The NBA seemingly carried out its participant participation coverage — learn: anti-load administration protocol — in order that followers wouldn’t attend video games solely to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis, or Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in road garments.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t one of many league’s greatest to be the primary workforce punished for violating the coverage — it was the Brooklyn Nets, who had been fined $100,000.
Spencer Dinwiddie (relaxation), Dorian Finney-Smith (left knee soreness), Cam Johnson (proper knee sprain/harm upkeep), and Nic Claxton (left knee sprain/harm upkeep) all sat in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 27. (Mikal Bridges, who rounds out the beginning 5, performed the primary quarter earlier than sitting the remainder of the sport.)
The NBA found throughout its investigation that these gamers “could have played under the medical standard in the Player Participation Policy, which was adopted prior to the season.”
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the tremendous for Brooklyn falls beneath the “Other Circumstances” part of the Participant Participation Coverage rule. This nebulous clause permits the league to analyze or impose self-discipline at its discretion throughout participant participation circumstances.
This can be a weird slap on the wrist for a sub-.500 Nets workforce enjoying the second half of a back-to-back. The tremendous rises to $1 million for all violations previous the third, however isn’t significant till that third infraction. Even then, good groups – groups with precise star gamers price resting – ought to have the ability to pay it off with ease.
Furthermore, the Nets just about discovered the workaround to this rule on the identical time they received fined. Whereas Dinwiddie, Finney-Smith, Johnson, and Claxton all drew ire from the league for sitting. Nothing, nonetheless, was mentioned of Bridges, who performed a season-low 12 minutes and was pulled instantly on the finish of the primary quarter. That’s the way you get round this: illustration within the sport, then a fast pull. If groups are good, this needs to be the primary and final tremendous stemming from the Participant Participation Coverage.
The sport in query — the Nets misplaced 144-122 — kicked off a five-game shedding streak that’s nonetheless energetic into the brand new 12 months. The tremendous is only a salt within the wound – a pinch of salt, at that.
