end up having conflict with each other. But at the same time, we wanted to make sure that we were also using the film as a gateway for the Justice League characters. And that gateway starts with wonder woman. so we wanted to make sure that [in BvS] she is mysterious, but not so mysterious that she"s off-putting, but mysterious where she"s engaged you and you want to go, who"s this woman? Hopefully by the end of the film, you"re going, I really want to know more about her.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.
IGN: Coming off of BvS, do you have room to play with the tone of the solo film?
Roven: I think that"s one of the exciting things with working with all these varied talented writers and directors. We create sort of a road map, but the road map really has destination points in it and it allows for somebody like Patty [Jenkins] or [Aquamans] James Wan or [Suicide Squads] David Ayer to come in and say, well, that"s great, we understand that we need to get to this point, but I don"t want to take that route, I want to take a different route. And as long as we can get there, and we all talk very collaboratively, it"s really great to have somebody who"s talented and comes up with a different point of view. I would say that the tone of Wonder Woman is certainly action/adventure, but also has got some really wonderful funny, witty opportunities of fish out of water. Steve Trevor is a fish out of water in Themyscira and Diana is completely a fish out of water when she goes to Man"s World.
And, you know, there"s some sobering things about it. We just talked about the World War I aspect, but she"s also coming to London where women have won the vote politically but are still not allowed in the hallowed government halls, are not part of the shaping of the government or the shaping of the laws. And so it allows for a wonderful ability to have some satirical moments. And then her relationship with Steve is really incredibly charming and very fun and quite romantic.
IGN: If you look back at the superhero movies from just the past 10 or 15 years, initially there was a resistance to delve too much into the more fantasy type elements. Almost like there was an expectation that audiences couldn"t bite off too much of that. Obviously you guys feel completely confident that this is something that audiences are ready for.
Roven: A Superman movie like Man of Steel is going to have, in some cases, a sobering tone, but it"s also going to be very distinctive, have more light if you will than a movie about Batman. Because Batman"s a much darker character. Superman became Superman because he didn"t plan on becoming Superman. The circumstances got him to Earth, and through inspiration by his two fathers and his mother, he came up with the idea of actually revealing himself to mankind. Batman, on the other hand, he did it because of the tragedy of his life, so that"s why he"s darker, grittier, etc. Wonder Woman is really one of the few, if not the only, superhero who grew up with this legacy of heroism. And so from the time that she was a little girl, it was her goal to fulfill the mandate that was given to the Amazons, and she can"t wait to do it. So that"s a different character from any of the others, not to mention of course that it"s the first female superhero. So it gave us a lot to work with and a lot to make sure we were telling a different story.
IGN: Now assuming that the Wonder Woman solo film does well, and you decide you wanted to make a sequel -- I know its very early to talk about something like this -- but could it be the kind of thing where the future Wonder Woman films continue to explore her past? We know that she"s immortal, basically, and she"s been around for all this time. Because it strikes me that one of the things about setting the film in 1917 or in 1918 is that all of her supporting cast is sort of stuck back there now, so Gal [Gadot] can come forward with the Justice League and everything in the modern times, but Steve Trevor and Lucy [Davis] and the rest are still in the past.
Roven: Well, I don"t want to say anything is off the table. You know, we just want to make sure that we come up with really good compelling stories, but for now all of the movies have a certain kind of they"re kind of intertwined. So Man of Steel gave you some nuggets that allowed you to see that it was connected to Batman v Superman. You don"t have to have seen Man of Steel in order to enjoy Batman v Superman At the end of Batman v Superman, Diana is in a certain place. We"re gonna learn about her in Wonder Woman but you know she"s also in Justice League. So we have a lot of flexibility to go back and revisit things if they make sense, from anywhere from when Wonder Woman ends to any period of time up to and including Batman v Superman, or Justice League quite frankly. Or to just pick up her story after JL1.
Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Lucy Davis and Danny Huston. The film will be released on June 2, 2017.
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.
