Walt Frazier: Old-school NBA players don’t like stars resting

Hall of Fame point guard-turned-color commentator Walt “Clyde” Frazier sees a generational divide when it comes to the issue of star players resting.

In an interview with Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune that ran on Friday, the New York Knicks legend offered his two cents on the NBA’s recent trend of maintenance days.

“Us old-school guys, we don’t like it,” said the 71-year-old Frazier. “We didn’t have that luxury when I played. We had to play through commercials, back-to-backs, whatever they told us to do. We paved the way for these guys and they are biting the hand that feeds them. The reason the league is so big today is because of the TV money, and now they are sitting out?”

For his part, Frazier played in the league for 13 seasons and appeared in 77 or more games for seven of those seasons in a row. Furthermore, he subsisted in an era in the 1970s that didn’t have the benefit of modern travel accommodations or medical advances, as he hinted at.

Frazier’s comments are also consistent with (albeit a bit more self-aware than) the remarks made recently by fellow point guard great John Stockton, who is 17 years Frazier’s junior. As such, it’s become fairly clear that two competing schools of thought have emerged between the old guard and the new guard when it comes to the league’s rest problematic.

Image via FOX 5 New York on YouTube