[ad_1]
INDIANAPOLIS – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defended the league’s rule that players must compete in 65 games to be eligible for prestigious, sometimes lucrative awards.
“I’m not ready to say it’s not working so far,” Silver said Saturday during his annual NBA All-Star weekend news conference. “I can tell you that the number of games that players have participated in has increased this season and, interestingly, injuries have actually decreased.
“I don’t know if this is significant data yet. “I think the right time to take a deeper look at this rule is at the end of the season, when we at least have a year under our belt.”
This is the first NBA season in which players can only miss 17 games and still be considered for awards such as Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year or selection for the All-NBA teams. Reigning MVP Joel Embiid is no longer eligible to win the award this season due to several minor injuries, followed by surgery to repair a meniscus tear.
Tyrese Haliburton, this year’s homegrown All-Star, is battling a nagging hamstring injury to stay on the court long enough to make an All-NBA team, which would boost his contract with Indiana. Pacers from $205 million to $245 million.
Silver said Saturday that the 65-game rule, agreed to by the players’ union, was implemented because “we needed to incentivize players, particularly star players, to play more games.”
This season, 16 of the NBA’s top 20 scorers (basically the best players) and 35 of the top 50 have appeared in at least 45 games before the All-Star break, a significantly higher number than last season.
According to one league official, there has been a 25 percent reduction in games missed due to injury this season by star players compared to last season. There has been an 18 percent reduction in games missed due to injury among all starters.
Silver, who made his comments in the Indianapolis Colts locker room inside Lucas Oil Stadium, site of the All-Star festivities on Saturday night, also said he was “satisfied with the state” of the NBA game, referring to Historical levels Scoring takes place in games every night.
The league’s top-rated offense, which belongs to the Pacers, averages nearly 124 points per game, and the league average is 115.6 points per game, the highest since 1970. In the past two seasons, four players They have scored 70 points in a game.
“I want to dispel any notion that the league or the league office necessarily feels that high-scoring games in the abstract are good,” Silver said. “I think what we want is competitive games. …The skill level is off the charts.
“All players, in any position, must be able to throw the ball. … You’re seeing this global pool of talent coming into the league (with) some of the best athletes in the world who, frankly, can shoot the lights out. “I think that’s partly responsible for the score increase.”
Silver talks about players’ problems with referees
Silver also addressed the increasingly contentious relationship between the league’s players and coaches with referees.
Outbursts have been frequent this season, but none drew more attention than when two-time MVP Nikola Jokić, who is from Serbia, was ejected in the second quarter in Chicago on Serbian Heritage Night on Dec. 12. League sources later confirmed. that the Denver Nuggets star was ejected because he called official Mousa Dagher a “son of a bitch,” but the challenging optics of it all sparked another round of discussion about what the game should be called.
“Communication issues between players and officials; I think that’s an area where we should be able to do a better job on both sides,” Silver said. “I put it in the category of, like you said, respect for the game.”
“I am very encouraged to have (new National Basketball Players Association executive director) Andre Iguodala as a partner to talk about these issues because he is not just a former player, (who played) 19 years with the league, (won ) multiple championships. , he understands the pressure,” Silver continued. “He understands the problem.
“I think there is also a real will on the part of officials to do better. I think this is a real focus area for us that we’re going to work on. … There just has to be a two-way sense of respect. “I sympathize with the frustration and feel that it is an area where we can make progress.”
The future of G League Ignite
Silver also said the NBA is “in the process of reevaluating” its G League Ignite franchise, the minor league team created by the league for teenagers coming out of high school who did not want to play in college. After a successful first season, Ignite has regressed over the past two seasons as new college rules have made it possible for athletes to receive payments while playing for their schools.
Silver said his focus now is on the early development of American players, noting that 30 percent of NBA players come from outside the United States.
“It’s clear that development is very different in a lot of those programs outside of the United States, more focused on practice and less focused on games, which seems to be the opposite of a lot of the youth programs in the United States,” he said. Silver. . “We have started conversations with the NCAA. … There’s no doubt that (the best American players) are coming into the league with incredibly skilled skills, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into being team basketball players.”
Follow live updates from The Athletic’s NBA All-Star Weekend
Required reading
(Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)