Take one part Akira Kurosawa, one part Sergio Leone, a dash of futuristic sci-fi, and blend it all together under the creative eye of one the best animators of our time. Thats your recipe for SAMURAI JACK. Created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky in 2001, SAMURAI JACK looks and feels to this day unlike anything in western animation. The series ran until 2004 and in that time the show put its title character through a series of increasingly impossible challenges in his desperate attempt to return to the past and defeat the evil wizard Aku who ravaged his homeland and conquered the world.
Every episode of SAMURAI JACK is a work of art onto itself. The animators of the series gave the show a unique look. Rather than thick, clearly drawn border lines on the characters and the backgrounds, the characters are drawn without outlines, creating impressionistic geometric shapes that move freely through the action.
Since the drawings have no outlines, the series used bright colors to clearly define the interaction between character and background. The show also evokes classic samurai and western cinema through its use of action to tell the story. Usinglittle to no dialogue, many episodes were written by the animators as they were drawing out the storyboards rather than using pre-written scripts.
CLICK: What does the future of American animation look like? ComicsVerse takes a look.
For SAMURAI JACK, theaction is the story. Unfortunately, the series ended in 2004 before Jack could be given a proper ending to his story. Luckily, Adult Swim is reviving the series for one final season. Here are the episodes that best express SAMURAI JACK"s creative mandate of visual action as astory,which any fan should rewatch before Jack comes back for his final season this weekend.
Episode I: The Beginning
Of course, the first episode had to be mentioned, but I want to discuss a specific moment in this episode that establishes the power of SAMURAI JACK"s visual storytelling. I remember first sitting down to watch SAMURAI JACK as a kid. The show started and the first images of the series played out before my eyes. A tall black monolith against a red sky exploded out of the ground. No fanfare. Just a cacophonous explosion. The monolith turns slowly. A small flame, followed by a long, green, snake-like mouth turn around. Then the eyes open. Those bulbous eyes with beady pupils under flaming eyebrows. This was my first look at Aku, and his frozen Oni mask face unsettled my pre-pubescent mind. I was hooked before he even spoke.
The episode itself beautifully sets up the series to come. As a boy, Jack listens to his father recount the tale of how he initially defeated Aku and trapped him away forever. The tale is interrupted by the resurgence of the evil wizard. As his father is killed, Jack is sent away to train and prepare for the battle against Aku with his fathers magic sword in hand.
The tale is a simple one, but the animation style beautifully realizes the ancient lands of Jacks home and the training montage that follows Jack from youth to adulthood. Jacks journey brings to mind Bruce Waynes international training to avenge his familys death, but it also reveals the myriad of cultural influences that will play into future SAMURAI JACK episodes.
Episode XXV: Jack and the Spartans
Do you like Frank Millers 300 but always found yourself thinking, This story would be better with 100% more robots? Then the episode Jack and the Spartans are for you. Frank Millers comic RONIN clearly has its fingerprints all over the creative inspiration for SAMURAI JACK, so it is only appropriate that Genndy Tartakovsky and his team would pay homage to Millers tale of the 300 Spartans who faced impossible odds against an impossibly huge army.
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In this version, Jack helps the Spartans against a legion of Minotaur robots led by a Cthulhu-like mechanical master. True to form for the series, Jack and the Spartans rush through the robotic forces that threaten the homeland of the Spartans. The shows widescreen format allows the frames of each fight sequence to be filled with sliced robots and flying sparks as metal clashes against metal. Some of SAMURAI JACKs best sequences involve our hero mowing down hordes of robot adversaries, but it is this episode that delivers the coolest giant battle scenes in the series.
SAMURAI JACK dipped its toes into a lot of genres, but it didn"t spend too much time with horror. One of the few times it did ended up becoming this phenomenal, fever-dream of an episode. Episode XXXV contains one of the most impressive animated sequences of the entire series. Jack stumbles across an abandoned home with a traditional Japanese structure. In searching the home, Jack discovers that a horrifying demon has taken possession of the house and its inhabitants.
