NBPA Executive Director Explains Opposition To Second Apron
David Kelly, the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, spoke out last week against the second tax apron rules in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, arguing that the second-apron restrictions should be removed or at least “softened.”
In an interview with Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, Kelly reiterated that the NBPA is opposed to the second apron.
“It’s not good for fans. Not good for players. I don’t think the (general managers) love it, although they may not say it on the record. Coaches don’t love it. The only people who really seem to really love it are the owners,” Kelly told The Athletic. “Then, I think it’s gone too far. So whether it’s an unwinding of it, or a softening of the apron, or tweaking it, we can call it whatever we will. But … I do think it’s gone too far.”
As Vorkunov writes, while the current CBA continues to ensure players receive between 49 and 51 percent of all basketball-related income, Kelly noted that NBA front offices have been forced to dismantle their rosters when they become too costly. Kelly is concerned that free agency has been diminished the past few years and pushed back on the NBA’s stance that the new CBA created parity, pointing out that five different teams won the championship in the five seasons leading up to the 2023 CBA.
“I think those teams would generate more revenue, would grow the game, would have more fan interest, if they could invest (in their rosters),” he said. “So you’re preventing teams from investing in an investment that would actually generate more revenue for the owners, for the league and for the players. … So 51 percent of what? I think the game would be growing more (without the second apron).”
Although the union will attempt to work out issues with the league behind the scenes, Kelly made it clear to Vorkunov that the NBPA has to be “prepared to fight” when necessary. Kelly said it was too early to tell if the union would opt out of the current CBA by July 1, 2029, but said informal talks about the CBA could start next year.
“We’re getting ready for the next CBA,” NBPA president Fred VanVleet said. “Like today.”
And-Ones: Team USA Assistants, NBPA, Expansion, More
Mark Daigneault of the Thunder, J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons, and Gonzaga’s Mark Few are expected to be named Team USA men’s basketball assistants under head coach Erik Spoelstra, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
USA Basketball announced last October that Spoelstra was taking over for Steve Kerr as the head coach of the men’s basketball team in advance of the 2027 World Cup and 2028 Olympics. However, there was no information at the time about what his staff might look like.
Daigneault, the head coach in Oklahoma City since 2020, has an NBA Coach of the Year award and a championship under his belt, while Bickerstaff is coming off a 60-win season and currently serves as the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. Few, meanwhile, has led the Zags to a pair of NCAA championship games and is a carryover from the 2024 Olympics — he was an assistant under Kerr in Paris alongside Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- David Kelly, the new executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, hasn’t made much noise since taking over the role from Andre Iguodala in February, but he spoke out on Friday against the second tax apron rules in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, arguing that the second-apron restrictions should be removed or at least “softened,” per Ben Golliver of ESPN. “We are not fans of the second apron,” Kelly said. “We did not propose the second apron. We should have done a better job of fighting back against the second apron. In the future, we will have a much more unified union, and we will do a better job of fighting back. … We’re seeing (the apron system) decimate teams and force decisions to be made that are not basketball decisions.”
- Kelly also spoke about the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers‘ and Kawhi Leonard‘s agreements with the now-bankrupt green banking company Aspiration, opining that the process shouldn’t have taken this long and suggesting that the players’ union doesn’t think “there’s a ‘there’ there” (Twitter links via Jake Fischer of The Stein Line).
- While Seattle has remained a “one-bid city” for NBA expansion, in the words of Tim Booth of The Seattle Times, it looks like there are four different groups vying to bring a team to Las Vegas, prompting Booth to wonder whether or not the league will be comfortable moving forward with both cities on the same timeline. One of the prospective owners hoping to land an expansion team in Las Vegas, Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, explained to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic that he believes his experience bringing the NHL to the city gives him a leg up on the competition. “We did a couple things really well. We’re going to do it on steroids with an NBA team,” Foley said. “… We’ve already brought a major-league franchise to Las Vegas. We’ve jumped through all the hoops. … I believe we’re in a really good spot to compete.”
