LeBron James: Kawhi Leonard’s “Load Management” a double standard?

LeBron James has been criticized for load management in the past. Now Kawhi Leonard is in the spotlight. Is there a double standard for LeBron James? Lake Show Life goes in-depth to see if there are two sets of rules for the two superstars?

The Laker Nation is known to use the word “hater” when it comes to anything negative attached to the Los Angeles Lakers or LeBron James. Lake Show Life has been accused of “hating” a time or two over LeBron James’ first season in the purple and gold.

When Kawhi Leonard spurned the Lakers to go across the hall with his partner in crime, Paul George, most thought that LeBron James’ chances of bringing home a title were over.

Never mind the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers got a superstar of their own in Anthony Davis. When Lake Show Life compared the Lakers/Clippers rivalry, it was not about the teams. This comparison was about the two superstars, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James.

All NBA eyes will be in Los Angeles this season to see who the “King” of L.A. is at the end of the season. Up until last week, the last sentence seemed like a cliché. Well, read on see if that’s still the case.

Leonard was rested for the second time this season on a back to back against the Milwaukee Bucks. The game would have rivaled the opening night game between the Lakers and the Clippers.

The two major superstars facing each other? How about the reigning regular-season MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo up against the Finals MVP in Leonard? To say the decision to rest Kawhi ruffled a few feathers is almost tongue in cheek, to say the least.

ESPN’s Doris Burke made some strongly opinionated remarks about the Clippers’ decision to rest Kawhi Leonard for last Wednesday night’s matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on the Golic and Wingo show.

The Clippers’ decision to rest Kawhi on the front end of a back-to-back set should come as no surprise. Load management is becoming more and more prevalent for players who have dealt with recent injuries, and Leonard falls into that category.

The problem was when wires got crossed with the message about resting Leonard afterward. Before the game, the NBA was confident that Kawhi Leonard was held out under the guidelines of the rest management rules. Here’s the statement courtesy of ESPN.

"“Kawhi Leonard is not a healthy player under the league’s resting policy and, as such, is listed as managing a knee injury in the LA Clippers’ injury report. The league office, in consultation with the NBA’s director of sports medicine, is comfortable with the team medical staff’s determination that Leonard is not sufficiently healthy to play in back-to-back games at this time.”"

Then Doc Rivers speaks about Kawhi Leonard stating that he “feels great.” The NBA quickly fined the Clippers $50,000 over the comments. What once was a debate is starting to become the NBA’s next PR nightmare. The NBA breaks down the reason for the penalty via ESPN.

"“Following additional review of the LA Clippers not playing Kawhi Leonard in last night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA has confirmed that the team’s decision to sit Leonard for management of an injury was consistent with league rules,”"

Doc Rivers is no stranger to getting “Magic Johnson” treatment for being fined over Kawhi Leonard. Remember he was penalized for comparisons of his star player to Michael Jordan before he was signed.

The fine over the comparisons probably was unfair, but this one is an issue.

Leonard is no stranger to the injury bug here. This goes back to his days with the San Antonio Spurs when he was diagnosed with right quadriceps tendinopathy. It’s no secret that Kawhi’s health counts as the first five priorities on his list this season. The Spurs didn’t respect the priorities and he demanded to be traded.

The Toronto Raptors respected his health priorities and got a title out of the deal. Do you think the Clippers would be dumb enough to mess with Leonard’s health based on what history has shown in the last 2-3 years?

However, the backlash Kawhi Leonard is facing is nothing to what LeBron James has faced over the years. It even reared its head this year. Is there a double standard here when it comes to LeBron James and load management? Let’s take an in-depth look.

LeBron James got blitzed for not taking the challenge against Kawhi. Does Kawhi Leonard deserve the same for not facing Giannis? 

Let’s go back to opening night when the Los Angeles Lakers faced the LA Clippers in the most hyped season opener in quite some time. It was Kawhi Leonard vs. LeBron James.

Granted Paul George was out, but it was going to bean  “all-timer” on that night. The New Balance commercials, the Clippers making it clear that they wanted to take over L.A., Patrick Beverley being Patrick Beverley. Everything was set for a 15 round heavyweight fight.

The Lakers lost to the Clippers that night and LeBron’s performance was bad enough that ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith basically cooked him for not accepting the challenge.

But if you take a gander at the Clippers match up against the Milwaukee Bucks, didn’t Leonard basically do the same thing? No check that, was it worse?

This was a game that all NBA fans want to see. The Finals MVP (Kawhi Leonard) battling the NBA MVP (Giannis Antetokounmpo) on a nationally televised game on ESPN? It can’t get any better than that. Two of the top three players in the NBA squaring off would incite the competitiveness in any superstar.

Leonard sits. Doris Burke made it clear on what her position was about Kawhi Leonard sitting. Let’s go back to Stephen A. Smith and hear his thoughts.

The tone is a little different don’t you think? LeBron James stated that the first game was not as big a deal considering the long season ahead. Lake Show Life was just as disappointed in LeBron as Stephen A. Smith, but at least James was out there playing. He did not sit out.

To take this even further, this was the second nationally televised game that Kawhi sat out in as many weeks. The debate will go on forever about the season being too long or the scheduling being too grueling for the players. That’s another discussion.

But there is something that always gets lost sometimes in situations like this. The NBA is still a business and most of the money comes from television revenue.

ESPN, Turner Sports and ABC spend a lot of money for the rights to these games. How about the fans?

