NBA basketball has long been one of the most exciting sports to watch, and has been the place where some of the best athletes ever show their skills. The NBA is where players create a name for themselves in sports history, becoming legends. It is obvious that if you truly want to succeed in the NBA, you have to work extremely hard; that is something few people have the stamina and integrity to do. Recently, some NBA teams have allowed their star players to take a game off to “rest” when they are not knowingly injured; this is not fair for the fans who pay to see the best players play.

NBA All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler are among the players who have decided with their teams that they “should take a night off.” Another star, Gordon Hayward of the Celtics, also took a night off recently. This case is different because he gruesomely fractured his ankle last year. But, when players are just resting for no apparent reason, it makes no sense.

Setting a goal to become a professional athlete is very hard, and to be able to play in the NBA is even harder because of the league’s roster size compared to the other major sports leagues. It’s hard to find an excuse for players like Butler and Leonard to simply take nights off when you realize how healthy and fit they really are and have to be to get into the NBA. The “resting” case occurred last year when LeBron James took a few games off towards the end of the season after playing a record-breaking amount of minutes last season. This isn’t great for the fans, but that was after LeBron had played a crazy amount of minutes and carried his team towards the playoffs; it’s different when Leonard and Butler “rested” during the third game of the season.

Because of the elite level of play, fans stream to games and pay a lot of money in support of their team and their favorite players. When people go to NBA games to cheer on their teams, they expect to see the best of the best night in night out. If someone’s favorite player is resting from the game that they paid big money to go to, fans feel disappointed and maybe in some cases, like cheated of their money. The NBA gains a bad reputation when fans think this way, and that cannot make the organization happy, so they should make a rule that you can only take games off if you are genuinely injured and cannot play.