By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The NBA rule about the NBA awards eligibility may have created more issues than it has solved.
Victor Wembanyama admitted that he played against the Mavericks to complete 65 games in the season, coming off a bruised left rib injury.
His motivation was to be eligible for the NBA season awards, and he pointed to the press, asking them about the threshold: “Let me ask you a question, what percentage of the season do you think should be?”
The answers that came in the room varied from 75% to 80%, with one suggestion being that there should not be a fixed number, because this metric doesn’t necesserily reflects the impact of a player.
Wembanyama liked this approach: “I think that’s a good way to put it, because a guy that plays 50 games, 35 minutes a game, that’s 50 times 35. That’s 1.750 minutes, right? And if a guy plays 75 games at 20 minutes, it’s 1.000 minutes. It’s a good view, in my opinion, to not have a limit”.
Still, Wemby is open to a debate: “It’s one opinion. Seventy-five percent of the games, in my opinion, would be a logical thing. That would be 61.5 games, right? So, 62 games? There are some interesting questions. I don’t think there’s going to be an exception made for this year. I think it would be somewhat unfair. But we’ll see how it turns out.”
Luka Doncic’s agents have already asked for an exception for the case of the Lakers stars who had to battle personal issues and injuries.