- Appearing on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast (YouTube link), new Sixers wing Jaylen Brown spoke about why he believes the NBA’s agency model is “broken” and explained why he found it useful to work with the players’ union instead of an agent when he first entered the league (Twitter video links).
And-Ones: Fertitta, WNBA, Cotton, Refs, Diakite
The WNBA’s and NBA’s Board of Governors have approved the sale of the Connecticut Sun to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, according to Doug Feinberg of The Associated Press.
While the Sun will finish the current season in Connecticut, the plan for 2027 is for the franchise to relocate to Houston, where the team is expected to be rebranded as the Comets. The original iteration of the Houston Comets competed in the WNBA from 1997-2008 before folding.
According to Alexa Philippou of ESPN (Twitter link), the Comets won’t have a standalone practice facility in Houston. The plan is for the team to practice at Toyota Center, which is in the process of undergoing a $180MM renovation project in order to update its infrastructure. The Comets will share the building with the Rockets.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- American-born guard Bryce Cotton, a six-time MVP in Australia’s National Basketball League, will suit up for the Australian national team during July’s World Cup qualifiers after becoming a citizen last September, reports ESPN’s Olgun Uluc. In a separate story for ESPN, Uluc examines how Cotton’s eligibility will impact the Boomers going forward, noting that the team can’t have more than one naturalized player on its roster in the World Cup or Olympics. That means either Cotton or Matisse Thybulle would be an odd man out.
- The National Basketball Players Association announced the findings of its annual referee player survey on Wednesday, dividing the league’s officials into three tiers based on player feedback. The 26 referees in the first tier are considered “elite and top performers,” while the 27 in the second tier are viewed as “solid performers.” The 20 in the third tier fall under the heading “needs improvement.”
- On the heels of a strong EuroLeague season with Baskonia in Spain, former NBA big man Mamadi Diakite is believed be nearing a deal with Dubai Basketball, according to a report from BasketNews.com. Diakite, 29, appeared in a total of 55 NBA regular season games for Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, San Antonio, and New York from 2021-24.
- The NBA announced tentative schedules for the conference finals on Wednesday, as Adam Zagoria of NJ.com relays (via Twitter). The Eastern Conference finals will begin on either Sunday or Tuesday, depending on whether the Cavaliers and Pistons require a Game 7, while the Western finals will tip off on either Monday or Wednesday, pending the results of Friday’s Game 6 between the Spurs and Timberwolves. The Knicks and Thunder await the winners of those conference semifinals.
And-Ones: D. Jones, Prediction Markets, 65-Game Rule, More
Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones is expected to plead guilty to charges related to illegal betting, according to reports from Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic and Michael R. Sisak of The Associated Press.
Jones, one of nearly three-dozen people arrested in connection to a federal investigation into illegal sports gambling, was accused of profiting from a rigged poker game and of providing inside information to sports bettors. Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was also arrested and charged in the former case, while Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested and charged in the latter.
Jones, one of three defendants named in each of the two indictments, originally pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in both cases last November. However, he has decided to change his plea. According to Vorkunov, Jones is due to appear in a federal court in Brooklyn on April 28, though Sisak says his change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for May 6.
While Jones never held a formal coaching position with the Lakers, he’s a longtime friend of LeBron James who was often around the team and would occasionally fly with the players to road games. Federal prosecutors have accused Jones of using his access to sell non-public information to gamblers, most notably in relation to a game on February 9, 2023 between the Lakers and Bucks, which James sat out. Jones allegedly sent a text message to an unnamed co-conspirator that read, “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out.”
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The NBA is engaged in talks with Kalshi and Polymarket about a potential prediction-market deal, reports Ben Horney of Front Office Sports. Sources tell Horney that the NBA would like to gain a measure of control over which markets are permitted and wants to ensure there are mechanisms in place to “monitor suspicious trading patterns.” The NHL has already reached deals with Kalshi and Polymarket, while MLB agreed to an exclusive partnership with Polymarket.
- Although Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham were granted award eligibility on Thursday through the appeals process, the National Basketball Players Association would still like to see the 65-game rule eliminated or modified, according to Dan Woike, Sam Amick, and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. A league source tells The Athletic that the rule was initially proposed by the league and eventually accepted by the players’ union, but the NBPA no longer supports it.
