Adam Silver is convinced that the NBA's Player Participation Policy is working well amid several stars missing out on individual awards.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sees no valid reason to make immediate changes to the league's Player Participation Policy.
Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic
MIN: 35.76
PTS: 33.48 (56.9%)
REB: 7.73
AS: 8.27
ST: 1.64
BL: 0.53
TO: 3.98
GM: 64
"I'm frankly not ready to support a change. I take a step back to the situation we were dealing with when we entered the last Collective Bargaining negotiation and implemented the 65-game rule. In the few seasons before that, roughly one-third of All-NBA players did not participate in 65 games—about 80 to 85% of the season," Silver argued.
"So we worked with the Players Association, on behalf of the fans, to find a way to incentivize stars to be on the floor and encourage teams to have their stars available. From that standpoint, I think the rule is working."
The NBA Player Participation Policy requires players to play at least 65 regular-season games to qualify for major postseason awards. This was introduced as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that was ratified three years ago.
This season, several players saw themselves failing to qualify for individual awards. The most glaring exclusion is Anthony Edwards, in which the Minnesota Timberwolves superstar ony played 61 games amid averaging a career-best 28.8 points with 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
As such, Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham both successfully bypassed the 65-game requirement by winning an official "Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge" filed by the players' union.
Doncic, who led the league in scoring with 33.5 points across 64 appearances, earned consideration for taking a break back in December to attend the birth of his daughter in Slovenia. Meanwhile, Cunningham was given grace despite coming up two games short of fulfilling the rule after sustaining a collapsed lung.
"We also built in exceptions for extraordinary circumstances, such as a player missing a game or two, and we had two such exceptions this year. But I'm not ready to support a change yet," Silver said. "When we negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the players, we're open to discussing it.
"What often gets overlooked is that wherever we draw the line, there will always be players on one side or the other. Even when we updated rules around tanking, the broader trend in modern sports is that analytics dominate and teams respond to clear incentives. Players do the same.
"In the same way we changed rules to incentivize teams to compete in the regular season, we've also adjusted rules to incentivize player participation. And I think, for the most part, those changes have worked."
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