Popovich is right, Stern is wrong

San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich looked at this stretch of their schedule and decided to rest his big four starters in a game against the Miami Heat. NBA Commissioner David Stern apparently intends to sanction the Spurs. 

This is very simple. Pop is right, Stern is wrong, and it's high time more teams or the players association itself forces the NBA to do a better job of scheduling. The brutal stretches with consecutive days of games and long road trips erodes the quality of play and exposes the players to a higher risk of injury. How could this kind of scheduling possibly be argued as good for the game, the league, the players or the fans?

It can't. So stop it.

Now is a great time to gain some real traction towards sanity.

Lions Thanksgiving tradition is quite refreshing

Like many people, I finally decided to find out why the Detroit Lions get the privilege of playing football on Thanksgiving and came to understand that it was the Lions franchise, way back in 1934, that started the tradition. It's not so much an NFL tradition - it is a Lions tradition. Simple enough.

Or is it? Some remain perplexed - how can, or better yet, why should - the Lions, one of the league's woebegone franchises (how many teams can boast an 0-16 season?) manage to keep getting these games even though they're such a bad team? Shouldn't the NFL showcase good teams? 

The answer is both yes and no - and the league has responded very well to both.