- Eric Nehm and Fred Katz of The Athletic takes a look at the top first-time head coaching candidates from around the NBA, including Spurs assistant Sean Sweeney, Heat assistant Chris Quinn, and Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, among several others.
- The NBA announced this week that it boasted impressive viewership numbers in 2025/26, the first year of its new $76 billion media rights deal with Disney, Amazon, and NBC. As The Associated Press relays, the NBA said the average viewership of games across ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock, and NBA TV was up 35% from last season and reached its highest mark in 13 seasons. The league added that 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games on those four broadcast platforms this season, the highest total in 24 years and an 86% increase on last season’s total.
Players’ Union Has Own Anti-Tanking Proposals
As the NBA considers implementing new rules aimed at deterring tanking prior to next season, the National Basketball Players Association has proposed a three-pronged approach to the issue, reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The NBPA’s suggestions are as follows:
1. Flattening the draft lottery odds
The players’ union is generally in favor of the first of three lottery reform proposals that the league reportedly presented at the NBA’s Board of Governors. That proposal would expand the lottery field to 18 teams – folding in the four play-in teams who earn playoff spots – and would give the bottom 10 teams identical odds at the No. 1 overall pick.
However, the NBPA suggested some modifications to that concept, according to Fischer (Twitter link). Rather than each of the bottom 10 teams having an 8% chance to land the top pick, the players’ union would like to see those odds reduced to 7%. And instead of using descending odds for the No. 11 through No. 18 teams in the lottery, the union has proposed flat odds (including a 3.75% chance at the first overall pick) for each of those clubs.
2. Strictly enforcing meaningful tanking penalties
Reporting earlier today indicated that the NBA would like to expand its ability to enact penalties on teams who manipulate player availability and rotations in an effort to lose games. The union is in favor of that idea, Fischer reports (via Twitter), writing that key members of the NBPA are pushing for “additional penalties to punish blatant tanking.”
Fischer confirms that moving a team’s pick to the end of the lottery or the end of the first round – or even taking it away altogether – are among the more extreme measures that have been suggested. Reducing a team’s lottery odds is another potential penalty that has been floated, Fischer adds. Earlier reporting from The Athletic stated that larger fines – into the millions – have also been discussed as an anti-tanking measure.
3. Financially rewarding wins and penalizing losses
The most interesting NBPA proposal mentioned by Fischer is one that hasn’t otherwise been reported to this point. According to Fischer (Twitter link), the union has suggested that teams who perform better in the regular season should be entitled to larger shares of the NBA’s national television revenue.
This is a system used in the Premier League — Philip Buckingham of The Athletic provides an explainer on how these “merit payments” work in Europe’s top soccer league, where top clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal received exponentially higher distributions last season than last-place finishers Southampton.
That sort of change would be far more significant than just altering the draft lottery rules. It would also conflict with the NBA’s current rules related to revenue sharing, so it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s not a concept we’ve heard the league advocate for to this point. It sounds like a longer shot than the other two aspects of the NBPA’s plan.
NBPA To Seek Change To 65-Game Rule
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.”
NBPA Calls For 65-Game Rule To Be Abolished Or Reformed
With several star players, including Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, at risk of falling short of the 65-game minimum required to qualify for end-of-season awards, the National Basketball Players Association issued a statement on Tuesday calling for the rule to be adjusted or eliminated altogether, as Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press relays (via Twitter).
“Cade Cunningham’s potential ineligibility for postseason awards after a career-defining season is a clear indictment of the 65-game rule and yet another example of why it must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries,” an NBPA spokesperson said. “Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota.”
Cunningham appeared in 61 games before being diagnosed last week with a collapsed lung that may sideline him for the rest of the regular season. Prior to that diagnosis, he was a viable candidate for a spot on MVP ballots and the All-NBA first team. However, it appears increasingly unlikely that he’ll be able to play in the 65 games necessary to qualify for those awards.
