Marilyn Dubinski: Probably not as responsible as people want to believe, maybe a 3. Did Gregg Popovich pull a wise one on the league in 2012 after they expected his team to be at 100% on its sixth road game in nine nights against the defending champions? Yes. Did he help start the trend of resting older players to prolong their careers? Also yes, but there is also a stipulation in the new rest rules for players 35 years or older, so that’s the league subtly admitting he was right. In the end, the league has only taken baby steps but done nothing major to cure the cause of the problem, which is too many regular season games.
Why the Spurs are partially to blame for the NBA’s new rest rule
