Is The NBA's 65 Game Rule Destroying Basketball?

The NBA finally drew a line in the sand with the 65-game rule, but the fallout is starting to look worse than the original problem. We get into the part nobody can dodge as a fan: ticket prices keep climbing, and there’s nothing more deflating than showing up to the arena only to learn the player you paid to see is “out.” When that absence feels flimsy, it doesn’t just ruin a night, it chips away at trust in the whole product.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger stakes: NBA awards eligibility. All-NBA, All-Defensive, and Defensive Player of the Year aren’t just seasonal trophies, they become the permanent record that shapes contracts, reputations, and future GOAT arguments. We talk about why a hard minimum sounded necessary after years of questionable voting, then why it now risks erasing historically great seasons from players like Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic if they land one game short. We also unpack how quickly the rule could warp the final ballot if multiple top stars miss the cutoff.

We end with the hardest question: what’s the fix that actually works in the load management era? We debate “rest vs real injury,” how easy it is to game injury reports, and whether the league should lean more on common sense from award voters instead of rigid thresholds. We also dig into Luka’s technical fouls and whether making exceptions teaches the wrong lesson.

If this debate matters to you, listen, share it with an NBA fan who’s sick of the guessing games, and leave a review with your take: keep the 65-game rule, tweak it, or scrap it entirely?

Transcript

Setting Up The 65-Game Debate

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This idiotic rule is so destructive to the legacy of basketball that now Wimby's in jeopardy. Like you said, he might not make 65 games.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

So I want to ask you about that. Let me let's get into it right now with a 65-game rule. And once again, this is NBA observations. It is Stefan Pescano with the Stefan Pescano podcast, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again for watching this thing. Truly appreciate it. Um, with the 65-game rule, and as I said on the show, and I said to Joe, and I because I know he is an adamant against it because you know the lead collecting bargain agreement, which he cannot stand, etc. etc. I say there was a time I was with you on that, and I've watched your video and I watched your your thoughts on thank you for being among the few that do.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yes, uh, and I've watched it, and I was in line with you previously, but I've seen over the years some of the slightest reasons that people are just out of the game for whatever reasons. And I think it was for me there was a breaking point, Stefan. And it was when um Miami had a home game. I don't I don't, it wasn't against the Lakers, against somebody else, but he was listed out as ill. So he's sick. Okay, fine. He's not out, he's taking photographs after the game with kids who traveled from Brazil and had a sign that said I travel from 10,000 whatever miles to from Brazil.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So while he's sick, he's hanging out giving that sickness to kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, exactly. Okay, or if he is the actually sick. So again, you know, you make a mockery of those games, of the games that you're playing, and also the fact that you know, it's no longer a great value unless you're in Memphis, Washington, certain losing places. It's no longer a bargain to go ahead and watch these games. So I I don't care about the owners. I don't care about the players, they're all multimillionaires, they're

Fans Get Burned By Absences

SPEAKER_01 2:00

all in some cases billionaires. But when you do the 65 game rule, where I mean the 65 game rule, hopefully there was some point in time where somebody thought, you know what, we need to put a demarcation line for the fans. And so I'm trying to think of it in in as far as the fans are concerned. Because if I saw I'm leaving the arena in the Miami arena, and I see the guy who was reported sick taking photos with kids and laughing it up, and I'm I'd be like bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. I just spent $200 waiting to see Jimmy Butler and I didn't get it.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Was it Jimmy Butler? Is that who it was?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

It was Jimmy Butler, it was Jimmy Butler. Uh yeah, that could be another tangent in and of itself, but you see what I'm saying? It's just yeah, it at what point do we start caring about the fans in this equation? Which I'm not as hard and fast against the 65-game rule on that, but I just wanted to put that perspective in there.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

No, I hear you, and it's funny, Gerald, because we kind of had the opposite with it, I guess, because when it first was announced, I was actually for it for a lot of the reasons you're talking about. Um, for me, though, as a fan, and I'm starting the more other people that I know that are and get to know um in this new technological world that we've got here, where I can do what we're doing right now and meet Lakers fans and sports fans from around the world and all that. I'm kind of learning, maybe I'm in the minority, but for me, I think number one, I always care about the legacy of the sport and the players. And that really matters to me, I think maybe more than it matters to most people. So what made me originally excited about the 65-game rule is the season before that, I think it was just if you go back and you look at the all-NBA team from that season before, it's just pathetic. I mean, I know LeBron made second team All-NBA that year, and we missed the playoffs that year. And somehow, off of media, whatever, he was second team All NBA. He played 45 games, and that was just what three, four years ago. So that's a joke. Um, Jimmy Butler to bring him up again. I think he made all NBA and he played like 55 games. So if you go up and down and look at the all NBA teams for that year before this rule was in, something did need to be done because it was just getting, I mean, players were playing half the damn season. I mean, like I said, 45-55 games. So that's insane. That's disrespectful to the sport, that's disrespectful to the fans, to your point. Um, I've experienced um, you know, one time I took my brother to a Blazers game about 10, 11, well, I guess gosh, about 13 years ago now, but anyway, and yeah, half of the other team

