Sixers’ Daryl Morey gives thoughts on NBA’s 65-game rule for awards
CAMDEN, N.J. — The NBA introduced a new rule in the 2023-24 season in an effort to get players to take the regular season more seriously. In order to qualify for end-of-season awards such as MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA Teams, and things of the like, that player has to play in at least 65 games.
It felt like the rule was aimed at guys like Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid who has an obvious injury history. The Sixers also like to rest him in certain games in order to deliver a healthy Embiid to the playoffs. They know he is the straw that stirs the drink and he’s the one that will carry them to a title.
President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey gave his thoughts on the 65-game rule after the Sixers were eliminated in Round 1 of the playoffs.
“Yeah, I understand why the league office did it,” said Morey. “I would put, and this is easy for me to say, I would try as the league office to put all the focus on how do we make the regular season more important, so we don’t have to create these, 65 is better than 64 kludge. So again, it’s easy to say when you’re at a distance.”
To Morey’s point, the number of 65 is a random number that the league just came up with. The problem that the league has to figure out is how to make the regular season matter. It isn’t going to come down to the 65-game rule for certain players.
“I’ve been pretty vocal, like, just do everything you can to make the regular season more meaningful,” Morey finished. “More, you know, the top two seeds get a bye. The good thing about the NBA is we innovate more than any other league. I think we’ll get there and this was sort of the kludge they had to do to try and like, create this dynamic, but it’s definitely a kludge we just need to make the regular season more and more important over time.”
