NBA: Lakers Legend Calls Player Load Management Ploy Crazy

Throughout his career, retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant had his share of injuries. This has also happened to several players, forcing teams to manage the playing minutes of star players to make sure they are good to go for an entire NBA season.

There is no question that the 41-year-old was hounded by injuries in the latter part of his career. Being the competitive NBA star that he is, he reacted to the load management tactic and branded it as crazy when he was talking to Patrick Bet-David at the 10th annual PHP Agency Convention in Las Vegas.

“What the hell is that?” Bryant said, referring to load management. “I don’t know what that is. That’s crazy."

“You’ve got a lot of people paying their hard-earned money to watch you perform,” he added. “It’s your job to be in shape. It’s your job to perform at that level every single night. And as a competitor, I’m not duckin’ sh*t. Like, it’s not, ‘Oh, my back hurts. I’m sore," said Bryant.

For those who followed his career, Bryant practically forced himself to play for as long as he could during his tenure with the Lakers. The effort rewarded him with records and NBA titles. Come 2013, however, Bryant found himself more on the sidelines after falling to different injuries. In November 2015, the five-time NBA champion announced via The Player's Tribune that he would be retiring at the end of the season, a tear-jerking departure from a future NBA Hall of Famer.

Several teams have used the player load management on their star players as of to date, preserving these key individuals for the postseason wars. The San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, and the Cleveland Cavaliers among others did it at one point or another, leading to critics raising a howl.

It has become a key component for teams who want better chances at winning an NBA title. At the rate that today's NBA games are played, injuries can strike at any time. Players like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kawhi Leonard were purposely benched during some campaigns and that eventually paid off to win an NBA title. As far as Kobe Bryant is concerned, he did win NBA titles even if it meant playing through injuries which eventually caught up on him and his storied basketball career.