Why Awards Needed A Line

SPEAKER_00 4:50

was out, and we were just sitting there, and it's just it's not fun when you go and you don't know that. So I get it. My problem with it is I feel like that the people that are being hurt the most by it are not the people that the rule was created to be enforced against. So the people that were really, really doing the load management, the Kawhi Leonards, the LeBron James, the Jimmy Butlers, even you know, Steph Curry to some extent, those kind of that older guard, it's hard for me to believe they're older now, but that older guard of stars that were resting on a just weekly basis just to keep their bodies intact to prolong their careers, which I can't blame them for doing. It's smart if you can get away with it. And all those players I just named, Kevin Durant, another one, their level of play is elite high into their late 30s, now LeBron's case, early 40s, probably largely because of all that resting they did for that five, six year stretch. But the younger players, the Lucas, now Wimby, Wimby last year, if if that rule wasn't in place last year, even though Wimby had the uh heart issue or whatever it was, blood clot issue, and he only played, I think, 46 games off the top of my head, he still led the league in total blocks last year. So I think he would have been voted defensive player of the year last season, if not for that rule. Now, this season, I mean, he's gonna be probably the first unanimous defensive player of the year in NBA history, but he might not be qualified again. So you've got this guy, this transformational generational talent in Wimby that's been in the league three years. All I heard from everybody, all these three years, oh, he's gonna win the DPOI every year, every year, every year. He's gonna have five, ten of them. If he doesn't qualify because of this stupid rule, he's gonna be three years in and have zero. And he won't even make an all-NBA defensive team last year or this year because of this idiotic rule. Luca, you know, we just talked about he's had one of the most, you know, insane statistical seasons in the history of basketball that, you know, it's just him and Michael Jordan. Nobody else has ever done it, ever. Not Wilt Chamberlain, not LeBron James, not my guy Kobe, nobody except Luka Doncic and Michael Jordan. And he's gonna not even be third team All NBA if he doesn't get that uh rescinded or whatnot, or get that appeal accepted because of this stupid rule. And even going to people that I don't care about, like Cade Cunningham, uh Anthony Edwards, not a big fan of him, but you go down the list, and when people are Mit Devin Booker, I just heard today, he's not gonna qualify because of a weird niche in the rule to where he'll play 66 games, but he's got two games that don't meet the minutes threshold. So the awards, which I care a lot about, because when we have these GOAT arguments decades later, years later, when kids like they're trying to learn about how great Kobe was now. One of the things I can tell a young person now that didn't get to see Kobe plays, well, he had more all-NBA defensive and all NBA first team selections combined, if you combine those two, than any other player in history, I think, except for Tim Duncan, or maybe they're tied, I can't remember, but those matter. And it's supposed to be a snapshot of what happened that year to where I can go back and say, wow, Luca had a great year, SGA had a great year, Jokic had a great year. Jokic might not even make it either. If Jokic breaks his toe tomorrow, he's not gonna qualify if he doesn't play the remaining three games. So you could have five out of the six best players this season not be on any All NBA team, and I just don't think that's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So I I just no, and I again I I can understand that and I empathize it. Again, I was uh completely opposite uh before really coming to grips with the fact that some of these these injuries that they have are some of the reasons why they're just sitting out, they're sitting out for rest. And as Joe said, you know, they're they're sent in the very best of airplanes, they're sent in the very best of travel, they have the best of comforts, and somehow they need rest. And it's just those are irritating to me. And with you know, let's take the Lakers, for example, and we'll just because that's who we follow the most, that's who we we appreciate the most, you know, the the season ticket holders for next season have already got or this season have already gotten next season's rates, and you know, as much as we love Mark Walter and all that stuff, they're substantially double digit percentages higher. Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

And so if you know a lot of those people are selling tickets and whatnot, they're saying okay, I'm not gonna be there 82 games, so it's gonna be 41 games, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna sell some of those off, etc. etc. So, you know, if I'm spending six, seven hundred, eight hundred dollars, then I realize I get there, and there is a higher likelihood if we don't have a 65 game in there, uh you know, as far as limited there,

