The NBA is expected to introduce a strict policy on resting star players with hopes to discourage teams from holding out their best players in certain games.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the new guidelines are expected to be approved by the league’s board of governors this week. The policy will give the NBA a bigger oversight and authority to issue bigger fines to teams that rest healthy players.
Under the new policy, NBA teams won’t be able to sit out multiple star players in a single game if they are medically cleared to play. Also, they will not be able to sit out any star players for nationally-televised games and in-season tournaments. Additionally, the absences of star players will need to be transparent and announced in a timely fashion. The league defines a star player as someone who has made an All-Star or All-NBA team in any of the past three seasons.
There will be certain exceptions in which the league will allow star players to sit out games. For example, players who are 35 and older or have played a certain amount of minutes/games throughout their career will be allowed to miss back-to-backs during the regular season.
Teams will be fined $100K for the first violation and $250K for the second violation. Each subsequent violation will come with a fine that will be $1 million larger than the previous one.
