(New York) The NBA adopted a measure on Wednesday which should force its star players to take part in more meetings, particularly during games which are broadcast on national airwaves and during the tournament which will be played during the next campaign.
The league’s Board of Governors has approved new regulations that will come into effect starting next season. This will replace a regulation governing the rest periods granted to players which was adopted before the 2017-18 season.
This new regulation will target star players in particular – those who have already participated in an all-star game or who have already been named to an all-star team in the previous three seasons. In total, 50 players fall into this category.
Increased player participation is among Commissioner Adam Silver’s priorities as the league prepares to negotiate a new broadcast agreement. The current agreement will expire after the 2025 season.
Teams will have to manage their rosters to ensure that they do not give several star players a night off at the same time.
The NBA will thus be able to punish teams that do not respect these regulations by imposing fines ranging from US$100,000 for the first offense to $250,000 for the next. Each subsequent violation will increase the bill by a million.
The league also wants to maintain a balanced ratio of absences for star players between home and away games, and limit the long periods during which a star player can refrain from taking the floor.
However, exceptions are provided to this regulation, including for injury reasons, personal reasons and pre-approved agreements limiting participation based on the player’s age, career playing time and injury history. serious.
The league will allow teams to submit prior written requests for their veterans to be spared scenarios of two games in as many nights. There is a small group of star players who will be 35 years old or older at the start of the season, who will have played more than 34,000 minutes of play in the regular season and who will have at least 1,000 career games in the NBA. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry fall into this category.
