Former NBA player Enes Freedom (formerly Enes Kanter) is sounding off on the modern NBA's heavy reliance on load management. The phrase load management describes the propensity of NBA teams to rest their healthy star players just to give them more rest in preparation for high-leverage moments; however, Freedom is not a fan of the idea.
Freedom recently gave an interview to Fox News where he discussed his thoughts on the controversy.
“This new generation of players I think is becoming too soft,” said Freedom. “Back in the day, we’d never heard of load management.”
Enes Freedom hasn't made an appearance on an NBA court since 2022 with the Boston Celtics. However, during the prime of his career during the mid-2010s, Freedom was a reliable for big man for several NBA teams, including the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers.
Freedom also played a sizable role on the 2016 Oklahoma City Thunder team that gave the 73-win Golden State Warriors all they could handle, coming within one game of the NBA Finals that year.
The Turkish big man changed his last name from Kanter to Freedom in 2021 after gaining American citizenship that year. Freedom is not the only person to sound off on the NBA's resting habits for its players.
The league recently announced that they will be cracking down on the issue in 2023 with a series of new rules designed to keep teams from resting multiple stars on the same night.
However, don't expect that to quiet down Freedom's concerns any time soon.