The 65-game rule requires players to appear in at least 20 minutes for a game to count toward the minimum, with each player allowed to count up to two appearances in which he played between 15 and 20 minutes. Because Cunningham played just five minutes in his final game last Tuesday, it won’t count toward his total for the purposes of the rule, which means he’s still five games away from reaching the threshold.
The rule does include an exception for a player who suffers a season-ending injury, but only if he has already logged 20-plus minutes in at least 62 games (including 85% of his team’s games to that point). Cunningham didn’t quite get there.
The NBA’s decision to implement the 65-game rule was more about discouraging “load management” than it was about preserving the sanctity of its end-of-season awards, since most media voters already took total games played into account when weighing candidates’ cases. While it’s possible that instances of load management have been reduced as a result of the rule, it has had some troubling side effects, including players pushing to come back from injuries sooner than they otherwise might have in order to preserve their award eligibility.
A player who falls short of 65 games and misses out on All-NBA honors as a result could also face significant financial ramifications, since the criteria for “super-max” and “Rose Rule” contracts are based largely on All-NBA berths. Cunningham, for example, could have become eligible for an extension starting at up to 35% of the salary cap (instead of 30%) by making All-NBA teams in 2026 and 2027. If he misses out this season, he’ll need to make an All-NBA team in 2028 or 2029 to qualify for that super-max extension.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama are among the other MVP candidates who would be at risk of missing the 65-game cutoff if they suffer a minor injury in the season’s final weeks. Jokic must appear in nine of Denver’s remaining 10 games to qualify, while Wembanyama has to play in at least seven of San Antonio’s final 10 contests.
The NBPA also put out a statement today about the league’s player participation policy and the Bucks’ reported plan to shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo for the rest of the season.
NBPA Responds To Bucks’ Reported Plan To Shut Down Giannis
The National Basketball Players Association has weighed in on the disagreement between Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks about whether the star forward should be shut down for the rest of the 2025/26 season, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Reporting last week indicated that the Bucks wanted to hold out their franchise player for the next few weeks after an injury-plagued season in which he battled knee, groin, ankle, and calf issues. Antetokounmpo, however, was said to be pushing to return to action once he recovered from his left knee hyperextension and bone bruise, despite the fact that Milwaukee has fallen out of postseason contention.
The NBPA issued a statement on Tuesday that both supported Antetokounmpo and questioned whether the NBA is committed to enforcing its player participation policy.
“The Player Participation Policy was designed by the league to hold teams accountable and ensure that when an All-Star like Giannis Antetokounmpo is healthy and ready to play, he is on the court,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, anti-tanking policies are only as effective as their enforcement; fans, broadcast partner, and the integrity of the game itself will continue to suffer as long as ownership goes unchecked. We look forward to collaborating with the NBA on meaningful new proposals that will directly address and discourage tanking.”
The NBA’s player participation policy specifically addresses a situation like this one. A team is considered to be in violation of the policy if it shuts down a healthy “star” for an extended period. The rule is designed to avoid scenarios in which tanking teams sit their best players in order to improve their draft position.
Of course, whether a player qualifies as healthy isn’t necessarily a black and white issue. It’s certainly not uncommon for players to play through minor ailments over the course of the 82-game season, and multiple medical experts may have differing opinions on whether or not a player has fully recovered from a given injury.
We still have nearly three weeks left in the regular season, so if Antetokounmpo feels as if he’s ready to return to action at some point during that window, we’ll see if the Bucks relent and activate him.
The fact that the players’ union expressed a willingness to collaborate with the league on anti-tanking measures is also noteworthy, since commissioner Adam Silver has stated in no uncertain terms that the NBA intends to implement new rules on that front ahead of the 2026/27 season.
Expansion Notes: NBPA, NBA Cup, SuperSonics, More
The NBA’s decision to take a vote later this month on whether to explore adding expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle doesn’t necessarily mean expanding to 32 teams is a lock. However, it has been seen as the eventual outcome in league circles for years, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks, who note that expansion to Vegas and Seattle, specifically, has been widely viewed as “inevitable” since commissioner Adam Silver said in December that a decision on the issue would be made in 2026.
