NBA Board Approves Player Participation Policy To Address Rest
Sep 13, 2023, 1:31 PM
LeBron James and Patrick Beverley sit out for the Los Angeles Lakers (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – The NBA Board of Governors approved a new policy Wednesday designed to improve player participation throughout upcoming regular seasons.
With a growing number of star players missing significant portions of the NBA schedule due to rest, the Board of Governors voted to hold teams financially accountable for sitting healthy players.
According to a release from the NBA, “The Player Participation Policy primarily will focus on star players. A star player for purposes of the policy is any player who, in any of the prior three seasons, was selected to an All-NBA Team or an NBA All-Star team.”
The NBA Board of Governors today approved a new Player Participation Policy, which is intended to promote player participation in the NBA’s regular season.
The new policy will take effect with the start of the 2023-24 regular season.
Full release ⬇️https://t.co/Yd7rH5664z
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) September 13, 2023
Player Participation Policy Will Fine Violating Teams
According to the NBA, a fine structure has been introduced to encourage teams to play their star players more regularly throughout the season.
A. First Violation: The team will be fined $100,000.
B. Second Violation: The team will be fined $250,000.
C. Subsequent Violations: For each successive violation, the team will be fined
$1 million more than its previous penalty (i.e., third offense results in a
$1.25 million fine, etc.)
After passing the vote on Wednesday, the NBA outlined new rules teams must abide by to avoid violation of the Player Participation Policy.
• Manage its roster to ensure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game.
• Ensure that star players are available for all national television and NBA In-Season Tournament games.
• Maintain a balance between the number of one-game absences for a star player in home and road games.
• Refrain from any long-term “shutdowns” in which a star player stops playing games.
• If resting a healthy player, ensure that the player is present at the games and visible to fans.
NBA To Provide Exceptions To New Rule
While the NBA hopes to curb the modern trend of load management, there are exceptions to the rule that will allow teams to sit as needed.
The league will allow teams to rest players for multiple games due to bona fide injuries, pre-approved back-to-back games for players 35 years and older, or who have played more than 34,000 career minutes, or 1,000 career games.
LIVE: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver | NBA Board of Governors Press Conference https://t.co/AStQ7J858I
— NBA (@NBA) September 13, 2023
The NBA will also make certain exceptions for players with serious or unusual injury history, personal reasons, rare or unusual circumstances, and end-of-season flexibility, including resting stars on teams who have already clinched a playoff seed.
The league office will have the ability to investigate player absences and will employ an independent former team physician to help determine violations.
Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops or on Instagram @BensHoops.
