Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James came to the defense of today’s players on the latest episode of his Mind the Game podcast, and former NBA champion Ron Harper thinks he’s just making excuses. James explained why it is harder to play 82 games a season in the NBA today compared to the 1980s and 90s, but Harper made it clear on X that he isn’t buying any of it.
“These excuses is stupid.”
This was pretty much how you’d have expected a former player to react to what James had to say. There is a pretty good chance that the likes of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will go at James as well on Inside the NBA.
Barkley has been one of the most vocal critics of load management and has repeatedly ripped players for sitting out of games. What he and so many others don’t understand is that it’s usually the team that makes that call, not the player. They also just can’t seem to comprehend that a lot has changed in the NBA. Here is what James had to say about it.
“I want people to understand, and our fans to understand, that playing 82 games in the 80s and 90s is not the same as playing 82 games in the 2020s,” James said. “It’s just not. The way we play, the level of pace, the level of speed we’re playing at, it’s a different game now. It’s a totally different game.
“It’s a lot of soft tissue injuries that’s happened now because of it,” James stated. “I hope we can get a handle on that as well, because that’s big in our game. I think when I first came into the league, Reese, some of the biggest concerns with injuries was like a high ankle sprain.
“You was afraid to step on somebody’s ankle because there was four, five guys sitting in the paint,” James continued. “… Now you don’t really see that as much now because the game is so spread open, it’s so much pace. But now you see the new high ankle sprain is the calf.
“So hopefully we can get a handle on that from a medical standpoint, but it’s just the game,” James added. “I just want the fans to understand that the game is a little different, and as NBA players, we definitely want to be out there as much as possible.”
If Harper isn’t buying what James has to say, he perhaps will listen to his former Chicago Bulls teammate and current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. Kerr explained that soft-tissue injuries have increased in the NBA, in part because players are running faster and farther than ever before. Not only has the pace gone up, but the spacing means there is so much more ground to cover as well.
Kerr believes the regular season needs to be shortened to 72 to 75 games. He thinks it will make a big difference, but he doesn’t see the NBA going down that route. So, expect players to keep going down with these soft tissue injuries from time to time.
Harper’s youngest son, Dylan, was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the second pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and he suffered a left calf strain in just the sixth game of his career. The elder Harper played at least 80 games in seven seasons in the NBA and it’s extremely unlikely that the younger one will pull that off. Is that because he is soft or whatnot? No, it’s because the game has changed.
