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Draymond Green says new NBA 65-game award rule is bull—
Draymond Green says new NBA 65-game award rule is bull—
When the NBA announced the new rule stating a player must play 65 games to be eligible for end-of-season awards, many were skeptical. Now, almost halfway into the season, these skepticisms seem to be coming to reality.
With many notable players already nearing ineligibility for major awards. But arguably, the most notable player nearing that threshold is 76ers center Joel Embiid. Who, in the midst of a historic season, could lose the chance to win back-to-back MVPs if he misses five more games?
After back-to-back missed games, Embiid suited up Tuesday night in the Sixer’s loss against the Warriors. But anyone watching could clearly see that Embiid was far from 100%. There wasn’t that usual aggression and attacking of the basket, with a lot of low-percentage jumpers being taken instead. It was a season-low 14 points for Embiid on a meager 4-18 shooting.
But the worst of it came when, with just over four minutes left, Jonathan Kumiga dove for a ball and landed right on Embiid’s sore knee. He was immediately taken out and ruled out for their Thursday matchup against Utah. But nothing has come out regarding the severity of the injury.
So why exactly was Embiid playing? Well, a lot of people believe it was because he didn’t want to miss the 65-game threshold. People like Draymond Green who recently came to Embiids defense, calling the new rule bull—.
“Joel playing tonight felt very much so because of the 65-game rule, I think it’s actually quite bulls—.
“You get Joel, who comes out there tonight and he forces it. Freak play with him and JK diving for the ball but, maybe it’s not as bad if the knee isn’t already banged up. I don’t really bang with it. Now we’ve got one of our premier faces in this league, the MVP of our league, possibly hurt for an extended period of time because he’s forcing it.”
Yeah, it’s safe to say Green is not the biggest fan of this new rule. But he isn’t the only one. Tyrese Haliburton has also come out and called the 65-game rule “stupid.” Especially since he could lose out on $41 million if he fails to make an All-NBA team. Which, at this point, would only happen if he doesn’t meet the 65-game threshold.
A lot of players have spoken out against it, and even fans don’t seem to be enjoying the rule. It was put in place to get rid of load management and players taking “off days.” But it seems like the NBA went a little too far too quickly. Which seems to be rather common these days with major sports making big decisions.
All this should make for some interesting award races. More players will get under that 65-game threshold, and it should allow for some dark horses to give themselves an outside shot at winning an MVP. So I guess it could be good in that sense.
In theory, this is a good idea. Reward players for actually playing and staying healthy over the course of a season. Seeing star players miss games for B.S. injuries is always annoying, so it’s good to try and phase that out. But I don’t think it needs to be this drastic right away. But I digress.