What follows is a series of hallucinatory sequences with Jack seeing flashbacks to the family of the house getting possessed. No exposition about the demon or what occurred to the family is given but none is needed. The ambiguity of what is happening makes the visuals all the more haunting, culminating in Jack being taken by the demon.
The demons dimension looks like an ink wash painting from h**l. The demon and Jack are drawn with outlines that shake like a Richter scale creating a constant movement that gives everything an otherworldly quality and amplifies the terror of the demon that Jack must face. It is a visually stunning moment in a series built on visually stunning moments.
Episode XXXVII and XXXVIII: The Birth of Evil
Rarely ever do prequels live up to audience expectations, but as with many things, SAMURAI JACK turns those expectations on their heads with The Birth of Evil. This episode expands on the story Jacks father told him way back in episode one and provides further clues about the origin of Aku.
Once again, the animators behind SAMURAI JACK tell a story using only sound and visuals. The first part of this two-part episode is nearly dialogue-free, but it still manages to convey the terrifying origins of Aku. Its hard to select only one sequence from this two-parter to highlight. The opening scene with the pantheon of gods hunting Akus original form, Jacks father and his troops being picked off one by one as Aku explodes out of the Earth, the sickening cracks like horrible trees as Aku is born into his full form for the first time, or the battle between Jacks father and hundreds of Aku duplicates could all be classified as the greatest moment of these episodes.
CLICK: Want more swords and fantasy in the SAMURAI JACK vein? Check out the comic book HEAD LOPPER!
However, the strength of these episodes is how it succeeds where many prequels fail. It reveals interesting details about previously understood events rather than trying to add in needless twists. It doesnt attempt to reinvent the mythology of SAMURAI JACK, but it does enhance it. The episodes also show how confident the animators have become since the first season. This story of Akus origins could only have been told at its best once the animators became masters of storytelling in this world with little to no dialogue.
Episode XI, XVII, XLV, and XLVI: The Scotsman Trilogy
Im cheating a bit here, but its impossible to pick just one Scotsman episode as the best. The character of the Scotsman (voiced by none other than Bender and Jake the Dog himself, John DiMaggio) perfectly represents the off-beat sense of humor of SAMURAI JACK. While the show always presented its content seriously, it could at times be wickedly funny. With his cartoonish stature and insults, as well as his machine gun leg, the Scotsman provided SAMURAI JACK with three of its most action-packed and irreverent episodes.
Each of the Scotsmans episodes has a high-point of comedy in the series, from his endless string of insults toward Jack in his first appearance (Jack and the Scotsman)to Jacks discovery of what exactly haggis is (Jack and the Scotsman II). However, the best of these episodes might be The Scotsman Saves Jack pt. I and II. What makes this episode so fun is the complete reversal of the dynamic between the Scotsman and Jack.
Typically, Jack plays the straight man to all the bluster of the Scotsman. In this two-parter, however, the Scotsman stumbles upon an amnesiac Jack who inexplicably speaks with a Keanu Reeves, surfer-bro accent. What follows is an absolute romp of an episode with more STAR WARS references then you can shake a lightsaber at. If you want the best of comedy that SAMURAI JACK has to offer, these are the episodes to seek out.
Episode XLIV: The Princess and the Bounty Hunters
Part of what makes SAMURAI JACK such an innovative and exciting series is the eclectic world building. By having the show take place in the future warped by Akus sorcery, it allowed the creators to make the world of the series a glorious mishmash of technology and global cultures. The episode The Princess and the Bounty Hunters takes advantage of this in an episode that blends THE CANTERBURY TALES with the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode Almost Got Im.
A group of bounty hunters (a Southern gentleman, a Russian brute, a pair of cat-human hybrids, an aboriginal hunter, and a mysterious woman clad in a robotic suit), all converge on a snowed-in hut with the same goal: kill Samurai Jack.
Here the animators use visual storytelling to characterize each of the bounty hunters. As each of them shares their plan for taking out the samurai, the animation style switches to fit the culture the hunter is inspired by. The show switches from aboriginal artto traditional Chinese painting, to a silent film, to a crude crayon drawing, providing the audience with a new visual treat for an already visually stunning series. Typically, the bounty hunters that Jack squares off with are one-dimensional characters, but this episode provides a unique amount of pathos for these one-off antagonists as the story reaches its inevitable conclusion. This episode perfectly captures the anything-goes spirit that made the world of SAMURAI JACK such a rich and creative one.
