NBA’s 65-game awards rule hasn’t aged like a smart idea

Nikola Jokic‘s hyperextended knee didn’t just knock him out for a month. It effectively knocked him out of the MVP race.

That would’ve been true with or without the NBA’s 65-game rule. If two players are close and one misses a big chunk of the season, the other usually wins. That’s how voters have always handled it. We didn’t need a rule to explain common sense.

And yet, the league gave us one anyway.

The 65-game minimum was never really about MVPs. History tells us voters rarely reward players who miss extended time.

The rule matters most for All-NBA, where availability started creeping into decisions during the load-management era. And that’s where things get messy, because All-NBA isn’t just an honor. It’s a paycheck.

That’s the real issue.

Younger players chase those thresholds because All-NBA teams unlock massive raises. Sometimes that means rushing back before they should. Tyrese Haliburton basically admitted as much last year.

Without the 65-game carrot, he probably gives his hamstring more time. Instead, he pushed, qualified, got paid, and wasn’t the same player for months.

Meanwhile, older stars aren’t changing their habits. You’re not bullying LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard into playing through things they shouldn’t. So what happens? The bar drops.

When enough elite players miss the cutoff, All-NBA becomes “best available” instead of “best, period.” That’s how borderline guys sneak in, teams overpay, and everyone acts surprised later.

The league sold this as a way to combat load management. In reality, it was about optics and television money. Assuring partners that stars would suit up. Now the TV deal is done, and the unintended consequences are piling up.

Jokic missing MVP isn’t the story. The money is. And if this rule eventually creates a couple of bad supermax contracts or pushes a young star into a bad decision, that’s probably what finally gets it reconsidered.

The NBA didn’t create the 65-game rule to protect awards. It created it to protect revenue.

And revenue is usually what it takes to undo mistakes like this.