Within an in-depth look at why expansion is likely and how it would work, Bontemps and Marks point out that the National Basketball Players Association has no vote on the subject of expansion. Still, sources tell ESPN that the players’ union would be “very much in favor” of adding two new teams to the league, since it would result in another 36 roster spots (30 standard and six two-way).
Adding two new teams would likely have an impact on how the NBA Cup functions, ESPN’s duo writes. Sorting 32 teams into eight groups made up of four clubs apiece would be a more logical format for the in-season tournament. The league could simply have the winners of each of those eight groups advance to the NBA Cup’s knockout round or could expand the knockout round to feature 16 teams like the single-elimination stage of the FIFA World Cup, Bontemps and Marks suggest.
Here’s more on possible NBA expansion:
- As part of the deal between Thunder ownership and the city of Seattle when the team relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, the two sides agreed that the name SuperSonics and all associated branding would be transferred to a new franchise approved to play at a renovated KeyArena at no cost, Bontemps and Marks write. Sources tell ESPN that the Thunder would also allow a new Seattle team to reclaim the SuperSonics’ history and records, which currently apply to the OKC franchise.
- Both ESPN and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic explore some of the rules related to an expansion draft and the salary cap for expansion teams, noting that the current CBA calls for a new franchise to have a salary cap worth 66.6% of the standard cap in its first season. That figure increases to 80% in year two and to 100% in year three.
- If two expansion teams are approved, NBA revenues will be split among 32 teams instead of 30, which is one reason why current team owners haven’t necessarily been eager to expand in the past. However, with ESPN’s Shams Charania reporting that the expansion fees for new franchises – which are divided up among the league’s existing teams – could exceed $7 billion apiece, each current ownership group figures to be in line for significant one-time payments. Additionally, Joe Vardon of The Athletic observes that the NBA’s European league could create a new revenue stream that helps make up for the the dilution of each club’s current share of the NBA’s revenue. Owners of Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, and Newcastle United are among the groups expected to submit bids for NBA Europe teams, Vardon adds.
And-Ones: Fizdale, Gambling Trial, VanVleet, Extensions
In an appearance on the Run It Back podcast (Twitter video link), David Fizdale claims that he and Knicks management worked out a plan to tank when he was their head coach during the 2018/19 season to improve their chances of drafting Zion Williamson or Ja Morant (hat tip to NJ.com). Fizdale also states that management promised him that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would be joining the team as free agents the following summer.
“The plan that we came up with, I was all in on that, and I was like this is the deal and this is the way to go about it. It just didn’t come to fruition,” Fizdale said. “… Losing all them damn games, donating my record to get Zion Williamson or Ja.”
No part of the strategy worked out, as New York landed the third pick in the draft after going 17-65 and wound up taking RJ Barrett, who was later traded to Toronto. Durant and Irving opted to team up in Brooklyn, believing they had a better shot to win a ring with the Nets instead of the Knicks. Fizdale was fired 22 games into the following season after the team got off to a 4-18 start.
“If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record,” Fizdale added. “That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to the … tanking. When you tank, you’re supposed to build something bigger. It’s not supposed to be a tank to whatever happens. … That’s not the formula.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- A federal judge has set a trial date of November 2 for Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones and nearly three dozen co-defendants in a federal gambling case, according to Aaron Katersky of ESPN. A status hearing was held Wednesday at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn, and federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are working out how to handle proceedings with so many defendants. Prosecutors expect to extend plea offers at least 12 defendants over the next few days, and they said nine others are having “productive conversations” about pleading guilty. It’s not clear if Billups and Jones are among that group.
- In addition to working his way back from an ACL tear in his right knee, Fred VanVleet has the responsibilities of running the NBA Players Association. Tania Ganguli of The New York Times talks to VanVleet about getting the players united again after many felt betrayed by the latest collective bargaining agreement, which introduced the apron system.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (subscription required) examines a few players who may receive extensions before reaching free agency this summer, including Trae Young, Keon Ellis and Dean Wade.