Rest stop not likely
Selectively managing when superstars rest dominates talk in shaky start to NBA season
Load management a hot topic at beginning of NBA season.
It was a drama-driven league defined by superstars forming superteams.
It was a flashy, full-court, 3-point obsessed sport dominated by the Warriors’ dynasty.
And now it’s … an Association dictated by load management? Zzzzzzz. Yawn. Um, boring. Change the channel and find a football game on somewhere.
Remember when the NBA was the super-hip, super-cool league endlessly praised by the fawning media and constantly crowned by international fans for being so in tune with the everchanging times?
The NBA gets it. The NBA doesn’t bow down to “the man.” The NBA is the fans’ league.
Oh, the joys of innocence and naivete.
A turbulent summer has been followed up with social-media upheaval, the Association admitting that it’s a major international business primarily concerned with keeping the billions rolling in — shocking, I know — and a nationally televised debate on the modern perils of the hot, new thing in the NBA: load management.
Which basically translates to selectively playing during the league’s outdated 82-game regular season so you can hopefully be more healthy if your team makes the playoffs.
Never mind that the NBA postseason drags four rounds out for two months, and Games 2 and 3 of the 2019 Western Conference semifinals between the Rockets and Golden State were separated by three full off days. Seriously: Game 2 was on April 30 and Game 3 was on May
4.
If that’s not load management, I don’t know what is.
A few things before we dig into the inside stuff:
• Cranky Gregg Popovich perfected load management with an aging, veteran-heavy
San Antonio team years ago. Just because Kawhi Leonard won a championship with it in Toronto (after spurning the Spurs and Pop) doesn’t make the idea hot and new.
• The NBA tried to get ahead of its load management versus national TV problem in recent years. The NBA, obviously, failed.
• Michael Jordan played in all 82 regular-season games during his final NBA campaign in 200203 with Washington. He was 39. Jordan also played in all 82 during eight seasons with Chicago and played in at least 78 contests during three other seasons. He won six championship rings with the Bulls and is the greatest basketball player of all time.
“Even if I’m a little banged up, I try to push through it to a certain extent. Have you ever seen me not play because of load management?”
James Harden proudly said those words Friday inside Toyota Center, sounding like the people’s champ.
“One thing I really appreciate about James — really appreciate — he won’t even take off practice,” said Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni before another early season practice.
LeBron James has been wildly off and on in terms of getting it right since he relocated to La La Land. But James sounded like an old-fashioned king by taking a hard stand against sitting out.
“If I’m hurt, I don’t play. If not, I’m playing. That’s what has always been my motto,” James told ESPN on Friday.
He also referred to himself in the first person: “LeBron’s healthy, LeBron’ll play. That’s all I’ll talk about. I don’t talk about nobody else but me.” But all this load management talk is clearly getting on everyone’s nerves. Heck, Clippers coach Doc Rivers was recently fined $50,000 by the NBA for telling the truth about Leonard and load management.
“There’s no answer to this argument. It’s going to be a nonending argument that just keeps going,” said Rockets guard Austin Rivers, who knows Doc pretty well. “Because at the end of the day, if they say they’re going to fine people, then people will come up for reasons for guys to be hurt. Unless you (bleep) up like my dad did and say (Leonard) felt good before the game and you get fined $50,000.”
What did Austin say to Doc after he was hit with a 50K truth bill?
“I said you’ve got to be better, man. You’ve got to be better,” Austin joked.
For years, fans have had every right to be furious. You drop a lot of personal cash to get decent seats to your one NBA game a year. You perfectly time it — your life schedule, your work schedule, your home team’s 82-game schedule — just so you can see a visiting superstar up close. Then “DNP: Rest” is suddenly teased a few days before on Twitter and you’re forced to scramble to sell your tickets on the secondary market at half of what you paid.
The NBA: It’s fantastic.
“Go ask Raptor fans if they’re happy with load management last year,” Austin Rivers said. “Because without load management, there’s no championship in Toronto right now.”
Harden, who’s played in average of 78 games a season since joining the Rockets in 2012, declined to get into the bigpicture debate.
“I don’t know,” the league’s leading scorer said. “That’s not my conversation. That’s not something I want to be in.”
The Rockets have utilized rest with Chris Paul, Nene and Russell Westbrook among others. D’Antoni acknowledged some players must be strategically rested because of recent injuries or an overload of games during a small space in the calendar. But the Rockets coach also praised Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s 2018-19 MVP, for stating that he wants “to play.”
“I love guys like that and I think that’s great for the league,” D’Antoni said.
His initial opinion on load management: “I don’t like the term, because I think it’s a universal term that people can use.”
How it’s used is the biggest problem NBA commissioner Adam Silver is facing.
Leonard is making $32.7 million this season to play basketball for living — and that doesn’t count endorsements. He and other stars across the league are being strategically rested so they can theoretically perform at a higher level for a longer period when the NBA really matters: the playoffs.
Some of you swear you don’t watch pro basketball until the postseason starts. Others have joked for a long time there’s no reason to click on a regularseason game until the fourth quarter begins. Now, some of the league’s biggest names are given preplanned off days in early November, even though most of you insist the NBA doesn’t really tip off until Christmas Day.
The Warriors benefited from load management, won a few titles and appeared in five consecutive Finals.
Leonard was the best healthy player on the hardwood during last season’s Finals, beating Golden State at its own game.
Harden consistently brings it during the regular season but has often appeared slightly or significantly worn down by the time the NBA’s real, second season arrives.
The Association’s answer should be so simple: If you’re healthy enough to play, you play.
But this is the NBA in 2019. Nothing is simple. Load management is publicly endorsed by a league making billions off its fans.