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It’s not directly Wizards related but “load management” is out of control in the NBA. I have a lot more respect to Ant Edwards now.



It’s not directly Wizards related but “load management” is out of control in the NBA. I have a lot more respect to Ant Edwards now.

by Megumi-Noda

4 Comments

  1. grandmasta_fro

    Shorten the regular season or change NBA culture. The hyperfocus on rings by fans, players, and media makes the regular season near pointless because none of that work matters unless you win at the end.

  2. Upvoted for him speaking his mind, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Having watched Kobe get the achilles injury from him being overplayed, having seen so many guys over the years get injured, having seen Golden State try to reduce injuries scientifically by tracking their guys’ movements and having seen them subsequently succeed, can’t cosign this.

    A lot of people, including Ant at 21 years old, are new to the NBA the past decade. They didn’t see the guys that played in years gone by who can barely walk now without looking like they’re laboring, and who lumber around. The human body is just that. They aren’t robots.

    Besides gait, also look at retired players fingers. They’re pointing in all different directions from years of injuries that never got time to heal. They just “taped it up” and went back out there.

    Even Michael Jordan wrecked himself at times to be stylin and be on the court. He talked about how much pain he was in after he wore some older Js at MSG and dropped a bunch of points in them. And even with all the zoom air, strobels, flow foam, ultra bounce and every other shoe technology, it can’t absorb all of the impact and pounding the joints take.

    And today’s game has players sprinting up and down the court. Of all the teams that should be load managing, it’s us. Gafford has injured and reinjured his ankle like 4 times now, literally. Corey took a bunch of time off (a month) for an ankle sprain and got right and came back healthy. Rui took a bunch of time off (a month) for an ankle sprain and got right and came back healthy. Gafford keeps trying to play through his ankle injury, and keeps re injuring it. You can’t just take a bunch of painkillers and ‘strap up’ and just hope it heals in the off season.

    Beal was overplayed along with Russ, and Beal got that hamstring injury. I called it in the game thread the game before it happened. He then reinjured it trying to play through it to get them to the playoffs. We all saw what happened this year as he reinjured it again and again, to the point where he then injured his other hamstring, trying to live up to that mammoth contract he signed.

    Well that’s cool and all but show me 2 news articles or literally anything from media outside of DC giving him any sort of praise for willing himself through some of the most painful injuries you can have.

    On top of all of that, it’s a team game! The people coming to see Ant play are buying tickets to the Minnesota Timberwolves game. You bought tickets to see the team. If the game happens, that’s who you paid for. It’s somehow okay if an owner literally trades away every single good player they have and then expect people to buy tickets to see gleaguers, but if some guy is truly nursing a knee injury and wants to avoid reinjury, he’s somehow an asshole for sitting a game or two. Nonsense.

    Ant is 21. He can run all day. Hell, I get it cause I can do the same, but the body is not invincible and injuries are real things. Sad too, because I was just thinking yesterday about how there haven’t been a bunch of major, season-ending injuries this season. Like in years past I’m pretty sure there were notable season-ending injuries during the season whether it was Rubio or Zach or Steph or Klay or Zion, whoever. But have there been even 2 big name season-ending injuries this season? I think Lonzo is it, and Chet. But neither of them even suited up a single game this year. Load management is a good thing. If you get hurt or injured, get healthy before coming back. You’re not coming back to do mall-walking, you’re running, sprinting, jumping, landing and chasing the best athletes in the world around the court. Ant’s just young and still thinks he’s indestructible.

  3. ThePurpleAmerica

    Honestly think players probably train to hard.

  4. Sweet_Ad8906

    You guys saying shortening season imagine Lebron or a key player gets hurt. That could be end of a teams season. Long season gives fine back for players and teams to have a chance to make playoffs. Man y’all act like players won’t sit in a short season. We just got a bunch of wimps in the league. Technology, training and shoes are a lot better and they still make excuses. They sit out in the all star and that’s 1 game in the whole year. Stop raising a bunch of wimps. They not in war or in battle. Their playing basketball.

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