The National Basketball Association Board of Governors has approved a new rule that will prohibit “load management,” vernacular that has been used to describe resting healthy players. Often associated with superstar players such as Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis, having teams opt to rest healthy athletes takes away from the fan experience, especially if parts of the crowd attended the matchup just so they could see some of these luminaries of the game. The decision comes two years ahead of the expiration of the Association’s national television rights deal and ahead of the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament.
These new rules will give the league office authority to fine teams over $1 million for each violation, along with more oversight regarding the enforcement thereof. There has been a player resting policy since the 2017-18 season that fined clubs $100,000 per infraction, which also included policies for resting players during away games or multiple players at a time. For the 2023-24 season and beyond, the policy has been tightened to indicate “star players.”
According to the league, a “star player” is defined as someone who has made an All-Star or All-NBA team within the past three seasons, but there are exceptions to the rule. Players over the age of 35 on opening night or those who have workloads of 34,000 regular-season minutes or 1,000 combined regular-season and playoff games will be allowed back-to-back rest days; however, it must be approved by the league in advance.
Just how this impacts the league’s media rights negotiations remains to be seen, nor is it known whether or not The Walt Disney Company or Warner Bros. Discovery pushed for it to occur. The current television media rights partners pay a combined $2.6 billion annually and are both expected to demonstrate interest in renewing their packages. Multiple reports, however, divulge that the league is said to be looking to add digital and streaming components into the next deal, which could be worth between $50 and $75 billion.
“Raising interest in nationally-televised regular season matchups is frequently about which star players are going to play,” media consultant John Kosner told Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. “The NFL and, to a far lesser extent, college football generate playoff-level ratings during their regular season. They’re the only ones.”
ESPN recently announced a new lead NBA commentary team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Doc Rivers, which came after the network opted to lay off Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. Moreover, NBA Countdown is adopting a new cast this year with host Malika Andrews and analyst Bob Myers joining Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon. Conversely, no major changes are expected to take place with Inside the NBA featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. The cable network has employed the lead broadcast team of Kevin Harlan, Stan Van Gundy and Reggie Miller since the retirement of Marv Albert after the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
“The more the NBA can bridge the gap between audience levels for regular season games versus [nationally-televised] playoff games, the more value it creates,” Kosner added. “So, of course, that’s important to the NBA, its broadcast partners and advertisers, and [it] matters for the league’s next media deals.”