Rule Backfires On Young Stars

SPEAKER_01 9:50

that a LeBron, Luca, or Austin, the people that I most likely want to see the most, are not there because of rest.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, no, I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

That's the problem. So, what do you do about that? What do you do to okay? If you if you waive the 65 game rule tomorrow, what do you do to prevent that? Because load management is now something in the modern age that we that NBA does and does very well.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Well, I agree with you in general, and like I said, I mean when it first came out, I think for the older guys that were doing it so heavy, and everybody was doing it for that period right after the pandemic. But I think for them it is a way of life. Although it's funny, it worked for them because all the LeBron went from playing 45 and 55 games the two seasons prior to playing 70 plus games after they put the rule in. Kawhi Leonard, even the most notorious load management guy in history, he played enough to qualify for us. So it worked for those guys. But I think if we look at it right, like Luca, Cade Cunningham, Wimby, Jokic, um, Edwards, Edwards has played like an Iron Man. If you go look at how many games he's played throughout his career, he's playing 80 around 80 games every season, except for this year. Those guys weren't load managing, those guys just got hurt. Or in Lucas' case, he had the stupid technical, he got the suspension, he had the two games for his uh birth of his child, and then he got hurt there the rest of it. So I don't I'd like to find a way to differentiate between rest and an actual injury, and I know that's tough because like LeBron last night, that was a rest game, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Um that was uh we don't want you to go ahead and waste any energy by losing by 30, anyways, to Oklahoma City uh illness. Yes, yes, I know that it is very well.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

The thunder itis, yes, sir. Um, but you know, but it went they put it on the injury port as a foot thing or whatever. So I know they could manipulate that if you had it to where it was. So I think the solution is you tell everyone, you announce it. Adam Silver gets up there, he announces it. We're gonna get basically just say it like you're talking to a child. We're gonna give you guys one more chance to just have some honor because all of the stuff that we're complaining about and that Joe's talking about and that you're talking about, that I'm talking about, and anybody that's watched the sport and cares about the sport and has watched it for a while, this is all pride. You know, it's about like Kobe said, like I've heard LeBron say, like I've heard MJ say in the past, you show up for the fans, you respect that somebody bought a ticket, you know. That's why Kobe played with all the injuries, you know, broken eye sockets and uh shoulder dislocations and all the things that he showed up and still gave it a shot to go so he could be there for the fan. But it really comes down to the media and the people that vote for these awards to use freaking common sense to enforce that pride. Because if they could rely on these idiots at ESPN and Fox Sports, the Mike Greenbergs of the world, the morons that put Jimmy Butler with 55 games played, and LeBron that season with 45 games played, that actually voted for them to put them on NBA, those are the idiots that need to have their votes taken away and enforce it with common sense to where, because if you could use common sense, they wouldn't have had to put this rule in in the first place. And you can go, oh, okay, well, so this year Lucas played 64 games, he's one away, he's clearly first team All NBA. We're gonna put him on the ballot. Somebody that like Joel Embiid's got actually good numbers this year, but he's played what 33, 34 games, whatever. We're not gonna put him on on any of the All-NBA, just it comes down to common sense. So I would say we're gonna give you guys a two-year period, use freaking common sense and vote accordingly and see how if the media can handle it. And then if they can't, you make it known that then we're gonna put the uh the game minimums back in. And if you really aren't capable of just using common sense yourself, we'll do it for you. Because that to me, that's where the whole rule, that's why we even had to have it in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

So again, I'm not I'm not gonna uh argue with you on it as far as the validity and what it does to the game and all that, but in the late in the age of load load management, I I could I couldn't agree with you more. It's just at you know, when when the prices at this point are just so high on a lot of things in our life and in our world and the tickets, and then I hear, you know, and I see how much it will more will cost people to go to these games. Um

Rest Versus Injury And Solutions

SPEAKER_01 14:40

there should be a level of expectation that you know, 65 times a year or 65 times a season that you can expect at least the players that you're most likely paying for to be there on the court.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

It is crazy too, isn't it? Because 65 really is a low number, still, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

I mean, it shouldn't be it's not I don't think it's that too egregious of a number. I just don't think you know, I mean, what is what percentage is that? I wouldn't know about 70 percent.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, right around there. Well, let's see. Yeah, 60, yeah, right around 65 to 70 percent. So I mean, but I mean to think about in the 90s and the 2000s, I mean, most players played 75, low 70s to high 70s or 80 games, 81 games. Yeah, that was very common. It was if you had a season where you played in the 60s or less, that was the rarity. You must have had a really horrible injury. So I I don't know why it's so hard either. I just I hate to see the guys that have been the load managed guys like Kawhi Leonard, for example, um getting rewarded for their play. And then you got guy, I just hate seeing guys like Wimby and Luca and even Anthony Edwards, Kate Cunningham. That their season should be documented somehow. I I think that the NBA should come in, especially now. If Wimby misses it too, I mean, well, what do you think? What should they do?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

