The 65-Game Rule Exacerbates The Fake Problem It Was Intended To Solve

The final week of the NBA's regular season is here, and with scant meaningful basketball on the horizon, it's time to debate various NBA awards. Will Victor Wembanyama's narrative momentum help him overtake the obviously correct MVP choice, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? Will Karl-Anthony Towns sneak onto the All-NBA third team? Will Sacramento's Maxime Raynaud or Utah's Ace Bailey earn the final All-Rookie first-team slot? All valid questions, but discussion around any award must necessarily reckon with the strange boundary circumscribing the parameters of every end-of-season award, except for the rookie ones: the 65-game rule. As part of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, the NBA and the players association agreed that in order to be eligible for any end-of-season award (except the rookie ones), a player would have to have played at least 20 minutes in 65 games. The precise language affords some wiggle room—players who hit 62 games and then suffer a season-ending injury can be eligible, and there is a grievance process in place for players who experience "extraordinary circumstances"—though not enough to prevent several star players who had great seasons from missing out on their deserved rewards, or having to hustle back from serious injuries to play in meaningless games in order to scrape onto the ballot. Cade Cunningham suffered a collapsed lung five minutes into his 61st game of the year with the Pistons, and he will have to play all of Detroit's final five games to be eligible for All-NBA honors which he has more than earned. Anthony Edwards hurt his knee and will not get to 65. Luka Doncic is on 64 and out for the remainder of the regular season, and will file a grievance. Detroit's Isaiah Stewart, who should be All-Defense, won't get to 65; his teammate Ausar Thompson, who should join him in that honor, has played 70 games but has gotten to 20 minutes in only 61 of them. Wembanyama hurt his rib against the Philadelphia 76ers and is one game short.