Here's the reality of the NBA's perceived 'load management crisis'

Isaac Mourier is the director of performance nutrition andsports science at Impact Basketball, one of the most prestigiousindependent training organizations for elite pro basketballplayers. He's spent time as a consultant for the Sacramento Kingsand as a nutritionist for Georgia athletics, and he played probasketball in Germany.

So while Mourier cannot speak for everyone in the NBA, his nextstatement carries weight:

"I've never met a player that doesn't want to play," Mouriertold Basketball News. "Never, in my career as a player, as apractitioner, have I ever met a player that does not want to play.So that's a myth."

The NBA's perceived "load management crisis" has only sparkedlouder outrage this season from fans, some media and even formerplayers. Charles Barkley has called the trend "disrespectfulto the game."Kendrick Perkins has labeled the mental toughness oftoday's players as "softer than funeral music." While these twoare certainly controversial voices at the very least, they aresignificant influences in the sport's discourse.

Barkley and Perkins, among many others, are also warping thetrue hows and whys of load management.

Today's NBA game is more physically taxing than ever, and amongthose in the league, it's barely a debate.

"I was part of the physical era, where you couldhand-check and grind, post up and all that," Mike Conley toldFox Sports in January. "We werea physical team. It’s who we were. That was taxing in a whole otherway. You played through injuries, but it was more bumps and bruisesbecause you were being physically assaulted.

"Now it’s like, imagine running as fast as youcan for 48 minutes and having to do that every night. There aremore possessions, more opportunities to get these non-contactinjuries. Guys are having more calf strains, more hamstrings andstuff like that. We weren’t getting those as much (before)."

Kevon Looney backs Conley up in that article, and Mouriersupports them both. He says that the "physicality" of theold-school, post-centric game is much different from today's fastpace that wears out the body with more muscle contractions.

"What may look less physically taxing to theeye, in terms of less bumps and bruises and people getting knockedover — I think you're actually having the opposite effect on thebody, where these distances covered, the speed at which they'recovered and the changes of directions are far more taxing on thebody," Mourier said.