There’s been a whole ado around the NBA this season with players resting various games. The new term coined by teams is “load management.”
This has included the likes of stars LeBron James, Kevin Durant and others at times throughout the season. For his part, James was just shut down by the Los Angeles Lakers for the remainder of the year.
In talking about this situation, former NBA head coach Stan Van Gundy absolutely blasted players. Scott Anez from ESPN caught Van Gundy’s quotes on his Twitter feed and they are something else.
“Most fans look at this nonsense and go, where are my load management days? A selling point to players now is we won’t make you play,” Van Gundy said. “I just think there are alot of players out there who don’t have the same desire to play the game. It’s really unfair to the fans.”
There really is some truth behind Van Gundy’s point. Fans pay a premium for tickets, especially when we’re talking about teams such as the Lakers. Tickets bought months before are not eligible for discounts simply because a player is resting.
It’s been a continuing theme around the Association. Commissioner Adam Silver attempted to address it last season. But nothing really came to fruition on that end.