Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards slams NBA players for sitting out due to load management

Minnesota Timberwolves’ All-Star guard Anthony Edwards has blasted other NBA players for sitting out of games due to load management, as he vowed to play for fans who pay to see him hoop.

Taking up the mic after playing for Team LeBron in the 184-175 loss to Team Giannis at the All-Star game, the 21-year-old conveyed that he isn’t a fan of missing league games simply because he needs a rest. 

‘If there’s anything that I could change about the league to make it better, it’d probably be all these guys sitting and resting,’ Edwards told reporters on Sunday. ‘That’s the only thing I probably don’t like.’ 

‘Just play, man. If you 80 percent, you gotta play. I don’t like all the sitting, missing games and stuff,’ he added before making his point on fans paying to watch their favorite athletes compete. 

‘These people might have enough money to come to one game and that might be the game that they come to and then you sitting out. So, I take pride in trying to play every game because I don’t know…it might be one fan who never see me play and I’m trying to play so that’s the only thing I don’t like. Guys sitting out.’

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards is not a fan of sitting out of games to rest

The 21-year hasn’t missed a game for Minnesota this season, prompting him to be an All-Star

Edwards has not missed much gametime, if any at all, since coming into the league in 2020. The third-year NBA shooting guard played all of Minnesota’s 61 games this season and he is quietly leading the league in total minutes (2,211).  

The former Georgia Bulldog also leads his team in attendance, only missing 10 games since being drafted as the first overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft. 

Six of those absences were related to not meeting the league’s health and safety protocol requirements. 

However, many other NBA players won’t agree with Edwards’ strategy, preferring to manage their minutes and stay fresh for the playoffs. 

Meanwhile, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave his thoughts on the issue of load management during All-Star weekend, but didn’t provide much of a solution going forward.

‘I understand it from a fan standpoint that if you are particularly buying tickets to a particular game and that player isn’t playing,’ Silver said. ‘I don’t have a good answer for that other than this is a deep league with incredible competition.’ 

Many NBA players won’t agree with Edwards’ stance, including the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard