On Thursday night, before Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers had a big win over the Portland Trail Blazers, the league fined the team $50,000 for statements made by head coach Doc Rivers and the team that “were inconsistent” with official reports about Leonard’s health.
Leonard has been one of the focal points in the ongoing NBA debate about load management — where teams are resting star players to ensure they’re healthy over the course of the season. From a strategic perspective, it makes sense. But for fans who pay a lot of money to see their favorite players play, or TV stations that want the best players on nationally televised games, it’s not as understandable.
Along with announcing the $50,000 fine, the NBA also revealed details of Leonard’s injury in the statement.
In the statement, the league wrote that “Leonard is suffering from an ongoing injury to the patella tendon in his left knee and has been placed by the team at this time on an injury protocol for back-to-back games.”
After the game, Leonard was asked about the league revealing his ailment.
“I mean it was shocking, but it doesn’t matter to me,” Leonard said when asked what he thought about the NBA revealing details about his injury. “I’m not a guy that reads the media anyway. We’re going to manage it the best way we can to keep me healthy and that’s the most important thing, me being healthy moving forward.”
Aside from the fact that it’s funny that Leonard said he doesn’t read the media, literally one second after commenting on something he read in the media, he’s got a good point.
Load management is driving everyone crazy right now. The league is revealing private details about injuries to get people off their back, which is … not great.
If they want the Clippers to adhere by some code of playing everyone all the time, they need to either change the schedule or change the rules. We even offered some suggestions this week for how to do that, several of which are almost feasible.
