Spurs fined: Popovich's role players no 'disservice' to NBA

Some rules seem made up, so arbitrary they only emerge at the most case-specific time. It's like when a kid eats cake for breakfast and mom scolds them. Why? Because she said.

The latest policy seemingly crafted from this logic is cited as the grounds for David Stern's $250,000 fine of the San Antonio Spurs after they benched starters Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green for Thursday night's game vs. the Heat.

Stern's statement reads as follows:

"The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case. The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team's only regular-season visit to Miami. The team also did this without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans."

The league further said the Spurs rested players in a manner "contrary to the best interests of the NBA."

Stern's ruling is a slap in the face to the little guys, a staunch but indirect way of telling them they don't matter. 

What Stern essentially sets forth is that no one wants to see you, Tiago Splitter or Boris Diaw. You guys starting a game (gasp) is a "disservice" to the fans. 

But see, a funny thing happened Thursday night. Gregg Popovich's backups almost beat the vaunted superstars of the Heat, who squeaked by 105-100 in a game that came down to the final minute.

It was no disservice to competition. The fans in attendance didn't see Duncan or Parker take on LeBron but they saw a good game. Encouraging the effort of the Spurs' role players against the defending champions is what actually should have been done.

However, in Stern's backward perspective, this comes off as a blow to the NBA 'image,' a nationally-televised game that didn't go as planned. Their superstar-centric marketing strategy was splintered by the Spurs. 

It really always has been by Popovich, the mastermind of the inconspicuous mini-dynasty of the 2000s, his Spurs the winners of three titles in five years between 2003 and 2007. They had stars like Duncan but did it quietly with tough defense and team contribution. Not the ideal NBA model of flash and pizzaz. 

With its fine, the NBA is overstepping any reasonable bounds. There's nothing in writing that spells out the "best interests" of the league. It's simply a subjective catch-all that any logical observer can surmise is the jeopardizing of star vs. star matchups. 

Punishment was set forth for a failure to inform the Heat, according to the statement. It is now a coach's responsibility to let the opponent know their lineup and gameplan? 

If Popovich wants to bench his starters, he damn well should have permission. It's his team in a November game, part of an 82-game regular season that can look rather unimportant when teams under .500 reach the playoffs in the eight-team model. 

Popovich is being reprimanded for nearly winning without his stars because it's not what the NBA wanted. 

That's not a good precedent to set. You wonder how far the league will go to ensure its "best interests." 

Sorry Gary Neal - the commissioner doesn't respect you or Matt Bonner or Popovich and his strategy. But go ahead and please keep doing the league a "disservice." Ultimately it may do the status quo some good. 

Reaching the point of apathy

Last night, the Jets were embarrassed by the Patriots on full display for a national audience. 

But a different feeling consumed me than the usual fury or impetus to throw something at the TV. 

A controlled level of disgust came first but soon switched to an uncommon one - apathy. 

As Mark Sanchez went face first into a lineman's backside and the turnovers racked up as New England obliterated the Jets before you could digest Thanksgiving dessert, I didn't feel anything. 

Have the Jets made me into a football Grinch?

Has my heart shrunk a couple sizes watching this team year after year? 

Maybe I've just become desensitized to this type of disaster.

I read a post on a message board tonight that outlined the failure and closed with: "One bright spot is that something good always comes from something bad. And it couldn't get any worse than last night."

As much as I'd like to buy into this notion, I can't. Not with the Jets.

It always "can't get any worse." That's what was said after the 45-3 Monday Night Football catastrophe against the Patriots in 2010. Same for Rex Ryan's self-proclaimed "ass-kicking" at the hands of the 49ers earlier this season. 

For the Jets, it always does get worse. That's the root of this newfound apathy.

Don't get me wrong - I don't like it at all. I want to care. But in this lost season I can't bring myself to anymore. I didn't expect the Jets to beat the Patriots,who are absolutely rolling. They're better in every facet of the game and possess a much more talented roster.

What makes no sense is this Jets team very well should have beaten the Patriots in New England two months ago. Thursday night they looked like a pee-wee team trying to compete with NFL players. Touch football players put on better shows in their backyards than the guys in green at MetLife Stadium. Put Mom at quarterback against Uncle Joe and her numbers probably trump those of Sanchez.

