The Pistons superstar is four games short of 65-game awards eligibility this season after sustaining a brutal collapsed lung from last week.
In danger of missing individual awards due to his looming extended injury absence, the camp of Cade Cunningham filed his grievances with the NBA.
Detroit Pistons / Schedule
In a statement he provided to ESPN's Shams Charania, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports urged the league to make a special exception for his client from the 65-game rule.
“Cade has delivered a first-team All-NBA season. If he falls just short of an arbitrary games-played threshold due to legitimate injury, it should not disqualify him from recognition he has clearly earned over the course of the season. The league should be rewarding excellence, not enforcing rigid cutoffs that ignore context," the agent of Cunningham wrote.
"An exception needs to be made.”
Players need to play 65 games or more in order to qualify for awards at the end of the regular season.
Cunningham is facing a significant challenge to maintain his eligibility for NBA honors. The budding superstar, who led the Detroit Pistons (52-19) to the top seed of the East while averaging 24.5 points and 9.9 assists this season, sustained a collapsed lung from last week.
He only played 61 games, and it remains uncertain if he could still play for the remainder of the regular season with 11 games left on the Pistons' schedule.
Several NBA stars sustained injuries this season that ultimately prohibited them from being qualified for league awards. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo are out of the races for failing to reach the 65-game rule.
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