What Is Adam Silver Enforced Player Participation Policy In NBA? Explained

The 2023–24 NBA season will see new regulations set by Adam Silver that clubs must follow called “Player Participation Policy.”

The biggest names in the league will be impacted by a new Player Participation Policy that was voted on over the summer. The new stringent regulations are expected to increase stars’ availability and address load management, which NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated.

The NBA’s buzzword of the past ten years has been load management. Teams would run players into the ground throughout the majority of the league’s existence, and by the time they reached their early 30s, elite players had become empty shells. All of that was altered by the San Antonio Spurs in the early 2010s when they adopted a strict load management policy regarding the amount of minutes played by their senior players.

After realizing this, the other teams in the league began to handle their aging stars with the same caution. Better lifespan and productivity per minute were observed in the data, and the tendency continued to trickle down to younger generations

What is Adam Silver’s NBA’s Player Participation Policy?

The NBA chairman Silver and the Board of Governors authorised a revised Player Participation Policy before to the 2023–24 season.

The NBA defines stars as any player who was selected to the All-Star or All-NBA Team in any of the three prior seasons. This definition serves as the policy’s main focus. Those players include Ben Simmons and Mike Conley, who were last selected All-Stars in the 2020–21 campaign, as well as Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Nikola Jokic, who were named All-Stars in the 2022–23 season.

If a top player misses a game, their club is required to provide the league with an authorized explanation-

Here are the additional requirements that teams must meet under the new Player Participation Policy, as outlined by the NBA:

  • Make sure that no more than one top player is out of the lineup for the same game by managing its roster.
  • Make sure that all NBA In-Season Tournament games and national television broadcasts include available elite players.
  • Strike a balance between a top player’s amount of one-game absences during home and away games.
  • Avoid allowing any pro players to take extended “shutdowns” during which they cease playing.
  • Make sure the player is present at the games and visible to the fans if they are resting a healthy player.

Teams who violate the rules will be subject to a growing list of penalties. A $100,000 fine will be assessed for the first infraction, a $250,000 fine for the second, and so on. Each further infraction will result in a fine that is one million dollars more than the preceding one.

NBA Player Participation Policy exceptions

“Injuries, personal reasons, and pre-approved back-to-back restrictions based on a player’s age, career workload, or serious injury history” are among the exceptions to the regulation that provide extra leniency. Under the NBA’s pre-approved back-to-back exception policy, players over 35 who have played 1,000 regular season and playoff games combined, played over 34,000 minutes in the regular season, or have a history of significant injuries are allowed to take a back-to-back break. A week prior to their back-to-back, the club just needs to write the league and explain why they should rest one of their players.

All this for what?

The NBA’s head of basketball operations, Joe Dumars, went on a media tour to explain why resting is ineffective even after years of permitting it to occur. The league’s executive vice president of basketball strategy, Evan Wasch, recognized the additional driving force behind the initiative.

“Yes, it’s the case that because we’re negotiating TV deals in the next year or two here, it takes on even greater importance,” Wasch told the Athletic.

Teams and players, however, aren’t collaborating.

Seven days after the regular season began, on Monday, the following former All-Stars had all missed at least one game: Jimmy Butler (Heat), Bam Adebayo (Heat), Brandon Ingram (Pelicans), James Harden (Sixers), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Kyrie Irving (Mavericks), Bradley Beal (Phoenix), Devin Booker (Phoenix), Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland), Darius Garland (Cleveland), Klay Thompson (Golden State), Draymond Green (Golden State), Jimmy Harden (Sixers), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Jimmy Butler (Heat), and Draymond Green (Golden State).

Butler and Harden were two of the guys that were at least not injured. Others were occupied with unimportant matters. Since virtually every case had an injury mentioned and the new regulations are limited to certain dates and TV listings, technically the clubs weren’t breaking NBA policy. Only Beal, Green, Booker, and Garland were enough injured to miss several games. Once more, we are in the first week of the season.

The main takeaway is that, in spite of the NBA’s strong efforts to buck a long-standing pattern, players are still sitting.

 

 

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