Isiah Thomas went after Draymond Green for sitting a regular season basketball game, calling understaffed Golden State’s loss to an equally-understaffed San Antonio Spurs squad a “forfeit.”
Green made an appearance on TNT on Monday and took a little heat from Thomas for the Golden State Warriors resting their starters against a banged up Spurs team on Saturday night. Golden State lost, 107-85, in a fairly lackluster game considering these are the two best teams in the league.
"I've never been one to be scared of anything."@Money23Green on Golden State resting players vs San Antonio. #PlayersOnly pic.twitter.com/WAbK5bQnTT
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 14, 2017
“I’m gonna keep it 100 with you,” Thomas said, channeling Larry Wilmore. “I’m looking at the schedule and I’m thinking ‘y’all going to San Antonio … y’all are scared to go to San Antonio.’ And I’m gonna ask you: why’d y’all forfeit the game?”
Green laughed at the question, while Thomas compared not playing an AAU team you’re afraid of when you’re young. Green paused, then calmly replied.
“I’ve never been one to be scared of anything. I don’t really know if, you know, being scared of another team is the right choice of words. And even if we were scared, they were without LaMarcus (Aldridge). They were without Kawhi (Leonard). So, if there were any type of scariness in that situation, we would have looked and said, ‘Oh man, they ain’t playing. Well, let’s just go win the game.’ But being that it has nothing to do with that, we said we were going to rest this game … well we can definitely go win that. For sure. But nah, we’re going to rest like we said we were gonna do.
That’s really all it was. If we could get a better scheduling, then maybe we can go out there and play.”
The schedule is an interesting point because science is the reason we get these games of surrender at this point in the season. The Cavaliers get plenty of flack for sitting LeBron James and company, but the science behind it is solid. The schedule doesn’t make sense for every team to play its stars all 82 games, especially if the single most important thing is to win a championship – why wear your body down if all that matters is a ring?
Other sports are putting rest into practice. The NHL, for example, instituted a mandatory “bye week” for teams this season in order to build a bit more rest into the schedule. It hasn’t had great results for some teams this season, but they’re working on it.
The point is this: taking a break makes sense for the long haul for these teams. Any questions about it are simply good banter until we start the playoffs.
