The 65-Game Rule is One of the Best things the NBA Could have Done

By: Jarrod Horton

Staff Writer

One of the things I applaud the NBA for doing is introducing and enforcing a 65-game rule. The new rule, which started this season calls for players to meet one of the following criteria:

1. The player played in at least 65 regular-season games
2. The player played in at least 62 regular-season games, suffered a season-ending injury, and played in at least 85% of the regular-season games played by his team before the player suffering said injury

This means, that barring a season-ending injury late in the year, players are allowed to miss a maximum of 17 out of 82 games.

Players must log at least 20 minutes of action in a game for it to be counted toward their games played total. They are allowed up to two instances where they play between 15 and 20 minutes and for the game to still count.

This rule applies to MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, the All-NBA teams, and the All-Defensive teams.

The Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, and the All-Rookie teams are not impacted.

I like this for a couple of reasons and the first one is because it benefits the fans. People who pay their money to come to the games most likely want to see the star players on the court. In my opinion, NBA players have far too much exercise the liberty to miss games for miscellaneous reasons.

I understand injuries are a part of the game, but some players take time off because they are tired or just don’t feel like playing. Secondly, it just makes for better competition when both teams have their best players on the court.