Michael Jordan played all 82 games nine times in his career and was famous for playing through sickness and injury, so unsurprisingly, he wasn’t a fan of load management in today’s NBA. As it happens, not everyone is in agreement.
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NBC was smart to bring Jordan aboard as part of its return to regular NBA coverage, because when His Airness speaks, people listen. Even though he retired for good over 22 years ago, there’s nobody more respected in the game than MJ, and once again his thoughts have taken over the NBA discourse.
On Danny Green’s new podcast No Fouls Given, he, cohost Wosny Lambre and guest Paul Pierce had a lively discussion on Jordan’s take. Lambre threw some shade at Green because his Spurs were the patient zero of load management, but Green gave an impassioned defense.
“Pop in San Antonio did it very differently than how it transitioned to when Kawhi left,” he explained. “Kawhi left and then it became ‘load management’ when we got to Toronto. It was like he sat out games because they said load management.”
“In San Antonio [Pop] didn’t have to play everybody. We were so deep; he didn’t have to play us more than 20-25 minutes a game. And then when we’d win enough, it was at the end of the season, but we played every game, we played most of the games. There was multiple seasons I played 75+, and I didn’t sit out unless I was hurt,” Green added.
The Spurs did have incredible depth in those years, and Green said that made players want to play, because they didn’t want their minutes taken by a hungry player behind them on the depth chart. Sometimes it made sense though to let the older guys, like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, get a day off during a busy part of the schedule.
Paul Pierce aligned himself with MJ. “Load management should be saved for just certain guys,” he said. “It shouldn’t be for somebody who, ‘Oh, we got three games in four nights, so I’m gonna play these two and miss this one.'”
Pierce didn’t just throw that statement out there, he came prepared with names. “Like OK, I get it. Embiid, several injuries. I’m not mad at that. LeBron, 43 years old, I mean come on. You know I get it. But not a guy who played and is healthy and he looks at the schedule and says, ‘I’m gonna be too tired for this last game on the road trip,'” the former NBA champion noted
“Like come on, man, take some pride,” he continued. “You put on this jersey, wear it with pride. You all make good money, you deserve to give it not only for your team but for the fans. So for certain people, I get it. But it’s only certain guys, and there’s not that many of them.”
Pierce is talking the talk, but he also walked the walk during his playing days. Taking his first and last season out of the equation, he averaged 74.7 games played over 17 years.
Today’s sports science shows how much rest a body needs, though at the same time, there seems to be more injuries than ever despite many guys taking nights off. Unless the NBA shortens or drastically changes its schedule, load management will continue to be a topic of conversation.