But what's the point in caring? At seven losses, playoff hopes are a heartbeat from extinction. That has been a seemingly inevitable descent for weeks now. 

There was nothing heartbreaking about the 49-19 whooping. Unlike the first meeting between these two teams, the Jets didn't give you hope then slowly rip it away. This time they just flat out sucked. 

Usually I find myself fuming after a bad Jets loss. But when I woke up this morning, it was just a devoid feeling. I had no desire to write a scathing critique. Maybe I've done that too many times this season. It has all been said. When the Jets lose, they get walloped. I've written that blog too many times before this season.

So what has happened to me? I'll call it a reverse Whobilation. The Jets have bought me a one-way ticket to Mount Crumpit with no timetable for return. 

By the second quarter Thursday night, it was over. At 21-0, I flicked away to college football. I never do that. 

My phone started going off, not a text but a score update, then another. 28-0, then 35-0 - dreadful.

I watched the 45-3 MNF game to the bitter end. Same for the San Francisco drubbing earlier. But this time, I didn't have it in me. It was over and I didn't care to see how bad it could get. 

I'm not happy about it. This is a depressing point to reach - that of apathy. By season's end it will probably evaporate. I'll watch this mess play out and get excited again come draft time. 

Trust me, I want to care again. Apathy is a lonely feeling, distanced from emotion. It's one I don't want to linger but it doesn't feel fleeting with this team.

It's up to the green and white now. Getting hooked in again isn't difficult. They'll most likely find a way to win against Arizona and show some semblance of respectability. Nights like Thursday make it difficult though to want to bother. 

Jets reach new locker room low bashing Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow is not a consistent, viable starting NFL quarterback. Most football observers and analysts would agree the numbers bear that out.

We didn’t need the Jets to tell us. Turning on an innocent teammate is wrong and doing it anonymously is cowardly.

That’s just what this group did, a defensive starter who chose not to be named calling Tebow “terrible,” according to The Daily News.

It’s indicative of a pervading cancerous culture in the locker room.

It was evident that dysfunction prevailed last season, as LaDainian Tomlinson and others said captain Santonio Holmes quit on the team.

Bringing in Tebow was seen by some as a way to repair or bring leadership to a fractured group. In Denver, the Broncos came together and elevated their play as a whole once Tebow took the reigns from Kyle Orton. In New York, this cast of characters has made him their new outcast.

“We have Greg . . . and we have an athlete,” offensive lineman Matt Slauson said about the Jets' backup quarterbacks.

At least he had the guts to put his name on it.

Tearing apart Tebow, who has barely seen the field, is a new low for a team that seems to set the bar lower each week. Their only consistency besides poor performance is an inability to shut up.

As if Wednesday wasn’t enough, Shonn Greene added more fuel to the fire Thursday, quoted by Yahoo Sports saying: "You feel bad for Mark, but at the same time you want to win games. We're not here to protect people's feelings. If you want to win games, you've got to try something. If somebody's not getting the job done, you see if somebody else can do it. It's the same with coaching, or any position. You don't mean to belittle someone or say 'he sucks.' That's just the harsh reality."

As the Jets head to St. Louis, they are in a state of chaos, floundering on the field and falling apart off of it.

In my last post Sunday, I wrote about how this team needed to be quiet. It took just a few days for a new string of quotes to explode. Last week, it was Antonio Cromartie saying the beleaguered bunch would make the playoffs. Now, the Tebow firestorm.

The scary part is the Jets seem to operate in an alternate universe where delusion is the reality.

“I believe this team is together, will continue to be and maybe even become tighter,” Ryan said Thursday, as it is more and more apparent he has lost control.

As a fan of Ryan, this is alarming. The fourth year head coach’s record is solid, with two AFC Championship appearances in his first two seasons. But his ability to steer his team through adversity is now coming into question after it was a strength in the past.

The dysfunction seems to emanate from even higher up though, all the way to the top. In 2008, owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum reportedly pushed for the trade that brought Brett Favre to the Jets against head coach Eric Mangini’s wishes.

Reports (albeit unsubstantiated ones from “sources”) say Johnson could push for Tebow to start at quarterback. It wouldn’t be shocking, considering something prompted the Jets to jettison Drew Stanton, who they had already signed to be their backup QB, when the possibility of Tebow presented itself.

