Richard Jefferson, a former teammate of LA Lakers star LeBron James, described the NBA's rule change regarding end-of-quarter heaves as "cowardly."The league announced Wednesday that beginning in 2025-26, the unsuccessful end-of-period shots will be recorded as a missed field goal for the team. The rule change was designed to encourage players to take last-second desperation attempts without worrying about their statistics.On Thursday, Jefferson quote-tweeted NBA insider Shams Charania's post and wrote:"This is cowardly! We don’t want it to count towards your %…… UNLESS YOU MAKE IT. You want the positive without the potential for negative. PROFESSIONAL SPORTS 2025."Richard Jefferson was a key member of the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers championship-winning team, led by LeBron James. Jefferson played 17 seasons in the league and is now an NBA analyst for ESPN.According to the NBA, the end-of-quarter heaves are shots launched from at least 36 feet away and are taken within the final three seconds of the first three quarters. The play must start in the backcourt.In recent seasons, players have opted to avoid taking these "low-percentage" shots to protect their shooting percentage. Some contracts have incentives regarding shooting efficiency metrics. The NBA board of governors hopes the new policy will fix that.NBA insider also slams rule change, citing it benefits "chicken s**t players"Aside from one-time NBA champion Richard Jefferson, league insider Zach Lowe is also not a fan of the rule change regarding end-of-quarter heaves. In a clip of his show posted by The Ringer on X on Thursday, Lowe expressed his disapproval of the rule change."I hate it, I hate it, we’re letting these chicken s**t players who won’t shoot heaves because they’re afraid of a .001 reduction in their field goal percentage get off scott free," Lowe said. "Now, they're going to be able to shoot heaves. I liked exposing those players, and I liked lionizing the Steph Currys, the Nikola Jokics, JR Smith back in the day, Payton Pritchard."The guys who are like, 'No way, I want to win the game and if there is a 2% chance this crazy shot is going to go in, or I’ll get fouled or something I’m taking it.'"According to the league-cited SportRadar analytics, players converted about 4% of the heaves taken last season. Of these attempts, Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry made four, while Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic made three.