Neither Lakers guard Luka Doncic nor Pistons guard Cade Cunningham met the 65-game criteria required for award eligibility in 2025/26, but the NBA and NBPA have ruled that both players will be on voters’ ballots this spring, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), who reports that the league and players’ union granted the “extraordinary circumstances” exceptions requested by both players. The NBA and NBPA officially confirmed the decision in a joint statement (Twitter link).
The 65-game rule requires players to log at least 20 minutes in 63 games and at least 15 minutes in two others in order to qualify for most end-of-season awards, including Most Valuable Player and All-NBA.
Doncic played 62 games of 20-plus minutes and two more of 15-plus minutes in 2025/26. While he sat out a series of games for health reasons and was suspended for one contest after accumulating 16 technical fouls, he also missed two games in December in order to travel to Slovenia for the birth of his child.
As for Cunningham, he played at least 20 minutes in 60 of Detroit’s first 67 games, but he exited the team’s 68th game early due to an injury and was later diagnosed with a collapsed lung. He was able to return and suit up for the final three games of the season, but finished the season with 64 appearances, including one of just five minutes.
The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement allows players to appeal for award eligibility if they feel they would’ve met the 65-game criteria if not for “extraordinary circumstances” and states that those requests can be granted if an expert jointly designated by the NBA and NBPA determines it would be “unjust to exclude the player from eligibility” for awards. However, the CBA doesn’t define what constitutes an extraordinary circumstance, so it was unclear whether Doncic or Cunningham would be successful.
By contrast, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards also applied for an extraordinary circumstances exception after finishing the season with 60 appearances of at least 20 minutes and a 61st in which he played three minutes, but his application was denied by an independent arbitrator. As a result, Edwards won’t be award-eligible this spring.
Doncic and Cunningham presumably had stronger cases than Edwards in part because they got closer to the 65-game threshold, while the Timberwolves guard fell several games short and dealt with relatively “normal” injuries by NBA standards. Still, Cunningham is hardly the first NBA player to deal with a collapsed lung, and missing time for the birth of a child is pretty typical, so the league’s definition of “extraordinary” seems a little arbitrary.
Regardless, now that qualify for award consideration, Doncic and Cunningham are well-positioned to earn All-NBA nods, and it’s safe to assume they’ll show up on plenty of MVP ballots as well.
While earning an All-NBA spot won’t have any financial ramifications for Doncic, it would be more meaningful from a contract perspective for Cunningham — assuming he’s named to an All-NBA team in 2026, he’ll have to do so just once more in either 2027 or 2028 in order to sign a super-max contract extension (worth up to 35% of the cap instead of 30%) with the Pistons in 2028.
Edwards would have been eligible to sign a super-max deal of his own with the Timberwolves in 2027 if he had made an All-NBA team this season. Instead, he’ll have to achieve the feat next year in order to meet the performance criteria.
This seems incredibly unfair to the rules in place. Sure, Luka missed games for the birth of his child but also missed a game due to a suspension. If he didn’t get suspended, he would be award eligible. If Cade didn’t get hurt, he would be award eligible.
But isn’t the point of the 65 game mandate that you need to be available for your team?
How about they just do a total minutes played for the season and throw out the games played? They won’t because they don’t want guys skipping complete games. But then allow this? The nba needs to make up their mind
I believe the spirt of the 65 game rule is disincentivized start players from load managing/ fake injuries for test purposes. I would imagine the arbitrator looked at it through that lens and determined neither of the violated the spirt of the rule.
These rules are ridiculous and arbitrary.
Luka Dončić played 2289 minutes this season.
Cade Cunningham played 2172 minutes this season.
Anthony Edwards played 2137 minutes this season.
Doncìc and Cunningham filed for and were granted exceptions. Edwards was denied. Yet Wembanyama played 1867 minutes an was automatically eligible and will most likely win DPOY and make the All NBA first team.
So play less but appear in more games?
If they’re gonna keep the minimum-games rule – and actually enforce it without preferential treatment – I say drop it to 62 games; that’s as close to the nice round 75% as you’re gonna get. If you can’t be available for 3/4 of the season pie, then no ice cream OR banana pudding for you. That’s fair, right?
They need to do away with these restrictions and the salary rewards that come with it. I understand the players union negotiating for higher salaries for award winners and the teams wanting incentives for playing but fans don’t care and the highest salaried players don’t need more money. Let teams play and rest who they want because the goal should be winning and health. Now coaches are suggesting taking away money from players they deem unworthy of awards, teams would love that, and the league is playing judge and jury on who qualifies. It’s ridiculous.
Confirmed major issues like a bad strain, collapsed lung or appendectomy should not be reasons for award ineligibility. Same as missing a couple games for a child birth.
But if you’re riding the pine for “injury management” and can play 1 game but not the next, and then can play again, those types of games should count.
Also if you get suspended for any reason including getting a lot of techs because you’re a crybaby like Luka- those should absolutely count against you.
They aren’t “rules”, just “suggestions”. You knew the Laker would be exempt from it. That’s how the league plays it.