NBA Getting Desperate: League Floats Massive Fines if Teams Are Caught Doing This

Well, there goes the entire business model of the Los Angeles Clippers. Los Angeles’ second-favorite basketball team has developed a bit of a notorious reputation in recent years for something known to NBA fans as “load management,” particularly when it comes to the team’s dynamic duo of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. The concept of load management is a straightforward one: To best preserve a player’s health, a team may intentionally bench him even if he’s “healthy,” all things considered. It’s something the Clippers have deployed judiciously given the checkered injury history of George and (especially) Leonard. But while load management may be best for the player and the team, it’s not nearly as good for the fan paying his or her hard-earned money to attend an NBA game — only to see a completely healthy star player in street clothes on the team bench. (To be clear, it’s not just the Clippers who do this. The Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks have rested superstars Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic, respectively, for load management purposes last year.) On a separate but possible related note: As OutKick has covered numerous times on its site, NBA ratings have stagnated, at best. At worst, the league is facing genuine popularity concerns… and load management is absolutely a part of the problem. The league, perhaps aware of its ratings and the public backlash to load management (a common refrain among NBA fans of a certain age is that Michael Jordan never needed load management, and his travel accommodations were not nearly as luxurious as what current players enjoy), is now on the cusp of levying a hefty financial punishment for load management. ESPN’s NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski reported yesterday, originally, that the league was considering “stricter guidelines on resting players for national television games and multiple stars together in the same games.”

ESPN Sources: The NBA’s Competition Committee has recommended stricter guidelines on resting players for national television games and multiple stars together in the same games. The league’s Board of Governors expected to vote Wednesday to pass the measures.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 11, 2023

In a subsequent X post, Wojnarowski shared some potential specifics about what those “stricter guidelines” may look like.

Under new rules, teams would be fined $100K for a first violation, $250K for a second violation and $1 million more than the previous penalty for each additional violation, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/ZOQjJpoNaD

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 11, 2023

“Under new rules, teams would be fined $100K for a first violation, $250K for a second violation and $1 million more than the previous penalty for each additional violation, sources tell ESPN,” the longtime NBA insider posted. Even for billionaire NBA owners, a million-dollar fine is nothing to sneeze at, especially when it’s per infraction. Perhaps alleviating matters ever-so-slightly for NBA owners, it appears the league will only be applying these rules for “star” players. According to NBA reporter Shams Charania, there will be a very specific definition as to what constitutes a “star” player:

Under current discussions among team and league personnel, a star is defined by someone who’s made an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons, sources said. https://t.co/2WBe1BPrUG

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 11, 2023

Citing unnamed sources, Charania claimed that the tentative definition of a “star” is “someone who’s made an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons.” Some corners of NBA punditry feel that this move doesn’t actually address any of the health concerns that players have. Forbes Sports’ NBA writer Shane Young echoed that dissatisfaction on X:

The league will do anything but address the real issue that’s been causing all of the star absences. It’s comical.

Either extend the season length and spread out the games, or reduce the total number. — Shane Young (@YoungNBA) September 11, 2023

“The league will do anything but address the real issue that’s been causing all of the star absences. It’s comical,” Young posted. “Either extend the season length and spread out the games, or reduce the total number.” This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.