By Alastair Talbot for Dailymail.Com
9:12 p.m. on February 27, 2023, updated 10:01 p.m. on February 27, 2023
Charles Barkley blasted the league’s stance on the load management issue, calling it a “huge problem,” just over a week after the All-Star break.
Retirees NBA The TNT player-turned-analyst sat down with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take to discuss the issue that has increasingly become a hot topic among some personalities and players around the league.
Barkley told Smith that while he “loves” Commissioner Adam Silver, whom he called a “great guy,” he thinks he has gone “too far in trying to take care of the players.”
‘He says, ‘You don’t want to do back-to-back?’ We’re going to kill back-to-back games. »Now they have about a full week for the All Star Game. So he’s trying to do everything he can to get his guys some rest,” Barkley said Wednesday.
“I don’t think fans get mad if you make $30, $40, $50 million playing basketball every night. But you can’t make $30, $40, $50 million and then not play. I think it’s disrespectful to the game.
“I think it’s disrespectful to the fans, because like I say, these fans are paying their hard-earned money back and like you say, most importantly, you know what’s going to be crazy? This next TV negotiation deal.
“We’re going to have guys making $70, $80 million a year and they’re going to say ‘wait a minute, you’re going to make $70 million and you can’t play basketball three or four days a week? ”
“With all that…I mean, they fly private. They got the best medical equipment ever created. And I say you can’t disrespect fans who make $70, $80 million and say “you know what, I can’t play basketball four days a week.”
The two-time Olympic gold medalist (1992, 1996) and 1993 NBA MVP then let today’s players know that they are doing well compared to the majority working in other professions, in particularly highlighting those who perform laborious tasks.
“I mean, look, it’s not like we’re used to working in a steel mill, bro,” Barkley added. “I mean, if people went to the steel mill every day…I’m pretty sure they’re tired too…but they go to work every day.”
“So yeah, I think load management is a big issue. I think Adam is going to have to say, “Yo, man. » I don’t know the right or wrong answer.
Although the Hall of Fame appears to be in favor of eliminating load management altogether, he pointed to a specific moment when he heard Warriors coach Steve Kerr tell his players to “step down” in certain matches so you can save energy for the more important ones later in the calendar year.
“It’s pretty nice of him to take money out of all these players’ pockets. All right, look, some of these little players that aren’t making all that money are like, “Yeah, take 12 of my game checks” and I’m like, “No, no, no.” I want to quickly get back what you did in games,” Barkley said.
“We’re paying bums today…and look, I don’t want to offend anyone, but we’re paying janitors.” We pay plumbers. We’re just giving away $200 million to $300 million like candy.
“And I’m not angry. I am not crazy. You get what you deserve no matter how much they pay you. I just hope you appreciate that “you know what I’m the luckiest guy in the world”. I was born at the right time.”’
“But man, it has nothing to do with money anymore because we pay everyone in the NBA.”
Last week, the Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has hit out at players who don’t dress on game night due to a rest bar injury.taking a view reminiscent of the late Kobe Bryant in 2019.
“Play, man. If you’re at 80 percent, you have to play. I don’t like sitting around, missing games and all that,” the 21-year-old told reporters after Team Giannis beat Team LeBron in the All-Star Game.
Edwards hasn’t missed much playing time, if at all, since joining the league in 2020. The third-year NBA shooting guard has played in all 61 games for Minnesota this season and he quietly leads the league in the total number of minutes (2,211).
He also leads his team in attendance, having missed just 10 games since being drafted with the first overall pick three years ago.
Six of those absences are related to failure to comply with the league’s health and safety protocol requirements.
Earlier in February, the NBA and NBPA were reportedly considering a rule change that would reduce burden management by linking regular season awards to the number of regular season games a player played in.
Conversations are reportedly ongoing as both sides continue collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations with a March 31 opt-out deadline for the deal.
On Monday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania tweeted that the league and NBAPA were “moving forward in talks” to reach a new CBA.
