Sports
NBA Rumors: Teams No Longer Able to Rest 2 Stars in Same Game After Rule Change – Bleacher Report
The NBA has made a move to crack down on the evergrowing trend of load management.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the league’s Board of Governors has approved a new policy in which teams are unable to rest two star players in the same game. A star player is defined as someone who earned an All-Star or All-NBA selection within the past three seasons.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski added that teams would be fined $100,000 for a first violation of the new policy, $250,000 for a second violation and “$1 million more than the previous penalty for each additional violation.”
The implementation of the new policy on Wednesday continues the NBA’s effort to reduce the frequency of load management. In recent years, teams have routinely chosen to rest star players throughout the year in order for them to be properly rested later in the season for the playoff push. That trend has affected nationally televised games and impacted interest from fans due to the lack of reliability that their favorite player will be available on any given night.
In the latest collective bargaining agreement, players are required to appear in at least 65 games in order to qualify for individual awards or All-NBA honors, with specific exceptions. The new policy should further incentivize star players to play as much as possible.
However, ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported on Wednesday that while teams understand the need for star players to be available, there are still “valid concerns.”
“The main concern comes from what happens when a team determines that a star player is healthy enough to play in a back-to-back game but that player determines he is sore and needs rest,” Marks stated. “Because the [player participation policy] is not a collectively bargained rule, the team, not the player, will get fined if the rule is violated.”
Also, the new policy “might contradict a team’s use of sports science to monitor the workload of its players.” One scenario was presented where two star players played 45 minutes in an overtime game on the front end of a back-to-back. Under the new rules, those players would still be required to play the next night.
Still, teams will have to adjust to the new policy going forward or face the consequences.