NBA Fact or Fiction: Can the l...

Load management was a hot topic in Salt Lake City for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, and player responses to the subject covered a wide range. Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving dismissed it as a "narrative" that has "completely run amok" and "dehumanized some of us," while Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards described player rest as "the only thing I probably don't like" about the current state of the league.

"Just play, man," said Edwards, one of two All-Stars who has not missed a game this season. "If you're 80%, you gotta play. I don't like all the sitting, missing games stuff. These people might have enough money to come to one game, and that might be the game they come to, and you're sitting out. I take pride in trying to play every game because there might be one fan that has never seen me play, and I'm trying to play."

Most players fell somewhere between Irving and Edwards, both acknowledging that their absences can disappoint fans and recognizing that injury management's ultimate goal is prioritizing health for the playoffs. One thing players agreed upon: They will not entertain fewer games if a shortened season means a pay cut.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke on what is "an ongoing conversation with the players' association," and it was clear that he understands things from the perspectives of both players and fans.

"These are human beings who are often playing through enormous pain, who play through all kinds of aches and pains on a regular basis," Silver said in his annual news conference on the eve of the All-Star Game. "The suggestion that these men should just be out there more for its own sake, I don’t buy into. ...

"Then there’s the fan aspect of saying, 'If players are not going to be able to participate in a certain amount of games, what should the response be from the league, and how should you be presenting your product?'"

The difficulty comes with balancing real concerns from players who feel overtaxed by the demands of a season and from fans who are paying for a product they increasingly believe falls short of expectations. The subject presents plenty of obstacles, Silver said. The league has partnered with doctors and data scientists in its attempt to optimize player performance, but "it may be that there’s a fair degree of randomness in terms of when players get injured." The NBA is weighing the merits of elongating the season to further reduce back-to-back games, and "if we thought it made sense to reduce the number of games, we would."

On Dec. 29, the league and ESPN flexed the schedule into a game between the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets on Jan. 11, knowing Devin Booker had a preexisting injury that would keep him out of the game. When Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton also suffered injuries in the days leading up to the game, rendering it unwatchable (the Nuggets won by 29), the NBA did not leverage an opportunity to showcase instead the originally scheduled healthy rosters in Sacramento and Houston that rarely get national TV opportunities.

Two more concerns were reinforced the night before, when Booker, Paul or Ayton missed another national TV appearance. Why is the NBA televising either end of a back-to-back, let alone both, since it is more likely stars will rest in one or both of those games? And by packing televised games of the same teams into a short period of time, the league is increasing the likelihood an injury will cost a star multiple broadcasts. Five of the Los Angeles Lakers' 16 games from Christmas until Jan. 24 were on the national TV schedule, and Anthony Davis missed all of them (one was also a scheduled rest day for LeBron James).

Making all of these minor adjustments — publicizing scheduled rest days, eliminating back-to-backs from national broadcasts, spacing out the frequency of reoccurring teams on television and increasing flexibility for TV schedule adjustments — will not eliminate load management, but it eases the burden on fans at little cost to players. That is the goal here. Nobody expects players to place themselves at a heightened risk. They just don't want one product when they paid for another or when an alternative is available at no cost.