Julius Erving says Kawhi Leonard was his favorite player before load management: "What the hell happened to my guy"

Philadelphia 76ers legend Julius Erving continues to follow the NBA long after retirement. And just like every other fan, the Doctor has his favorite players to watch.

According to Erving, he used to love how Kawhi Leonard played during his time with the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors. However, a lot has changed in the league since Leonard led Toronto to the first NBA title in franchise history in 2019, and the superstar forward is at the forefront of that shift.

"Load management has messed me up because Kawhi was my guy," Dr. J said on the Mark Jackson Show. "You know, San Antonio and Toronto, I'm in Kawhi's corner. Then this load management stuff happened."

Kawhi has a long history of injuries

Leonard is one of the best two-way players in NBA history. Unfortunately, injuries keep getting in the way of his greatness.

The Los Angeles Clippers forward never played more than 65 regular-season games in his first four years in the league. Then, in 2015-16 and 2016-17, when he arguably emerged as a legit superstar, Kawhie missed only 18 total games in two seasons. But the ZaZa Pachulia incident happened, and he was back to being brittle.

In the next six seasons, Leonard played no more than 60 regular-season games. Aside from various injuries, he sat out games—especially the second night of back-to-backs—to load manage. That's when Erving lost his fondness for Kawhi.

"He playing like every fourth game," the NBA legend continued. "I'm like, 'What the hell happened to my guy? What happened to 82 games, man? And he was a little different anyway because I spent some time with him at that NBA 75th and whatever. He's just kind of quiet, whatever."

The NBA's player participation policy

This past campaign, the NBA adopted the player participation policy to help curb its worsening load management problem. Kawhi's first reaction to the rule was that the league was unfairly targeting him.

"If the league is seeing or trying to mock what I did with the Raptors, they should stop because I was injured during that whole year. But other than that, if I'm able to play, I'll play basketball. I work out every day in the summertime to play the game. So, no league policy is helping me to play more games," he said .

It may be a coincidence, but Leonard played 68 games last season, his most since 2016-17. However, a couple of days ago, the Clippers announced that Kawhi would be limited in training camp because of a knee problem.

With no certainty as to whether he will be ready for opening night or not, it's like watching the same movie all over again. No wonder Dr. J.'s had enough.

Related: "You don't think Bron is swelling?" - Kevin Garnett questions "does Kawhi Leonard want to play" after recent load management reports