Last night’s nationally televised Warriors-Spurs game should have been a showdown between two of the best rosters in the NBA. Instead, fans were treated to a marquee matchup between Ian Clark and Patty Mills as Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Tony Parker, Dejounte Murray, Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge all sat due to either injury or rest.
During the ABC broadcast, Jeff Van Gundy sounded off on the League for resting its superstars, saying that they are sending a message to the fans that they don’t matter and are just seen as a way to get money.
From USA Today:
“Once again the fans are told, you don’t matter,” Van Gundy said. “Pay us up front, we’ll take your money and then we’ll give you whatever product we want to.”
Van Gundy, and his broadcast partner Mark Jackson, also addressed the controversial comments Andre Iguodala made following the Warriors loss to the Timberwolves on Friday night. Van Gundy thought it was unfair that the media was unable to ask Iguodala about his quotes since he was not obligated to speak to reporters since he did not dress for the game last night. JVG questioned the partnership between ESPN/ABC and the NBA:
“We’re supposedly partners with the league. We’re supposedly partners,” Van Gundy said. “We’re not. It’s one sided. We used to get access to players for paying a billion dollars. Now they don’t feel like they have to come in and we can’t ask them these questions because when you say stuff like that you should have to address them.”
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