Feb. 28, 2026, 4:01 p.m. CT
A lot of talk has been made over the recent weeks about the NBA’s 65-game rule. Introduced in the 2023-24 season, the threshold was created to ensure all NBA award winners played most of the year. Intended to shave off superstars from sitting out games, unintended consequences have popped up.
This year’s MVP race could get derailed with several disqualifications. Guys like Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama are an ankle tweak away from losing eligibility. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only has six games left for the rest of the regular season, as he missed three weeks with an abdominal strain.
If worst comes to worst, the MVP award could come down to two lesser candidates in Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown. Is that really who the NBA wants written in its history book? Probably not — no offense to those guys, but they’re just a couple of tiers below the league’s best.
If anybody had a reason to change their opinion on the 65-game rule, it’s Gilgeous-Alexander. After all, he didn’t miss nine games just to sit out. He sustained a legitimate abdominal strain that they continue to monitor — even with his recent return. Look at how he wasn’t able to play in overtime in OKC’s 127-121 win over the Denver Nuggets.
Despite that, though, Gilgeous-Alexander remains a fan of the rule. He believes the rule is just a gentle threshold to something that’s already happened throughout the league’s history with MVP winners — they usually play 65-plus games, anyway.
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“Health is first and foremost. If I couldn’t go tonight, I wouldn’t force it. Or if I couldn’t go into the next six, I wouldn’t force it for the requirement. Just because my health is first and foremost over awards and things like that. Now I don’t mind the rule,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Because in history, the guys who have won awards have played most of the seasons. Whether there’s a hard line or not, you have to play most of the games most of the time. It’s 65% of them or 65 out of the 82 to win an award as well. I think it’s reasonable.”
Guess you can’t really argue with that. Only five MVP winners have played fewer than 65 games. And just two this century — both in shortened seasons with LeBron James in 2010-11 and Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2019-20.
There’s been a lot of outcry about the 65-game rule. Maybe there’s some legitimacy to it toward the All-NBA nods. But for the MVP race, nothing has drastically changed with its addition. Considering Gilgeous-Alexander will likely be the runaway winner, it’s important to know what his thoughts were on the requirement after missing time.