Detroit guard Cade Cunningham‘s eligibility for particular person honors akin to a spot on the All-NBA workforce is in some doubt due to the 65-game rule for such awards, and the gamers’ affiliation mentioned Tuesday that should not be the case.
The National Basketball Players Association — which, via collective bargaining, agreed to that rule as half of the present settlement between the league and its gamers — mentioned it, at minimal, needs to see the rule amended.
“Cade Cunningham’s potential ineligibility for postseason awards after a career-defining season is a clear indictment of the 65-game rule and yet another example of why it must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries,” the union mentioned via a spokesperson. “Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota.”
Cunningham has appeared in 61 video games this season. He is anticipated to overlook a number of extra video games whereas recovering from a collapsed lung — and if he misses too many, he’ll fall wanting the 65-game threshold.
“Cade has delivered a first-team All-NBA season,” Cunningham’s agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, informed ESPN’s Shams Charania. “If he falls just short of an arbitrary games-played threshold due to legitimate injury, it should not disqualify him from recognition he has clearly earned over the course of the season. The league should be rewarding excellence, not enforcing rigid cutoffs that ignore context. An exception needs to be made.”
Numerous gamers will likely be ineligible for most main particular person awards this season due to the 65-game rule, together with the Los Angeles Lakers‘ LeBron James — whose 21-year streak of constructing an All-NBA workforce will finish. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Golden State’s Stephen Curry have additionally missed too many video games to be eligible and a slew of different gamers — together with Denver’s Nikola Jokic and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, each of whom are MVP contenders — are close to the road for ineligibility.
The MVP front-runners, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Lakers’ Luka Doncic, can nonetheless miss a handful of video games and preserve their eligibility.
“It’s for the right reasons, but it’s tough,” Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell mentioned over the weekend, in remarks revealed by Cleveland.com concerning the 65-game rule. “We get paid money to be out there, but there’s certain things you can’t control. It’s not like guys are resting and missing these games. These are legitimate injuries, so it’s something to look at for sure because there’s no way certain guys should be in this scenario.”
There are some methods a participant might be eligible for awards akin to MVP, defensive participant of the yr, All-Defensive groups and All-NBA groups even when falling wanting the 65-game quantity. Players who seem in 62 video games and suffered a season-ending harm can be eligible, although that will not apply in Cunningham’s case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
