It is a general consensus among both casual and diehard NBA fans that there are two players above the rest when it comes to the most valuable player award: Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić.
Both players, considered a tier above the rest of the NBA, are no longer competing against each other. They’re competing against a stipulation: a game requirement.
Established in the 2023-24 season’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, in order to qualify for accolades, including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA teams, players must have played at least 65, or about 80%, of the 82 games in an NBA season, logging at least 20 minutes in all of those games.
This has opened a conversation regarding the rule and the implications of it.
Should the rule be done away with?
The rule can be seen as punishing the unlucky MVP-caliber players who have injuries that keep them out longer than expected. In addition, certain players’ contracts include bonuses if they make an All-NBA team or win DPOY or MVP, meaning a player could be missing out on extra money.
There is also this point that the athletes who would be getting the awards in place of those disqualified would be changing the course of NBA history, as concurred by Eric Koreen of The Athletic and Golden State Warriors center Draymond Green.
To Green’s point, he lost the 2015-16 DPOY to current Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, who only played 64 games. Under today’s rules, Leonard is ineligible for the award, and that season is effectively erased from the history books.
While it is not intended to be a knock on players like Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, many are not comfortable with the idea of players in that tier (alongside Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown) winning that award because of injuries that Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama had no control over.
Changing the course of NBA games over a missed game over the threshold seems counterproductive, as it sends the message to stars that their injuries can cut them loose at any moment.
With the league investigating the Utah Jazz in seeing if injuries are legitimate, it creates an air of hostility.
However, it comes at the cost of ignoring the physical strain the game brings, and the league’s best players, like Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who have already been disqualified.
Green also noted in January of last year that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, who has a litany of injury concerns, had felt “forced” to play the game against the Warriors due to not wanting to be disqualified for the awards.
If the sentiment is to be believed, it wouldn’t be too hard to insinuate that many players who have a chance to win that award also feel the same and, as is common in sports, will play despite the injuries that may exacerbate into something even worse. It is an act of putting the league’s best talent at risk even if that was not the intention.
Load management, spurred by Leonard in late 2019 when he signed with the Clippers, is often believed to be the primary reason as to why the rule was instituted.
Teams were resting healthy stars during high-profile national TV games to save them for the playoffs, further contributing to what can be considered a lack of regard for regular season matchups.
They seemed to operate on the principle that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. With that notion, stars were being sat out every other game, creating both a frustration for fans at home and fans that spent money to come and see their favorite players play.
The rule essentially acts as a product guarantee; if the players want to gain these bonuses and for the sake of the fans, they must show up at least about 80 percent of the time.
When it comes to what is valuable, for many, it is time. The league seems to apply this to the MVP voting process, in which those who can show up consistently can provide more value to their team than those who don’t.
This also preempts the small sample size arguments; stats can be inflated, after all, and they need time to be flattened out.
A lot of NBA fans often extrapolate corporate America practices to a professional sports league such as the NBA, often stating that if one were to show up to work less than 80% of the time, they would be fired.
Athletes are dealing with larger expectations, as comes with the larger sums of money they are paid. A physically intensive ‘job’ is the one they work where, despite their often-superhuman abilities, they are still putting their bodies and careers on the line every time they lace up.
However, the fired for 80% attendance argument ignores the physical reality of the sport. In a corporate setting, an employee can ‘work through’ a minor ailment. In the NBA, playing through a ‘minor’ injury can lead to a career-ending catastrophe.
It’s important to note that in most cases, players who win MVP play around 70 games.
Bill Walton (1977-78) was the only MVP in an 82-game season to win while playing fewer than 65 games, with just 58. He is an anomaly, however, because the Portland Trail Blazers went 50-10 with him and 8-14 without him. To voters, those 58 games were so impactful that it won him the award outright.
Other low game counts, like Karl Malone (40; 1999) and LeBron James (62; 2012) are all the result of lockouts and shortened seasons. The standard has been 70 games.
The conversation has picked up recently specifically because of Jokic’s abnormal extended absence. He missed a stretch from late December to the end of January, which makes it the longest extended absence of his career. Many doubt if the conversation would be occurring if he were still eligible.
In conclusion, the NBA’s rule is an attempt at a compromise. It’s gatekeeping based on a lottery of health. When a rule dictates accolades that can make or break a player’s Hall of fame case, the history of the game starts to change.
With that, though, comes the inherent risk of players being more susceptible to career-altering injuries. The rule treats a torn ligament and a ‘scheduled rest day’ the same, and that’s where the comparison falls apart.