When theargument about NILand whether to pay college athletes became a legitimate one in the past decade, you would often hear naysayers bring up the fact that one of the "side effects" would be that players would start to "opt out" of important games.
It started with bowl games and national championship games in college football, and everyone who brought this up would just be labeled alarmists and would get a slippery slope fallacy slapped on their argument.
Kansas Jayhawks freshman Darryn Peterson is a case study in how those "slippery slopers" may, once again, have been right all along.
Peterson isa consensus top-five NBA Draftpick whenever he decides to declare for the draft, and he seems to be doing his best to keep his legs fresh for the association.
Before conference play even started, the man they dubbed "DNP" (a play on his initials as well as the "did not play" designation), missed nine of Kansas' 13 non-conference games.
Then came "Flu Gate," a game against top-ranked Arizona where Peterson sat due to "flu-like symptoms" but was seen bounding up and down the court and joking with his teammates during warm-ups just before tip off.
The Jayhawks would go on to knock off the Wildcats without their prized guard, but the trend was becoming noticeable and worrying to everyone in Lawrence.
Fast-forward to Wednesday night, and DNP struck once again, this time appearing to substitute himself out of a game in the second half due to cramping after tallying 23 points in only 18 minutes of play.
While Kansas coachBill Selfobliged and took Peterson out of the game, he was singing a much different tune in his postgame presser, citing this as a recurring theme for his superstar underclassman.
Was Peterson actually cramping, or was this another case of "load management?"
Source: The Latest & Most Breaking News With OutKick