Episode L: The Tale of X-9
Samurai, Cowboy, Gangster: These archetypes have existed in connection with each other throughout pop culture. Together they form a pyramid honor, a code existing outside the law of civilized society. While these stock characters are separated by time and countries, their characteristics are so similar that stories about one can be adapted into a story about the other. Kurosawas YOJIMBO became Leones A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS which became, in part, the Coen brothers MILLERS CROSSING. Even Jean-Pierre Melville"s tale of a French gangster is entitled LE SAMOURAI. It"s only fitting that SAMURAI JACK encountered the gangster archetype, too.
The X-9 of the title is a retired hit man/robot forced by Aku into one last job: take out Samurai Jack. If he can accomplish this, h**l be allowed to live in peace with his beloved dog Lulu. The episode hits all of the classic marks of the film noir gangster story the narration, the seemingly endless rain, the shadows and jazz but it also reinforces the similarities in the samurai and gangster archetypes. Much like Jack, X-9 follows a strict code of honor and acts to protect the innocent. He is tortured by his quest, but he knows he must fulfill it regardless.
The episode is particularly effective because of the new light it casts on the anonymous hordes of robotic enemies Jack has slain over the series. It"s especially bold for this story to be told as the third-to-last episode of the original series. Did all of the baddies Jack struck down over the last 50 episodes also have rich, inner lives? Seeing Jack outside the context of the hero to force us to question his actions makes this episode one of the standouts of the series.
Gotta Get Back, Back to the Past
With Jacks return this weekend, it remains to be seen how the new episodes will stack up against these classics of the original series. Many of the recent TV revivals that have popped up over the last few years have been at best underwhelming and at worst incredibly disappointing. However, if the animators continue to allow their stunning visuals to drive the action of the series, SAMURAI JACKs reputation as one of the best animated shows of all time will remain as untarnished as his magic sword.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Sunday for President Trump to either prove his claim that President Barack Obama tapped the phones in Trump Tower during last years election campaign or drop the accusation.
The president has one of two choices, either retract orprovide the information that the American people deserve, McCain said in an interview on CNNs State of the Union. I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the president of the United States could clear this up in a minute.
McCain is one of several top lawmakersin Congress to call on Trump to provide evidence of his unsubstantiated claim that Obama ordered Trumps communications monitored. The senators call for more information follows a request from two leading members of the Senate Judiciary Committee forcopies of any warrant applications and court orders redacted as necessary related to wiretaps of President Trump, the Trump Campaign, or Trump Tower.
Former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. on March 5 denied that President Trump"s 2016 campaign was wiretapped while senators of both parties weighed in on the allegations. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
[Top lawmakers ask Justice Department, FBI for any Trump wiretapping warrant applications]
Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) formally requested the information last week in a letterto FBI Director James B. Comey and acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente. Trump administration officials have not provided any evidence to back up the presidents claim from earlier this month.
McCain avoided directly criticizing Trump for using Twitter to spread unverified information, but the senator said a serious charge, such as accusing a former president of illegal wiretapping, should not be handled lightly.
If the allegation is left out there, it undermines the confidence the American people have in the entire way that the government does business, McCain said.
[Fact Checker: Trumps evidence for Obama wiretap claims relies on sketchy, anonymously sourced reports]
Several lawmakers, including McCain and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), have pointed out that Trump could directly ask intelligence officials to corroborate his claim but instead has asked Congress to investigate.
The president actually could himself ask that question, Blunt said on Fox Newss Sunday Morning Futures.
Not all Republicans have been so quick to put the burden of proof on Trump. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) agreed with Trump that Congress should take control of the investigation to safeguard sensitive intelligence.
