LeBron James

LeBron James says he's the reason the NBA cares about players resting

Published Mar. 21, 2017 4:55 p.m. ET

Nunzio Ingrassia

As the NBA deals with the trend of star players resting despite being healthy, the league’s biggest star says all the hubbub began when he started to sit out.

LeBron James was asked by reporters Tuesday about commissioner Adam Silver’s memo to owners in which he warned them about players resting during nationally televised games. The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar believes the league has had no problems with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich using the tactic for years, but added the NBA started to notice when the King took a seat.

“I don’t understand why it’s become a problem now, because I started to sit out a couple of games?” James said, via Cleveland.com. “… Listen, Pop’s been doing this for 10 years, 12 years, 15 years and everybody was like, ‘You know what that’s the smartest thing Pop has ever done. Give his guys a couple of games off and here they go with five championships. It’s the smartest thing.’

“But some of our coaches in our league don’t have the stature that Pop has and our head coach (Tyronn Lue) doesn’t have it so he gets killed for it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9u5lRM35fM

The NBA stepped in after the Warriors benched Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala for their primetime game against the Spurs earlier this month, and then a week later, the Cavs sat James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love for their nationally televised game against the Clippers.

But this isn’t the first time the league reacted to a team resting its stars. Popovich and the Spurs were fined $250,000 for resting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green ahead of their nationally televised game against James and the Heat in 2012.

But James, who has missed six games this season, must have forgotten that 2012 incident during his comments Tuesday.