Dwyane Wade

[The Great One]

Am i the only one who finds it ridiculous that he doesn't play in the 2nd game of the back to backs this year?? i mean, he's only 31 years old!!! And it's not like he's injured or anything. He just needs his rest i guess.

Kobe on the other hand was asked a few weeks ago when he made his return, on whether he'll play the 2nd game of the back to backs this year. His answer, of course. It's part of the grind. And Kobe is 36 years old who just came back from a career threatening injury.

[rocwell]

Am i the only one who finds it ridiculous that he doesn't play in the 2nd game of the back to backs this year?? i mean, he's only 31 years old!!! And it's not like he's injured or anything. He just needs his rest i guess.

Kobe on the other hand was asked a few weeks ago when he made his return, on whether he'll play the 2nd game of the back to backs this year. His answer, of course. It's part of the grind. And Kobe is 36 years old who just came back from a career threatening injury.

Wade has knee issues. He says he regrets '02 surgery because it causes ongoing knee problems.

If your knee ligament gets swollen after heavy minutes... then it's not so fun to play with little rest.

[BobLoblaw]

Well, they are focused on championship. Keep in mind how many games they've played over the last few years. 3 finals in a row. They are trying to make it 4 in a row. No team has made 4 finals in a row since Magic/Bird Lakers and Celtics. It's extremely physically taxing, a lot of games, much more games than any of their opponents.

So it's only smart to sacrifice some regular season games to recover. I'd even say it would be stupid if they didn't.

Now Kobe is Kobe. He wants to play basketball while he can, he probably has no illusions about a championship this year. He's also probably thinking about scoring records right now, even if he says he doesn't care about it. Still 1.2k career points to go to catch Jordan. And if he wants to catch Malone and Kareem, he can't afford to miss many games.

And in the end, it's not only a player's job to decide if he should play or not. That's something for the coach/doctors/management to plan as well. Kobe and Wade can say whatever they want, but teams have to do what's best in the bigger picture.