Micah Parsons had the most disingenuous take on the NBA’s culture of load management

“Excessive” player rest has been an underlying issue for the NBA for a while now, as the league has tried to devise ways to incentivize players not to take so much time off.

While everyone has different situations with different contexts, with stars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving playing in roughly only half of their games over the last four years, it doesn’t seem like this problem is going away any time soon.

That is why a recent comment on the subject from Dallas Cowboys’ Micah Parsons felt so disingenuous. Parsons plays professional football and not professional basketball, yet he nevertheless still made sure to note he won’t “miss games.”

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The NFL doesn’t have its own “load management” issue with superstars voluntarily sitting out games.

I genuinely can’t remember the last time a name as big as Durant or Irving in the NFL didn’t play because they just wanted to rest. So I’m not sure why Parsons felt the need to clarify his situation as if what’s happening in the NFL and NBA is remotely similar.

Meanwhile, because most NFL players do not have fully guaranteed contracts, they can’t sit out games and potentially eat a massive fine from their franchise. There are limitations to their choices.

Additionally, basketball is less violent than football, and NFL players only have 17 games over 17 weeks (playoffs not included) on the schedule. For comparison, the regular season in the NBA extends for around 24 weeks and several games are played per week.

I get the sense that Parsons understands this vital distinction. The only remaining assumption I’ll make is that he just wanted to defend his personal pride in trying to play in every game.

Fine. More power to him. But about that: While it was certainly understandable due to COVID-19 concerns, this is the same player who opted out of the 2020 college football season with Penn State.

So, while he professes he’d never miss a game now, Parsons has a past precedent of voluntarily sitting some out. Go figure.