Silver: new 65-game policy is working
In Adam Silver's eyes, the NBA's new 65-game policy is working.
The commissioner, in his annual All-Star weekend news conference, said Saturday night he believes the league's rules, which mandate players must generally play in at least 65 games to be eligible for postseason awards, have had their intended effect.
“I can tell you that the number of games that players have participated in is up this season,” Silver said. “And interestingly enough, injuries are actually down.”
There has already been some impact. Philadelphia center Joel Embiid won't win a second consecutive MVP award and his twoyear reign as the league scoring champion will also end because he won't play in enough games to qualify. Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton's next contract might be worth more than $50 million less than he hoped if he doesn't play enough games to qualify for a supermax — and at his current pace, he'd come up a bit short. Miami's Jimmy Butler has already missed too many games to be an awards candidate.
“I just don't like it, how it forces players to play if they're injured to achieve something,” Denver center Nikola Jokic said.
The 65-game rule — which was collectively bargained with the NBA Players Association — went into effect this year and determines whether players are eligible for things such as
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the MVP award, an All-NBA Team, and Defensive Player of the Year.
The G League Ignite, which has struggled this year, may be facing an uncertain future.
The program was put together by the NBA to give players who aren't yet eligible for the draft — but who didn't want to go to college — a chance to essentially play professional basketball and prepare for the draft as part of a developmental but still competitive program.
But the changes of college rules and allowing athletes to cash in on their Name, Image and Likeness has made the college experience more attractive to those players. And as such, the gap in the system that the NBA felt Team Ignite would fill isn't really a gap anymore.
“We are in the process of reassessing Team Ignite,” Silver said. “Some of those same players that didn't want to be one-and-done players because they felt it was unfair and they wanted the ability to not just earn a living playing basketball but to do commercial deals that weren't available to them in college … now all those same abilities have become available to them. ”
The NBA will play another regularseason game in Paris next season, and there are expectations in France that the San Antonio Spurs — featuring France's Victor Wembanyama — will be in it.
Silver wouldn't confirm the Spurs heading to Paris next season.