A: Except this way the league can still get 82 games of revenue. And the Heat still have listed every game as sellout, meaning whether all their players are available or not, they still are selling all of their tickets. Also, the television ratings still are such that they can support an 82-game product during the regular season. It’s almost as if, as a fan, you have to accept that you will see the complete product only some of the time. It’s certainly not as if the 65-game requirement for NBA postseason awards has changed much if anything.
All true. It’s all about the Benjamins. The economic term for this is “inelastic demand”, no matter the quality of the product the consumer keeps on consuming. It’s why billionaires give up their building a better mousetrap companies and buy sports teams.