The amount of coverage Tebow reaps is undoubtedly over the top. But now he has become a victim outrageously ripped for nothing of his own doing.

Tebow and the Jets were never a good fit. From the moment the trade went through you were left scratching your head.

Bringing Tebow into the mix didn’t push Sanchez to play better. He hasn’t breathed life into the stagnant offense. His acquisition has created even more dissension and controversy for a team that needed none of that on the heels of last year’s meltdown.

No true franchise quarterback has donned the green and white since Joe Namath. That’s no coincidence as the Jets do a better job at destroying quarterbacks than developing them. They sucked the life out of Chad Pennington, a strong-armed college quarterback at Marshall, in Paul Hackett’s vanilla west coast offense.

They’ve surrounded Sanchez with “skill players” that a Jets official called “garbage” in the Daily News story and seemingly shattered his confidence along the way with the Tebow move.

Now, even Tebow, who thrived in an offense catered to his skills in Denver, is in danger of being sucked into the vortex of vitriol.

It’s sad really. A split with Tebow is the move that needs to be made come season’s end. Give him a shot somewhere else. He’s just a distraction in New York - and the Jets need no more of those.

When it comes down to it, the players can talk all they want during the week but they can’t be anonymous come Sundays. Their play speaks for itself.

Be quiet: Talk of playoffs is flabbergasting after performances like Sunday’s in Seattle

It feels over. It really does this time.

Yes, the Jets were 4-6 in 2009 and still made the AFC Championship game after it appeared the ship was sinking.

The Jets said it themselves after even the fifth loss of that season, a crushing home defeat to the Jaguars.

“We’re on life support,” Damien Woody said.

Rex Ryan described the Jets’ playoff chances as “not good.”

2012 is different in plenty of ways, the most prominent an entrenched attitude of superiority.

These Jets didn’t eat crow at 3-5 during the bye week coming off a thrashing by a division rival at home.

They talked - just as they do best.

““The Jets will make the playoffs this year,” Cromartie said on Thursday.

“All of us, in my opinion, believe we can make it,” Ryan said. “This team is much closer than I think our team was, my team was, last year.”

They can’t shut their mouths.

Sunday’s 28-7 drubbing in Seattle surely should.

"We thought we were prepared...Knew we were prepared,” Ryan said after the loss.

If that performance was prepared, I don’t want to know what unprepared looks like. Jim Mora’s ‘Playoffs?’ tangent would be the best response to Ryan’s comments that this team is “much closer.”

At 3-6, the Jets are not mathematically eliminated, especially in an AFC that is particularly weak. But it feels a whole lot worse at six losses this year than it did in 2009.

Those losses were gut-wrenching, close games where the team wasn’t finishing. They were painful to watch but not in the same way the losses have been this year.

In half their losses this season, the Jets have looked completely bewildered right from the outset. They lost by 34 to the 49ers and 21 to the Dolphins and Seahawks. Those are all good defenses but the Jets’ offensive performances were abominations.

This is a group that scored 48 against the Bills and 35 against the Colts. But when they’re not playing a mediocre defense, they’re stuck in neutral or sometimes reverse, barreling backward, gas on the pedal, over the cliff.

You have self-destruction that is so astounding to watch unfold that you almost can’t believe your eyes. This game it came in the first quarter when 3rd and goal at the 1 became 3rd and goal at the 6, then turned into an interception and no points.

The Jets lingered, the defense doing yeoman’s work much of the time to keep them in the game, but they could never score again after that blown chance. It was the fourth time in nine games the Jets have scored 10 or less points.

Before talking playoffs again, the Jets need to find a way to put up points.

Bluster needs to go bye-bye.

It’s time to get real.

Belief is not bad but has to be carried by something tangible. Otherwise, it’s called delusion.

By continuing to talk and not produce, that’s where the Jets are miring themselves.

A couple more losses and the playoffs are no longer even a mathematical consideration. With a roster so bereft of offensive talent, it hasn’t been a very logical one for awhile.

Next week it all comes to a head when they face former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and the Rams, whose overtime performance in their tie with the 49ers almost made the Jets’ Week 10 showing look redeemable.

If the Jets can’t beat their former assistant who was the first to be shown the door, it’s only a matter of time before a new suspect takes the fall.

That will be reality - a cold, hard one.