Injuries are apart of the game and every team in the NBA encounters them at some point of the season, some more drastic than others. With the long and draining 82-game regular season, teams have been proactive in trying to preserve their stars for the postseason to make a title push, and that strategy has been load managing.
The San Antonio Spurs were in essence the first team to rest healthy players with guys like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili that were older but critical to the team’s success in winning championships. Now, it is a rarity for an NBA star to play anywhere close to 82 games with players given the night off on back-to-backs or towards the end of the regular season when a team’s playoff seeding is clinched.
Fans of respective teams spend a lot of money to go attend a game to see their favorite players potentially only one time a season and that one game could be a rest day for a superstar. This can be frustrating and disappointing for fans, but someone like Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was avid about playing every game he could so people could see him play. That seems rare in today’s game, but Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo seems to share that same mindset as Bryant, via Playmaker:
“A lot of guys sitting, like ‘load management,’ That kind of bothers me in a sense because you have a lot of kids and parents who want to see you play. Like, you have kids who probably come from the inner city and their parents make a way to put them all the way up in the stands and then for you to find out and then you’re not playing. And it’s because you feel like I got to load manage and be prepared and ready for this, this, that and the third. I remember as a kid I would have gave my last dollar and my foot to go see Kobe Bryant play. So, I know if I felt like that, it’s a lot of other kids that feel like that. So, for me I feel like that’s the least quality that I don’t like about players in this league.”
Adebayo and the Heat have had their fair share of injuries the past couple of seasons, but he seems adamant about the superstars in this league playing when fully healthy. The Kentucky product himself has played a full 82-game season, and he’s playing a physical position at center.
On the other hand, Bryant, who represented a historic Lakers franchise, could very easily take days off due to the offensive load he provided. However, he played a full season four times and 70 or more games a handful of times as well. Maybe the narrative changes and superstars are encouraged and willing to play more in the regular season, but who knows if that time will come.
NBA 2k24 adds ‘LeBron Era’ to playable eras mode
As the release of NBA 2K24 creeps closer with almost two weeks until launch on Sep. 8, 2K has been releasing more news about the latest game. Now in 2K24, players have access to the ‘LeBron Era’ in their playable eras mode where you’re able to play various different eras of the NBA.
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