The Utah Jazz organization was fined for sitting scorer Laurimalkanen without any good reason.
The NBA implemented a player participation policy and fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for not being able to access the 7-foot Finnish player last week.
“The violation occurred when the Jazz made policy star player Laurimalkanen available for team matches against Washington Wizards on March 5th,” the league wrote. press release.
The statement stated: “The policies adopted prior to the 2023-24 season are intended to promote participation in the NBA's regular season.”
The league faces an increasing number of criticism of its product and its ratings as star players sit in too many games. Former NHL player PK Subban recently gave a viral rant about why he doesn't respect the many NBA players who don't play because of the love of the game.
League rules state that for certain reasons a team can only sit multiple “star players” at one point. It is outlined Changes made before the 2023-2024 season.
The Player Entry Policy defines a Star Player as “a player selected for an All-NBA or NBA All-Star team in any of the previous three seasons.”
This rule also applies to players selected All-Stars during the ongoing season.
Markanen is actually considered a star player after playing the All-Star Game from 2022 to 2023. He was also a jazz reading point scorer from 2024-2025, with 19.2 points per game.
The rules of the league have good reasons for a team to have multiple star players sit. These include personal reasons such as real injuries, birth of family children or deaths, “rare and unusual circumstances” per league approval, and end-of-season situations.
If a player is over 35 years old or meets a certain number of minutes of play in the NBA, the team can also rest if they play on consecutive nights.
Despite these rules and consistent complaints about players being too many sedentary, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has consistently reinforced the idea that the league is doing well.
Silver recently proposed that it could cut the NBA game from 48 to 40 minutes. This helps “load management,” a buzzword that players must manage their output in hopes of more rest.
The Jazz is currently the second-most Western team in the league, with a .227 win percentage (15-51) and has been accused of sitting down the star in trying to lower the rankings as much as possible. Currently, the worst team in the league is the Washington Wizard, with a .203 win rate (13-51).
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