If you really, if they're if Lucas appealed his for the birth of his child to see if they can give him credit for those child, I would pass over and let him have it, but then there comes the extra contingency of him missing a game because he was yelling at officials 16 different or other players 16 different or fans 16 different times and got technicals for it. That's the hard one. I that's that's the difficulty. So if I give it to him, then I'm rewarding him for his behavior for missing that one game because of reaching 16 technicals. So I don't know. Do you teach you teach him a lesson so that because all of us Lakers fans have said we want him to not do that as much. I gotta work on that. Yeah, and what is the best lesson you could go ahead and do? I'm gonna sting you with that as far as the best lesson is concerned. It's like, okay, I'm gonna hit you where it hurts the most. I'm gonna go ahead and say, okay, you want to do what you want to become an MVP, you want to be eligible to this, then stop getting technicals because all of us in the chat and the Lakers have fast break. You know, everywhere I go, I see it's like, okay, we knew what he was like. We were hoping that he would temper it down. Obviously, he's not. He's gonna have to at some point because it's going to affect a lot more than just his MVP standing. But again, if this doesn't do you know anything for him, the fact that it's now his his chances of being eligible for postseason awards are now teetering on the brink. If that doesn't do anything for him going forward, then yeah, I mean it what we'll take of it.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

It's like when you're a kid and you you know you mess up and your parents tell you if you do it again, we're taking your car away, but they don't actually take your car away or that kind of whatever. I don't know. Uh, but

Luka’s Appeal Techs And Consequences

SPEAKER_00 17:55

no, I I hear you. I mean, I it's sad to me. It's really sad to me that we're even in a position where we have to even talk about forcing players that are making more money than they've ever made, they're making 40, 50, 30, 20, 60, 70 million dollars a year, and we have to bribe them to get them to show up. It's sad that it's even a problem. But um I feel like if you don't, as far as the awards go, I feel like if you don't showcase what happened in that year, you're actually not even hurting Luca or Wimby or Joe or whoever it is. You're hurting basketball. Because now this season, let's say Jokic, you know, I hope he does. I never root for an injury for anybody, but let's say he breaks his toe tomorrow and he misses the rest of the year, too, and Wimby doesn't come back. So now you've got Wimby, Cade, Edwards, Jokic, Luca all gone. Who's gonna be in Booker because of the rule? Who's gonna be on NBA first team? Is it just gonna be like Jalen Brown, SGA, and then a bunch of random people? We're gonna have Rudy Gobert on second. I mean, it that's not an accurate depictation of what happened for that season.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

So but I'm gonna tell you right now, if they give him that accordance and they give them that allowance, and he is allowed to be get, you know, he gets the pie pass and becomes eligible. Guess what he's gonna go over? It's human nature, Stefan. And you when you live long enough on this earth, you understand human nature often takes over and dictates what you will do next. And come next year, we might be complaining about this again. Why does Luca keep arguing with less uh refs? Why does he go ahead and keep arguing with other players in whatever language? You know, why does he go ahead and go off on fans? You know, at this point, it's just like I if you don't teach him a lesson, then he's just gonna keep on doing it.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Maybe you give him a big fine. I don't know. I mean, maybe maybe that's the solution. Maybe for every game that you missed, you get a half a million dollar fine. I don't know, or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

That's just a drop for a guy like him, what he's making, that's a drop in the bucket.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

What is your final opinion on it then? You think they're gonna let it give it to him?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I think the best I think they are gonna give it to him. I think are they are gonna favor him uh because of the the birth of his child, and they're gonna give him the accordance on that. But what would teach him the best lesson? What would be the best thing for Lakers fans is the fact is if you teach him a lesson and he curbs it in following

Basketball Legacy And Final Take

SPEAKER_01 20:35

seasons as a member of the Lakers.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, I mean, because he he probably is gonna continue to get 12 to 20 techs a year for throughout his career, is what it feels like right now. And I don't I don't fully understand that, Gerald, to tell you the truth. I I it doesn't make you would think at some point you would kind of get tired of it, but it doesn't seem like he but I mean he's what 26, 27 years old still. I mean, maybe he'll grow out of it. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Draymond Green never grew out of it. No, he certainly didn't. He certainly didn't.