By: Marese Hudson, Assistant Sports Editor 

The NBA tried its hardest to preserve the value of major awards by adding a new rule: the 65-game rule. Instead, it created new inequities across the league. 

This season, the players who clearly delivered great All-NBA level production found themselves on the outside looking in and not because of performance, but because of a rigid cutoff that doesn’t account for context.  

On the surface, the rule makes sense, as someone who only played at high level for 50 games shouldn’t be treated same as someone played at a high level for 65. But there should be some caveat, because players have reached more than 60 games and still could not qualify for honors that they deserved. 

Anthony Edwards is one of the clearest examples. He put together a dominant season on both ends of the floor, this being his best season. He averaged 28.8 points per game, five rebounds and 1.4 steals, shooting 48.9% from the field and nearly 40% from three. He carried his team to make the playoffs, but when he got hit with an injury, he missed the threshold for awards.  

Certain players, like Cade Cunningham and Luka Doncic, got the “extraordinary circumstances” exception, which allows them to still be eligible for awards due to uncontrollable reasons. Edwards did not get that same consideration.  

The rule hits veterans like LeBron James, who played at an elite level at 41 years old, averaging 21 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, He reached 60 games this season, but these rules no longer have room to consider the context from the age and the value that he brings.  

These honors are not just about the prestige, of being the greatest of all-time but All-NBA selections can determine whether a player earns max contracts or even qualify for a supermax contract, so just missing a few games can affect a player’s salary by tens of millions of dollars.  

Even the players who show up every game aren’t even guaranteed eligibility. Bruce Brown and 17 other players played all 82 games of the season, which isn’t an easy feat yet still failed to qualify because of the league’s minimum minutes requirement. When a player can be available for every game and still not be considered for any awards, then it’s a sign of the system being too rigid. 

The NBA tried hard to want consistency, instead it made a rule sidelining deserving players and reshaping their careers and honors.