There is a scene in the movie Purple Rain that I always think about when it comes to the business of sports. It’s the scene when Prince was arguing backstage with the club manager and he screamed “This here is a business! You ain’t too far gone to see that yet!”

Guess what, some of these players have lost that concept at times. These major networks spend a ton of money to play NBA games on their air. There are sponsors that spend money on ads based on eyes watching these games.

Plus there is this thing called competition. I hate to think how angry the ESPN executives were when they found out Kawhi Leonard was not playing on ESPN on Wednesday night but would be back to play the next night on TNT. Studio shows count too in the ratings. Inside the NBA is head and shoulders above everyone when it comes to studio coverage.

In the big picture, it doesn’t make good business sense to hold out the most cherished free agent signing in Kawhi Leonard so early in the season. He’s also one of few in the NBA that can compete with the “Greek Freak” head up, one on one. Money was lost on this night.

These networks pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to put a product on the air for fans to watch. According to the LA Times, ESPN, ABC and Turner Sports are in the midst of a nine-year, $24-billion media rights deal with the NBA. Good luck to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver trying to smooth over media conglomerates like the Walt Disney Company or AT&T with a “load management” excuse. After a while, the optics will present a choice to fans.

Watch a less exciting game at home without stars or do something else. The media networks don’t work that way.

To the people reading this that don’t care, trust me the cost will trickle down to you in your satellite and cable bill. Check it out at the end of the month.

How about the NBA fans directly? What gets lost is the fact that there are fans that will miss this huge match up in the city of Los Angeles. There are children that may live in cities all over the country that are Kawhi Leonard fans. These tickets aren’t cheap. Then there’s the food, parking, possible paraphernalia in the team store, etc. This night will set you back a few bucks folks.

The NBA is driven by stars and star matchups. No longer are the days when teams were sold like the Lakers and Celtics rivalries of the ’80s. When Michael Jordan came in and took over the NBA marketing world, the NBA changed with it and starting marketing stars.

Think of what would have happened if LeBron James had sat out at any time for rest? Oh yeah, it actually happened.

Actually the resting stars on nationally televised games started in Cleveland with (Sorry LeBron stans!) LeBron James.

Sure, Gregg Popovich started all of this resting players trend years ago. But let’s be truthful here. Are they must-see TV? Would you rush to get home to watch them on TV or a LeBron James led team? Okay, let’s move on. If you think about it, the six degrees of separation is really funny if you think about it.

Remember back in 2017, when Cleveland Cavaliers head coach (Now Clippers Asst. Coach!) Tyronn Lue sat down his “big three” of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in a nationally televised Saturday matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on ABC?

Guess who was the Clippers coach? Doc Rivers. But get a load of the replacements for the game.

Since the Cavaliers were already 0-4 going into the game, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion on how the game turned out (If you said the Cavs got blown back to Cleveland. Two points for you!).

Now back then, Adam Silver’s statement to USA Today was a foreshadowing of what the NBA is dealing with these days.

"“I’m sympathetic to fans who turn out — whether they buy tickets to games or watching games on television and don’t see their favorite player on the floor,” “I would say my personal view is I would rather not engage in discussions with coaches and GMs on playing time,” Silver said previously. “I think that’s a core responsibility of the team and I think it’s a very slippery slope for the league office to start getting in the business of telling a coach or team what minutes a player should play.”"

The era of the NBA has changed since Adam Silver took over for David Stern. The San Antonio Spurs were fined $250,000 back in 2012 for not only holding out its stars but sending them home without league approval.

But in this player empowerment era that Adam Silver endorses, he is constantly looking for the balance of keeping a quality product on the hardwood while protecting the players.

"“We also have to be realistic that the science has gotten to the point where there is that direct correlation that we’re aware of between fatigue and injuries. And as tough as it is on our fans to miss one of their favorite players for a game, it’s far better than having them get injured and be out for long periods of time. So we’re always still looking to strike that right balance.”"

Well after the Kawhi Leonard situation last week, the NBA has not found it yet.

The NBA fans had better get used to this because the Toronto Raptors started a trend that works!

Everyone in the NBA copies what the NBA champion does to get an edge on the competition. Now that Golden State no longer has 25 superstars on their roster, it’s time to find out the new thing to copy. Well, the Toronto Raptors have perfected load management.

As strange as it is to figure out why the Los Angeles Lakers let Jerry West walk out the door. It’s crazier to think that they would let a guy named Alex McKechnie walk out too. The question coming is probably this one.

Who’s Alex McKechnie? What his link to all of this?

Well, it seems that he is the Toronto Raptors’ vice president of player health and performance. After the Raptors won the title with Kawhi Leonard, he has this nickname called the “Lord of Load Management” after coming up with a system that Kawhi Leonard actually trusted his quad with last year.

McKechnie was around for five title-winning Lakers teams in the ’90s working out ways around Shaquille O’Neal’s abdominal injuries and Kobe Bryant’s knee injuries. In short, the dude knows how to keep stars healthy enough to last an NBA season.

The math equation that Kawhi Leonard, Doc Rivers, Jerry West and Steve Ballmer will be using is 60 games to get ready for a playoff run. That is all and that is it.

It’s not like it’s not working.

Kawhi Leonard is playing great with the Clippers. He is load managing near career highs across the board with 26.9 points on 47.4 percent shooting from the field, 8.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 2.3 steals and a block in 31.4 minutes per outing.

The bottom line, let the FanSided’s NBA Division Director close this discussion out.

Now if we can get the Los Angeles Lakers to do the same with Anthony Davis, everything will even out for Lakers fans everywhere.