Kawhi isn’t happy with the NBA’s Player Participation Policy. Leonard took it personally when asked by the NBA about the new policy during the Clippers’ media day. The “king” of Los Angeles, , is not pleased with the new rule. He says that it will not help him to play more. Leonard stated that if the league was mocking what I did as a Raptor, they should stop since I was injured for the entire year. “… There is no league policy that helps me play more games.” Kawhi has been called that by the rest of the league, whether it’s fair or not. Leonard rarely speaks, but he was quite upset at this new rule. Some people have called this “
Kawhi Leonard’s rule,”
Steph Curry said
that many times, it is the team’s choice to rest a player. “I campaign to play in every game,” Curry stated to the media. This is the common misconception of load management. It’s never the player that’s saying, ‘Hey, I wanna sit.'”Hearing Curry say this isn’t a surprise because San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made the whole load management phenomenon popular years ago. This goes back over a decade. It makes sense that Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, played for Popovich at the end of his professional career. It’s hard to imagine that star players have no say on whether or not they play. It’s difficult to sell tickets in a league dominated by stars. The NBA wants to fix this problem for the sake fans and TV networks who pay a lot of money to watch certain players play. Leonard is the most obvious culprit when it comes to load management but he’s not the only one.
Like many rules, there will be people who find ways to get around what the NBA wants to do. Adam Silver will decide when to punish the wrongdoers, not if. It is difficult to tell an injured athlete that they have to play a game, even if they are not sufficiently hurt to miss one. This new rule is a bit murky for the association.