Michael Jordan’s Take on Load Management Misses the Modern NBA Reality

The NBA returning to NBC has been a pleasant surprise to start the season. From their high-level production, insightful commentary, and a broadcast that focuses on the players, there’s been very little to complain about outside of an extra subscription to Peacock.

Across the board, their analysts have been far superior and more knowledgeable than those we had been receiving from ESPN and TNT the last few years. The only issue I have with NBC has been their use of Michael Jordan. When they announced that Jordan would be part of their primetime broadcasts, most thought he would be on the desk, adding some insight to the games; however, in reality, it appears to be a long list of prerecorded interviews between Mike Tirico and Jordan.

I don’t even hate that. Tirico is one of the best in the business, and Jordan is rarely in the spotlight these days, so having anything to pick his brain is great for basketball. What I am concerned about with these interviews is that they come across as wildly “old man yells into the wind.”

In their most recent sitdown, Jordan complained about load management, stating, “I never wanted to miss a game, because it was an opportunity to prove.” His main sentiment from the sit-down was that if you’re able to play, you owe it to the fans to play.

Jordan went on to say: “You play two and a half hours a day, three hours a day, that’s your job, that’s what you get paid to do… what are you doing the other twenty-one hours of the day?”

This criticism of NBA players feels so out of touch. The common criticism in modern basketball is that nobody cares, nobody tries hard, and nobody is playing any defense. If you aren’t someone falling for these obviously false statements, you would know that this isn’t any further from the truth. Athletes today are putting far more wear and tear on their bodies, on and off the court. From advanced weight and speed training to the more critical part —how much more players are moving on a game-to-game basis.

Since the 1990s, at an 82-game pace, players have averaged over 200 more miles run per season. I know old heads won’t like to hear it, but modern basketball is a far more physical sport and breaks down your body much more quickly. If you watch a random Tuesday night game, the amount of off-ball motion is something you would never see in a game from the '90s.

This is a few minutes of game film from an NBA Finals game. The pace is so slow, there’s minimal movement on offense, and if your man doesn’t have the ball, you stand perfectly still on defense.

Comparing that to some random regular-season Reed Sheppard highlights, it hardly looks like the same sport is being played. Basketball has evolved and optimized so quickly over the last decade that people don’t fully realize how much less use to happen in an NBA game.

The science clearly shows that giving players off games in their schedule is highly beneficial for longevity and, most importantly, postseason availability. Does it suck when star players are sitting out on a random weekday game? Of course, but I’d rather that occur than have the Finals be a competition of which teams' star players managed to stay healthy this year.

Load management sucks, but comparing older players' eras to the modern one isn’t fair. The sport is so much more taxing on the body, and I wish the stars of years past would finally come to that realization themselves.