The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) is working to put forward a change to the league’s 65-game awards-eligibility rule, reports Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, citing an anonymous source within the players’ union.
The NBPA would like to introduce stipulations related to significant injuries and reevaluate the games-played criteria, Vorkunov writes, adding that the union intends to present its proposal to the league within the next few weeks.
The NBPA previously put out a statement calling for the rule to be either abolished or reformed, citing the looming potential ineligibility of Cade Cunningham, who has had an All-NBA season but currently sits at 60 games played with 20 or more minutes.
League commissioner Adam Silver, however, told reporters today that he believes the rule has been a success and is working as intended, seemingly resisting the call for changes to be made.
“We always knew when there’s a line you draw, that somebody’s going to fall on the other side of that line,” Silver said. “And it may feel unfair in that particular instance. Let’s see what happens at the end of this year… we also have to remember that to the extent that one player is no longer eligible, some other player will then be All-NBA and will slot into that spot. So I’m not ready to stand here saying I don’t think it’s working. I think it is working.”
Vorkunov notes that the rule has come under scrutiny for potentially pressuring players to return too quickly from injuries so as not to lose out on contract incentives based on end-of-year awards.
“There’s not nearly as much discussion around load management as there was, in part because the teams and the players have responded. You see them on the floor now,” Silver said. “So, now we have a separate issue that we’re dealing with in terms of tanking, and we’ll deal with that. And I get it. There’s part of my job. There’s always new issues, but I’m not ready to say, standing here today, that because there may be a sense of unfairness for one player, that means the rule doesn’t work.”
This had better forever be known as “The Kawhi Rule”.
If anything it’s the Embiid rule
It should be dropped to 50 games of over 20 mins.
Can we seek to find someone better than Adam?
The part time league…
I thought this was to change the season to 65 games. Maybe focus on that NBPA.
There’s no feasible way players get paid the same or more with less regular season games so this is basically the opposite of why the NBAPA exists, which is to maximize players salaries and shares of league revenue. You and Steve Kerr man lol; no one else in the league wants less money, just sayin’..and I like hoops so I’m not campaigning for it lol
55 games
25+ minutes a game
MVPs need to be on the floor
No one cares about tanking, but… taking away awards to deserving players to give them to a lesser players is just messed up, like seriously, right?
Commissioner get your priorities right!
Lmao at them now crying to change it when they agreed to this in the first place.
I can understand it when sudden injuries happen to players like Cunningham, but maybe they wouldn’t be in this predicament if they weren’t being rested to “load management” and ended up being close to the threshold in the first place.
60 games and 15 minutes across the board is your deal players association.
Maybe having different standards for different awards would be a good start? They already don’t have this requirement for ROY, so maybe they can lower requirements for NBA All Teamers, but keep the rule in effect for MVP, DPOY etc; I’ve never checked personally but I assume the all Def team has the 65 game rule too?
Take away the supermax part and players won’t care about being on an all NBA team. they only care because of the money.
Anonymous execs talk quite a bit. Silver, owners and players trump anonymous execs and greedy agents. Regardless of anyones opinion Silver, owners and players aren’t going without money.
Not to mention TV deals already in place. Logistical nightmare, this isn’t happening, next.