President Trump said last weekend that he wanted the intelligence committees in the Senate and the House to take up this matter as part of a broader inquiry into Russias activities in our political system last year. Were going to do that,Cotton said Sunday on ABCs This Week.
Through a deliberate and careful process of examining all the intelligence at issue here, and then determining with the executive branch what we can declassify, I think the intelligence committees are in the best position to make those decisions, the senator added.
Here"s what happened after President Trump fired off a tweet accusing former president Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower before the 2016 election. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer cast doubt on the Congressional Budget Office on March 8, saying "If you"re looking at the CBO for accuracy, you"re looking in the wrong place." The CBO is an independent office that is currently scoring the GOP health-care bill. (The Washington Post)
Depending on which outside analyst you ask, between 6 million and 15 million people would probably lose insurance coverage if the Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act passes Congress and is signed into law.
Or, actually, lets revise that. Depending on whom you ask in Republican leadership, the real number is more like zero or, perhaps, negative: People will gain coverage under the proposal.
As part of the Republican push for the American Health Care Act, administration officials joined the Sunday political talk shows to offer their thoughts about the future of coverage. With analysis of the American Health Care Act from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office looming, the officials predictions about the effects of the bill were far rosier than the analysis offered by the Brookings Institution (15 million losing coverage over 10 years) or Standard & Poors (6 million to 10 million by 2024).
Heres what they said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price: Coverage will increase. Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press, Price offered his vision for what success of the bill looked like.
Success, its important to look at that, he said. It means more people covered than are covered right now at an average cost that is less. I believe that we can firmly do that with the plan that weve laid out there.
Last year, Price, then a member of the House, offered an Affordable Care Act replacement bill that was vetoed by President Barack Obama. An analysis of that bill from the Congressional Budget Officefigured that 18 million people would lose coverage under that plan.
Price also told host Chuck Todd that nobody will be worse off financially under the proposal.
Gary Cohn, chief economic adviser to President Trump: Coverage will be maintained. On Fox News Sunday, Cohn was pressed by host Chris Wallace to explain whether the administration would continue to back the American Health Care Act if the Congressional Budget Office also were to predict that millions would losecoverage. He played Cohn a clip from 2015 of Trump on 60 Minutes.
I am going to take care of everybody, Trump said then. I dont care if it costs me votes or not. Everybodys going to be taken care of much better than theyre taken care of now. He repeated a similar claim shortly before his inauguration, telling The Washington Post that [w]ere going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you cant pay for it, you dont get it. Thats not going to happen with us.
Twenty million people gained coverage, have health insurance coverage now who didnt have it before Obamacare. Are some of them going to lose coverage, Wallace asked, because, one, youre going to end over a period of years the Medicaid expansion and, two, the tax credits are not going to provide as much help as the subsidies did to people who cant afford coverage.
Chris, we dont think so, Cohn replied. If youre on Medicaid, youre going to stay on Medicaid.
But not the expanded Medicaid, Wallace replied.
If youre on Medicaid, youre going to stay. The expansion is not going to change. There is a roll-off period, there is a period of transition, and were very confident that the period of transition is going to work, Cohn said.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan: People will make their own choices. Ryan appeared on CBSs Face the Nation with John Dickerson. After Ryan (R-Wis.) offered his prediction that the Congressional Budget Office would estimate that coverage would drop, Dickerson asked how many people the speaker thought might lose coverage.
I cant answer that question. Its up to people, he said. Heres the premise of your question. Are you going to stop mandating people buy health insurance? People are going to do what they want to do with their lives because we believe in individual freedom in this country.
Its not our job to make people do something that they dont want to do, he added later. It is our job to have a system where people can get universal access to affordable coverage if they choose to do so or not.
Its worth noting that this contrasts with what the official website for the Republican repeal effort states. Linked prominently from Ryans official House website, the public American Health Care Act page explicitly states in a FAQ that millions wont lose coverage.
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney: Coverage isnt the important thing. On ABCs This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Mulvaney repeatedly whether Trumps pledge to cover everybody could be upheld. Mulvaney demurred, instead insisting that the coverage itself would be more affordable. It helps people get health care instead of just coverage, he said.
