Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban defended the concept of load management during an appearance on First Take on Tuesday. When host Stephen A. Smith asked Cuban if he had any concerns surrounding load management, he spoke about why it’s needed in today’s game.
“In terms of load management,” Cuban said. “I think what people fail to realize is the game keeps on getting bigger, stronger, and faster and it’s just brutal on guys’ bodies.”
Smith then asked Cuban if he was fine with Joel Embiid stating he wouldn’t be playing back-to-backs ever again and he had a hilarious response.
“As long as that second game is a back-to-back against the Mavs, I love it,” Cuban stated.
I think Cuban makes a fair point about how the game keeps getting bigger, stronger, and faster. It leads to a bigger toll on the players’ bodies now than in the past. His vocal support for the concept isn’t surprising either, as he has been a fan of it for a long time.
Back in 2019, Cuban went as far as to say load management is the best thing to have ever happened to the NBA. He felt teams just had to be smarter when it came to implementing it.
Cuban also claimed that players playing heavy minutes in the 1980s and 90s led to them being exhausted by the time the postseason came around, and that, in turn, hurt the quality of the games. He added that load management enables today’s players to play more minutes in the postseason at a higher level.
While Cuban is aboard the load management train, the NBA is not. The league identified it as one of the biggest issues for it to tackle.
Last year, the NBA claimed that load management does not prevent injuries and fatigue. The player participation policy was introduced by the league before the start of the 2023-24 season and a 65-game requirement for players to be eligible for major awards and accolades was also put in. The NBA has made it crystal clear it wants the stars to be out on the court as much as possible.
Stephen Curry Is Also Pro-Load Management
Some of the biggest stars in the NBA are against load management, but Stephen Curry isn’t one of them. Last year, Curry defended load management and explained how it has extended his career.
“I know there’s this load management conversation, and a lot of that falls from the narrative perspective on the players like they don’t want to play 82 games. That’s not it,” Curry said. “There’s smart, professional, well-studied individuals that prepare athletes to play not just now, but for years and years and years and years, and perform at a very high level. That’s why going into my 15th year, I feel as fresh as I’ve ever been.”
Had Curry not practiced some sort of load management, I doubt he would still be dominating on the court today. It’s why I am not against the concept, but it’s just that teams and players shouldn’t take it to the extreme, the way the Los Angeles Clippers did with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. That certainly needed to be discouraged, but the concept of load management in itself is a good one in my opinion.
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