“Instead of doing a marathon in a day, we are going to do it in 25 days because it’s too hard? No, the season is supposed to be hard” - Grant Hill says he has an issue with shortening the NBA regular season
Seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill recently came out and voiced his opinion about the NBA shortening their season.
Appearing on Sirius XM NBA Radio, Hill spoke about the nature of the game and how, in the past, the players played through the pain. There was no load management back then.
Hill also spoke about the challenges that an 82-game regular season poses to the players and that it is supposed to be a grind. Hill said:
"You played. There was no resting or workload or any of that. To me, it's supposed to be hard. Now we're going to change marathons because it is so hard to run a marathon.
"Instead of doing a marathon in a day we are going to do it in 25 days because it’s too hard? No, the season is supposed to be hard."
Grant Hill also spoke about how he embraced the difficulties that came with the territory of playing 82 games in a regular season. Hill said:
"And that's part of the challenge of staying healthy and building some toughness to be in this situation now where you're in the playoffs, in the Finals. I reluctantly embrace the workload and all these things that we're doing, but shortening season, no, I have an issue with that."
This speaks volumes coming from someone like Grant Hill, who suffered career-threatening injuries from 2000 onwards starting with his ankle.
“Instead of doing a marathon in a day we are going to do it in 25 days because it’s too hard? No, the season is supposed to be hard”
Despite the injuries @realgranthill33 dealt with, he agrees with @rjeff24 that the NBA should NOT shorten the season
@termineradio | @jumpshot8 https://t.co/qdJTmahEr5
Load Management in the NBA
Load management is a topic that divides opinion and is a sure-fire conversation starter among fans. It is a lot more prevalent in the modern game. In years gone by, the league never engaged in sitting players throughout a season.
One of the biggest arguments for load management and possibly the only one is to avoid players picking up injuries. Teams want to ensure a player of utmost importance to its chances can stay healthy and can perform at a peak level.
The Golden State Warriors have rested their three superstars on the second night of back-to-back games this season.
Richard Jefferson is not a fan of shortening the NBA season.
"Professional sports is not good on your body. It's supposed to separate the people that can do it from the people that can't do it. ... Part of greatness is longevity." https://t.co/LFYTEGP9fA
Kawhi Leonard was the poster boy for load management, and it has been justified to an extent given his history with injuries. Anthony Davis, on the other hand, has never really engaged in load management. This has possibly resulted in him picking up injuries more often.
The league has shifted its schedule to lessen the amount of back-to-back games. It's also changed schedules, so teams remain in one city to play games twice in three days at the same venue.
The argument for the fans is that they pay a tremendous amount to watch their favorite players live only for them to sit that night. This leaves fans furious and could come back to haunt the NBA as lesser priorities will be placed in the 82 games of the regular season.
This could lead to the NBA reducing the number of regular-season games so that more of the star caliber players are on display more often.