New player-resting rules could result in $100K fine for teams
The NBA's Board of Governors passed new resting rules that will help cut down on the number of games missed by healthy players, the league announced Friday. The following points from a league email:
- Teams are prohibited from resting healthy players for any high-profile, nationally televised game. Any violation of this provision will constitute conduct prejudicial or detrimental to the NBA and result in a fine of at least $100,000.
- Absent unusual circumstances, a team should not rest multiple healthy players for the same game or rest healthy players when playing on the road.
- In situations when teams decide to rest healthy players, the players should be visible and available to interact with fans.
The issue came to the forefront last season when teams would rest their stars during nationally televised games, thus deterring fans from catching the action. Teams would also rule out players on the day of the game, disappointing those who had paid to see them perform live.
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The season gets underway Oct. 17, roughly 10 days earlier than usual. This helped cut down on the number of back-to-backs on the schedule, which is down from 17.8 per team in 2015-16 to 16.3. Stretches of four games in five nights are also now completely gone.