Today’s NBA is all about player empowerment, and the ‘load management’ trend has become another way for players to prioritize their own wants over the team and the fans who ultimately pay to see them play.
While the practice itself has been mostly normalized, not everyone is so willing to accept it, and John Stockton is one of them.
This week, the Jazz legend joined the long list of former athletes to speak up against the new tradition in a chat on SiriusXM NBA Radio:
“I do think it’s a danger for the league. I went to a major league baseball game once and I went to watch one player and he took the day off. My opinion of him, my opinion of the team, my opinion of baseball all dropped in a blink and I said, I’m never gonna let that happen.’ Kids will travel. I know one young man who lost his life trying to get to a Jazz game and got into a car accident on the way down once. And when you realize people spend their money, they spend their time, they risk a lot of things to see you play and you take the night off? I just don’t think that’s okay.”
“I just don’t think that’s ok”
John Stockton, not surprisingly after missing only 22 games in 19 seasons, is not a fan of load management@termineradio | @SamMitchellNBA pic.twitter.com/rX6bRY5wi3
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 21, 2023
Obviously, nobody is expecting guys to play through injuries. Over the course of an 82-game season, injuries are an inevitability. Stockton, however, is a good example of premium availability.
Stockton Was One Of The NBA’s Most Durable Athletes
While it’s somewhat rare for players to play more than 80% of their games, plenty of players have done it before. Stockton, of course, is one of them. In 19 seasons, he only missed 22 games for the Jazz and it is part of the reason he was able to achieve so much success in the league.
In more than 1,500 games, Stockton averaged 13.1 points, 10.5 assists, and 2.2 steals per game on 51% shooting. He’s a 10x All-Star, 11x All-NBA player, and the NBA’s leading assist man with 15,806 dimes credited to his name.
Obviously, his success had a lot to do with discipline, practice, and natural skills. But Stockton’s availability was also a huge factor in how his career played out.
Maybe more of the game’s modern-day players should follow his lead…
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