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Victor Wembanyama got to 65 games. Nikola Jokic might not.
And the NBA’s award eligibility rule was a talking point yet again Friday night.
The 65-game standard was the biggest reason Wembanyama played through bruised ribs in San Antonio’s next-to-last — and standings-wise, meaningless — game of the season against Dallas. He needed to play 20 minutes to ensure he’d get a 65th qualifying game and make it to the awards ballot, and wound up playing 26 to secure that spot.
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“Feels like it’s a box that’s checked,” Wembanyama said.
He’s the favorite to win NBA Defensive Player of the Year, he’ll almost certainly be an All-NBA pick and he’ll get some votes for MVP — an award he clearly wants — as well.
But Jokic, the three-time MVP who will finish the season as the league’s rebounding champion, assist champion and only player averaging a triple-double, didn’t play in Denver’s game against Oklahoma City, with the Nuggets citing a right wrist injury. That left Jokic at 64 games for the season, one away from the magic 65 number.
It’s possible, but doesn’t sound guaranteed, that Jokic will get that 65th game on Sunday in the regular-season finale. Nuggets coach David Adelman said “an adult conversation” was going to take place on Saturday.
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“Obviously, the success in the playoffs matters more than anything else,” Adelman said. “But this rule stares at us right now. And so, we’ve got to make a proper decision and we need to go in there with a real plan of ‘this is what it’s going to be.’ Either he gets those minutes, or we say ‘let’s just move on.’”
Adelman said he hopes the rule is changed, somehow, this summer. He said if players like Jokic can play 64 games, never wanting to come out, and not be award-eligible, then something is wrong.
“That’s not the spirit of what that rule is,” Adelman said.
The 65-game rule — which was hammered out in talks between the league and the players’ union as part of the current collective bargaining agreement — has been a hot topic in recent weeks. The Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, currently out with a hamstring…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/wembanyama-gets-65-games-award-040810673.html
Author : TIM REYNOLDS
Publish date : 2026-04-11 04:08:00
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