The NBA looked at the Utah Jazz and decided they’re tanking just a little too hard.
A $100,000 fine followed, with the league saying the Jazz violated its player participation policy, according to ESPN:
According to the league, the violation occurred when the Jazz failed to make power forward Lauri Markkanen available when Utah took on the host Washington Wizards on March 5, “as well as other recent games.” Markkanen is a “star player” under the policy because he was an All-Star in 2023. He has been out since Feb. 22, with the Jazz (15-50) saying it’s for injury management on his lower back.
While Utah didn’t go quite as far as San Antonio did when they famously held out Tim Duncan for “DNP - Old,” sitting a player for “injury management” is likely to raise the eyebrows of the NBA since it passed its more stringent player participation policy in 2023, itself a strengthening of its preexisting 2016 player resting policy. Designed to prevent the most visible cases of players sitting out games, the new policy restricts teams from benching “star” players, defined as those who have made an All-Star or All-NBA team in any of the past three seasons, except for in specific circumstances.
The Brooklyn Nets were the first team fined under the new policy when they sat several starters and held Mikal Bridges out after the first quarter back in December. At the time, NBA Executive Vice President Joe Dumars said the following:
“We’ve been very clear with teams what we are trying to accomplish, and what we’d like to see. And, if I’m just cutting to the chase, if you’re going to sit four starters at one time, that’s going to violate the policy and it violates the spirit of what we’re trying to do here.
That explanation seems at odds with the letter of the policy, which specifically calls out “star” players. However, with Bridges being benched, it may have been in violation of the section of the policy that says a star player may not begin “...to play a materially reduced role in circumstances affecting the integrity of the game.”
The Blazers have no players on their roster who have made an All-Star or All-NBA team, so unless Dumars and the NBA take an even more generous interpretation of the policy, it likely can’t be applied to them. And while Portland has missed the second-most minutes (8900~) due to injury this season, they’re 11th when those missed minutes are adjusted to the production the Blazers would have gotten on the court.