NBA’s new Player Participation Policy may lead to even larger TV deal

When San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich chose to restfour starters during a nationally televised game back in 2012, helikely didn't think much of it.

Little did he know, this decision to sit Tim Duncan, TonyParker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green would go on to create amassive ripple effect, with the NBA creating rules about restingplayers and terms like "load management" entering the lexicon.

At the time, NBA commissioner David Stern fined Popovich and theSpurs $250,000 and said this decision was "a disservice to theleague and our fans."

Nearly 12 years later, the NBA is still trying to combat thisissue, implementing a new Player Participation Policy in order toprevent teams from resting their best players.

This new policy could conceivably be named the Coach PopovichRule, but it’s not. The NBA’s Player Participation Policyspecifically governs how teams are allowed to rest their stars.Current NBA commissioner Adam Silver put a very fan-friendly spinon the new rule.

“This is ultimately about the fans,” Silver recently toldreporters following two days of Board of Governors meetings in NewYork. “And that we’ve taken this [load management] too far. This isan acknowledgement that it has gotten away from us a bit.”

The league’s perceived intention seems fair: reverse theload-management trend, which has seen a rise in star playersvoluntarily missing games – an admittedly bigger problem now thanin the recent past. During the 2022-23 season, the average gamesplayed by the league's top-10 scorers was 65 games per player.Comparatively, the average games played by the top-10 scorers in2012-13 was 75 games!

Ultimately, this move will benefit the fans, but was this reallydone with the fans’ interests in mind? By limiting how often starsrest, the NBA’s on-court product will inevitably be morecompelling. While that's good for fans, it's also good for the NBAitself (but more on that in a moment). Stars sitting out nationallytelevised games was never a good look, so putting an end to thattrend is important.

But digging a bit deeper, I believe it becomes clear that thismove is more about business than fan satisfaction. Let's consider,for a moment, that the league’s current broadcast rights dealexpires following the 2024-25 season. The current TV deal is wortha total of $24 billion over 10 years. The NBA hopes to double – oreven triple – that number in its next deal, according to Jabari Young of CNBC. It isentirely possible that the league is looking to demonstrateincreased value for its bidders, which will likely include theusual suspects like Turner Sports and ESPN as well as streamerslike Amazon and Apple.

For what it’s worth, Apple recently inked a deal with MajorLeague Baseball, paying $85 million annually to air Friday NightBaseball games over the next seven years. Meanwhile, Amazon reachedan agreement with the NFL to pay $1 billion annually for 10 yearsfor exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football games. The NBA istrying to entice these same companies to bid for their broadcastrights.

It's important to note that the Player Participation Policyisn't the league’s first attempt to improve its televised product.The NBA also recently announced its inaugural in-season tournament,conveniently beginning this season, which is likely to be marketeddifferently and, therefore, viewed more regularly. Furthermore, thenew Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was ratified in April2023, dictates that players must participate in at least 65 gamesto qualify for in-season awards. In total, these are major changesin order to ensure that the NBA's best players are suiting up moreoften than not.

This could ultimately be a win-win for the league and its fans.Players will probably need more convincing. But if the league plansto continue with an 82-game season – which it should – star playersmust lead the way, meaning they need to be front and center asoften as possible. Rest is, of course, an important part of theprocess, which is likely to be an area of frustration for starplayers. But the medical advancements, health-oriented amenitiesand teams of on-staff trainers should ultimately translate to moregames played for modern players – not fewer.

And considering how aggressively maximum salaries haveincreased, stars will understand. In 2012-13, the highest salary inthe NBA was $30.5 million (Kobe Bryant). In 2022-23, it was up morethan 50% to $48 million (Stephen Curry). By 2026-27, the highestsalary will be at least $63 million (Damian Lillard). Of course, abig reason for these monster salaries is the NBA's TV money. Thiswas never more apparent than during the summer of 2016, when theNBA's new broadcasting deal caused the salary cap to spike andteams went on a spending spree (handing out massive contracts thatsome would quickly regret).

But for the league’s TV partners to also benefit monetarily,star players must be available as often as possible as a means ofdriving interest – especially since more and more fans are pledgingtheir allegiance to stars rather than teams. The league clearlyunderstands this fact. Just look at how the NBA structures itsChristmas Day games, which are normally among the most-viewed gamesof the season. Last year, we saw LeBron James, Stephen Curry,Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Devin Booker andJa Morant, who represent seven of the top-10 players in jerseysales.We also saw Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, the twofinalists for 2022-23 NBA MVP award.

Like most major changes, the new Player Participation Policywill inevitably ruffle feathers, especially among some players. Butit should also improve the NBA’s viewership numbers and result inmore competitive games. There will probably be some bumps along theway, but fans will benefit as much as anyone. I only wish theleague would have referenced the TV deal in announcing the rule asa means of transparency. But regardless of whether the league,owners and players get richer, it’ll be refreshing to see starsmore frequently – and that’s probably the point.