After previously implementing a “player resting policy” in 2017 in an attempt to reduce instances of teams holding healthy players out of games – particularly nationally televised games and road contests – the NBA modified those rules ahead of the 2023/24 season, introducing a new set of guidelines known as the Player Participation Policy.
The stated aim of the policy is to promote player participation over the course of the NBA’s 82-game regular season. It specifically focuses on players considered “stars,” defined by the policy as players who have made an All-Star team or an All-NBA team in any of the three prior seasons (or during the current season, once the All-Star Game has passed).
Unless a team has an approved reason for a star player not participating in a game, that team will be considered in potential violation of the player participation policy in the following scenarios:
- If a team rests a star player in a game that is nationally televised or in an in-season tournament (NBA Cup) game.
- If a team rests more than one star in the same game.
- If a team repeatedly rests a star in road games instead of home games (teams must maintain a balance between one-game absences occurring on the road or at home, with the preference being for rest days to occur in home games).
- If a team shuts down a healthy star for an extended period of time (e.g. if a tanking team stops playing one if its star players down the stretch).
- If a star who is being rested is not on the bench and visible to fans.
An automatic NBA investigation is triggered in the event that a star player who is not injured misses a nationally televised or NBA Cup game or if multiple non-injured star players miss the same game. An investigation is also triggered if a player, agent, or team representative – such as the general manager or head coach – makes a statement that contradicts the player’s listing on the injury report.
The league can also open an investigation at its own discretion in other instances. For example, if a star player is continually held out of road games instead of home games or begins to play a “materially reduced role,” the NBA could look into the matter.
A team found to have violated the player participation policy is subject to a fine. The amounts of those fines are as follows:
- First violation: $100K
- Second violation: $250K
- Subsequent violations: $1MM more than the previous penalty (ie. $1.25MM for the third violation, $2.25MM for the fourth violation, and so on)
If the star player has a legitimate reason for being held out of action, the team won’t be penalized for violating the player participation policy. Of course, injuries are the most common reason why players miss games, but there are other exceptions the NBA allows.
For instance, a team is permitted to hold a star player out of one game in each of its back-to-back sets due to age (for a player who is 35 or older as of opening night), career workload (for a player who has logged either 34,000+ career regular season and playoff minutes or appeared in 1,000 career regular season and playoff games), or injury history (evaluated by the league on a case-by-case basis).
If one of the two games in a back-to-back set is nationally televised or is an NBA Cup game, a player who receives league approval to sit out one end of the back-to-back must play in that one. If both games meet that criteria, or if neither game does, it doesn’t matter which one the player misses.
Additionally, if a team has two stars who have been approved to sit out one end of back-to-backs, they can’t both miss the same game — one star must appear in the first one, while the other plays in the second.
Under the player participation policy, the NBA allows a star player to be held out of a game for personal reasons, such as the birth of a child or a death in the family, or in “rare and unusual circumstances,” which must be approved by the league office. The league also affords teams some end-of-season leeway. For example, a star player could be rested for the final game of the regular season if his team has already clinched a specific playoff seed.
A team may be investigated for one possible violation of the NBA’s player participation policy and end up being fined for a different violation. That occurred when the league looked into the Sixers’ decision to sit Joel Embiid for a nationally televised game near the start of the 2024/25 season.
Although the team had insisted Embiid experienced no setbacks after suiting up for the Olympics, the NBA found the big man had a legitimate knee injury and fined Philadelphia $100K for inconsistent statements about Embiid’s health that misrepresented his condition.
The NBA advises teams to “err on the side of over-communicating” with the league office to ensure they’re complying with the player participation policy, which means contacting the league ahead of time to explain a star player’s potential absence instead of waiting until after the NBA launches an investigation.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from ESPN’s Bobby Marks was used to confirm details in this post.
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