After the pair had gone back and forth a few times, Stephanopoulos asked specifically about what would happen if the Congressional Budget Office predicted that millions of people would lose coverage. Mulvaney, like press secretary Sean Spicer last week, pointed out that the officesestimates of coverage under the Affordable Care Actwere off, predicting more coverage than was actually seen.
If says that fewer people are going to be covered, youll simply reject that? Stephanopoulos asked.
If the CBO was right about Obamacare to begin with, there would be 8 million more people on Obamacare today than there actually are, Mulvaney replied. I love the folks at the CBO. They work really hard. They do. But sometimes we ask them to do things theyre not capable of doing, and estimating the impact of a bill of this size probably isnt the best use of their time.
It sounds like youll reject it, Stephanopoulos said, inadvertently summarizing more than just Mulvaneys response.
Golden State Warriors vs Minnesota Timberwolves - Full Highlights | Mar 10 2017 | 2016-17 NBA Season
This is what the Spurs do men go down with injuries, next man steps up. Kawhi Leonard (concussion), LaMarcus Aldridge (heart condition), Tony Parker (back) were all out, so Patty Mills stepped up with 21 points and an impressive performance (he should get some Sixth Man of the Year votes, but thats another topic).
That was better than the second team of the Warriors, who rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala, all that on top of Kevin Durant still being out injured. The team that was out there was a defensive disaster, especially rotating out and contesting at the arc.
The Spurs won 107-85 in a game that wasnt interesting to start and became a blowout. TNTs David Aldridge summed up how we all feel.
Even the Andersons dont want tickets for Spurs-Dubs now.
David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) March 11, 2017
This is not a good look for the NBA a marquee Saturday night, showcase game between two of the best teams in the NBA and the stars are all sitting. This instance was not on Gregg Popovich his guys were injured but in the past he has had no qualms about resting superstars on nationally televised games.
Blame for this if you think blame needs to dished out has to start with the NBA and its scheduling. In the quest to get the ratings-driver Warriors on more national games, the Warriors finished a gauntlet of eight games in eight cities in 13 days Saturday night. That included two cross-country flights. If the NBA wants playoff-quality games scheduled in prime time on Saturday night, then they need to think through the run-up to said games. Treat it like a playoff game, where the teams have at least a day and maybe three off in advance of it.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that the Warriors medical teams which tracks players with wearables in practice monitoring their condition told them guys needed rest. He was following their instructions, and its clear rest has been an issue. The Warriors are slumping, struggling without Durant, Curry and Thompson have been cold from three, but part of that is their legs look heavy. This team looked tired. Kerr did what he thought was best for his team.
The NBA loves analytics, and the numbers show rested players both play at a higher level and are less likely to be injured. Coaches that can afford to do so are going to rest guys to keep them fresh. This isnt on the player (usually), these are directives that comes from the coach or higher up the food chain.
But at what point does this start to turn the fanbase off? At what point dues it hurt ticket sales in arena or ratings on television because fans never know who might be rested on a given day. In a star-driven league like the NBA, sitting a healthy Curry or LeBron James or James Harden or whomever disappoint a fan base. And it almost always is done on the road, not at home to the home fans (and sponsors).
The answers here are not simple. The NBA, the players union, representatives from the teams all need to sit in a room and discuss this.
Is the answer to fine coaches who do this for nationally televised games? David Stern did this before? Television money is driving the league economy right now, and you can be sure ABC didnt love getting to run the Davis Bertans vs. Ian Clark show Saturday night in primetime. The problem here is Kerr would have just rested his players the night before in Detroit, hurting those fans but not the television audience. Also, this system is unfair to the Warriors, Cavaliers, and other teams on the biggest national stages with their games those teams are nationally televised all the times, where the Bucks or Grizzlies or a host of other teams would barely be touched by this.
But its not good for the league that we are talking about who didnt play, and not the game. And this has been the topic for days, all around the league and on sports talk radio. Its something the league needs to address this summer.
And while Id love to see a more holistic answer, maybe fines are the best call.
