NBA presents new rules for star players to make more appearances

The NBA has been negotiating a new TV deal that may be as big as $75 billion for nine years. In order to convince the broadcasters to pay, the league must make sure that the star players appear on the court as much as possible. Thus came the new Player Participation Policy (PPP), which was approved unanimously by the NBA board of governors on Wednesday.

From the 2023-24 season onwards, teams will have to (as described by NBA.com):

– Rest no more than one star player from a game. (For purposes of the restrictions, a “star player” is defined as someone who has been an All-Star or an All-NBA selection in any of the past three seasons. It will also impact the balance of the schedule and the players named to that season’s All-Star teams.)

– Make star players available for nationally televised games and in-season tournament games.

– Balance the number of one-game “rest” absences a star player accrues in home games vs. road games, with a recommendation that a player more often sit out at home.

– Refrain from any long-term “shutdown” when a star stops participating in games or appears only in a materially reduced role that could affect the integrity of the game.

– Have any healthy players resting for a game present and visible to fans.

According to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the PPP represents what the league, the players and the teams all want: “to return to that principle that this is an 82-game league.”

“I mean, this is an acknowledgement that it’s gotten away from us a bit, particularly I think when you see young, healthy players who are resting. It becomes maybe even more notion of stature around the league as opposed to absolute needed rest – or it’s just part of being an NBA player that you rest on certain days – and that’s what we’re trying to move away from,” Silver said.

In fact, before the 2022-23 season was over, the NBA had already made new rules stating that players must make at least 65 regular-season appearances to be eligible for postseason awards.

Most of the NBA playoff teams are “twinjets” that have two star players as their core. After rule No. 1 of PPP kicks in, the Boston Celtics, for example, won’t be able to rest both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown at the same time in one game.

The in-season tournament is the newly introduced form of competition for the NBA from the 2023-24 campaign onwards. The league thus wants star-studded games instead of dismal pictures.

When superstars and their teams visit small markets, it will be great opportunity for home teams to sell tickets. Fans will be discouraged from coming to the arena again if they arrive only to find that the stars won’t play.

Some teams, especially after the All-Star break, often begin to tank by sidelining their star players. The Portland Trail Blazers did so during the 2021-22 campaign, when Damian Lillard made only 29 appearances for the team. They can’t do it anymore from this season.

If teams don’t abide by the new rules, fines await them, starting with $100,000 for the first offense, $250,000 for the second offense and $1 million for each additional fine, according to ESPN.

Of course, the NBA took the fact that some veteran stars are more vulnerable to injuries into consideration and made exceptions for them. If a player is 35 on opening night, plays 34,000 or more regular-season minutes in his career, or makes 1,000 appearances in the regular season and the playoffs combined, he can skip back-to-back games.

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, Chris Paul and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns, DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls, James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers and Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks all belong to this category.

The 2023-24 NBA season will begin on October 24.