There is a notion within the NBA world that players want to sit out games because they want to maximize their health. That was refuted by multiple NBA players because, most of the time, the onus is on the front office for those decisions. Even Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry said as much as he refused to load manage in the past.
Load management has become a massive issue for the NBA because some players are not playing during nationally televised games. Those are the games that get the most people watching, and if the stars aren’t there, the NBA is losing out on money. Even former NBA players are unhappy with load management, including Los Angeles Lakers legend Michael Cooper who spoke about why players don’t like sitting out games.
“When we played, we did not want to sit down. We did not want to rest,” Michael Cooper said on Showtime with Coop. “I wanted to get out there and play. I was hurt? Let me at least try. These guys would get a little tweak would say, ‘It’s hurting. I’m not normal.’”
NBA players are professional athletes, and they always want to wear their jerseys and be active out there. They worked hard to get to the highest level of basketball, but sometimes, there are injuries they can’t avoid.
Cooper himself proposed that this notion of resting players and load management came from San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. He made decisions to sit out players when they needed rest in the middle of the season. This was supported by Robert Horry, who had a game where he was not allowed to play because of his older age.