While, to be clear, it is not the same league as it was when players would often play close to all 48 minutes of a ball game throughout the full 82-game schedule as Bill Russell once did for the Boston Celtics, today’s NBA players are often sitting games they WANT to play in because sports science suggests they will be the better for having the night off.
On the other side of the same coin, players seem to be missing large chunks of time to serious injuries sustained on the court more than ever. How best to balance the two poles of the phenomenon known in today’s league as “load management?”
With fans spending more on ticket prices than ever before and the topic of load management as divisive as ever, is it a needed part of a long season or a problem that has to get solved?
Stephen A. Smith and JJ Redick debated this on an episode of “First Take” not too long ago; take a look at the clip embedded above to see what they had to say about load management in today’s league.
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Larry Bird praised Bill Walton’s passing on his trade to the Boston Celtics
Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire
