NBA Board of Governors approves new Player Participation Policy

Today, the NBA Board of Governors approved a new PlayerParticipation Policy, which is intended to prevent teams fromresting players during the NBA’s regular season.

The new policy will take effect with the start of the 2023-24regular season and replace the Player Resting Policy, which wasimplemented prior to the 2017-18 season.

The Player Participation Policy willfocus primarily on star players. A star player for purposes of thepolicy is any player who was selected to an All-NBA team or anAll-Star team in any of the prior three seasons. Following a givenseason’s All-Star game, this will also apply to any player who isnamed an All-Star during that season.

Under the new policy, unless a teamdemonstrates an approved reason for a star player not toparticipate in a game, then, among other things, the team must:

Manage its roster to ensure that nomore than one star player is unavailable for the same game.Ensure that star players areavailable for all national television and NBA In-Season Tournamentgames.Maintain a balance between the numberof one-game absences for a star player in home and road games.Refrain from any long-term“shutdowns” in which a star player stops playing games.If resting a healthy player, ensurethat the player is present at the games and visible to fans.

The policy includes exceptions forinjuries, personal reasons and pre-approved back-to-backrestrictions based on a player’s age, career workload or seriousinjury history.

As first reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski: "TheNBA will incorporate a fine system for teams that begins with$100,000 for first offenses, $250,000 for second offenses and $1million more than the previous penalty for each additional fine,sources said."