{"id":1577082,"date":"2023-09-14T17:10:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1577082"},"modified":"2023-09-14T17:10:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T21:10:05","slug":"michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Cooper Laughs Off the NBA's New Load Management Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Load management has become laughable in the NBA. The fact it exists is absurd. Players today are vastly different from those decades ago, and former <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/los-angeles-lakers\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> guard Michael Cooper recently explained why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper spent 12 years in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/nba\">NBA<\/a> and played all 82 games six times. He played 80 or more in three other seasons. When it comes to load management these days, it's just a laughing matter to Cooper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-michael-cooper-worked-as-hard-as-anyone-in-the-nba\">Michael Cooper worked as hard as anyone in the NBA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Cooper&#039;s Top 5 Moments In Lakers History\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NG0dhCJ9030?start=23&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Cooper might not be the biggest name from the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s, but he was certainly one of the most important players during that era. With Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy on the roster, Cooper sacrificed scoring and focused on the defensive side of the ball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper hounded the opponent's best player all game and became one of the NBA's all-time top defenders. Former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird said Cooper was the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-cooper-just-revealed-the-satisfaction-he-got-from-guarding-larry-bird-makes-me-pat-myself-on-the-back\/\">only player who could shut him down.<\/a> Cooper was named All-Defense eight times and was the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While he didn't get many headlines, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/magic-johnson-said-the-showtime-lakers-had-everything-but-singled-out-michael-cooper-as-the-key\/\">Cooper got the respect of his teammates.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMichael Cooper played a big role in us winning,\u201d Johnson said earlier this year on the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ofQmxPhtMXM&amp;t=2429s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">All the Smoke<\/a><\/em> podcast. \u201cCoop could\u2019ve started for any team in the league. He decided the sixth-man role was great for him. Whoever the highest scorer was on the opponent\u2019s team, he would take him and really shut him down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-cooper-laughs-off-today-s-load-management\">Cooper laughs off today's load management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Charles Barkley weighs in on load management in the NBA:<br><br>&quot;You can&#39;t make $30, $40, $50 million and then sit out games. I think it&#39;s disrespectful to the game, I think it&#39;s disrespectful to the fans.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WLFTnhRCV7\">pic.twitter.com\/WLFTnhRCV7<\/a><\/p>&mdash; First Take (@FirstTake) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FirstTake\/status\/1630247159172935682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The NBA is trying to crack down on today's stars taking games off to rest. On Wednesday, the league's Board of Governors approved a policy that would have teams heavily fined should they rest stars (players who were All-Stars or All-NBA in the last three seasons) during nationally televised games or sit multiple stars in a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact that's even a topic seemed to annoy Cooper. He said he believes players are softer today.  Some believe San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was behind the load-management project, although he denied that back in 2020, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kens5.com\/article\/sports\/nba\/spurs\/espns-kendrick-perkins-blames-gregg-popovich-spurs-load-management-nba-san-antonio\/273-0f602be1-644b-45c4-a6df-96036be6d8d9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KENS5.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think after the late '90s, because of the physicality of the game when we played and the commissioner trying to curb the violence and players getting hurt, I think it softened them a little bit,&#8221; Cooper said recently on his <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kysxvISu46w\">Showtime With Coop<\/a><\/em> podcast. &#8220;This is just my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think with the softening of players \u2014 and I love Gregg Popovich, great coach, great person, great innovator of this game. I think he was thinking of a way, &#8216;OK, how can I save my players from 82 games? Gotta give them some rest.' Well, for me, you give them rest in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When we played, we didn't want to sit down. I didn't want to rest. I wanted to get out there and play. You know, if I was hurt, let me at least try. Let me see how it feels today. These guys will get a little tweak, &#8216;Oh, it's hurting. I'm not normal. I can't go out and play.'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Cooper had a few things to say about load management in today's NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1577087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4817,91],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michael Cooper Laughs Off the NBA&#039;s New Load Management Plan - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper had quite a bit to say about today&#039;s load management in the NBA.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Cooper Laughs Off the NBA's New Load Management Plan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper had quite a bit to say about today&#039;s load management in the NBA.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-14T21:10:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-14T21:10:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Michael-Cooper.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1551\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-cooper-laughs-off-the-nbas-new-load-management-plan\/\",\"name\":\"Michael Cooper Laughs Off the NBA's New Load Management Plan - 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