The talk of the NBA recently has been the 65-game rule that doesn't allow players to receive any end-of-the-season awards if they don't meet the criteria. With Cade Cunningham possibly missing the rest of the regular season because of a collapsed lung, he won't be able to be on an All-NBA team despite the season that he's had for the Detroit Pistons.
There are some who are in favor of the 65-game rule, while others believe that the rule should be stricter. Jaylen Brown believes in the latter, but he also believes that people shouldn't walk back their stance on the former after Cunningham's injury.
“When it first became a 65-game rule, everyone was in support of it,” Brown said on his Twitch stream. “At the time, people were talking about guys who were load managing, and there were a lot of complaints around load managing. There were a lot of complaints about superstars not playing. Now they move the criteria to 65, and now it seems like the popular opinion is it's time to get rid of the 65.”
Jaylen Brown on his live stream talks about the 65 game criteria and calls fans out about for changing their opinions on it 👀
“Everyone was in support it, because guys were load managing, now all of a sudden people don’t want it anymore” pic.twitter.com/98ntmaR023
— 𝓖𝓪𝓫𝓮 🍀 (@gabe_blessed) March 25, 2026
Brown said that he wanted it to be 62 games instead of 65, but he's fine with the criteria.
“I just thought the contrary in the past was that guys would be playing 40 or 50 games, and then be up for All-NBA teams,” Brown said. They would play half the season, and their numbers would be better because they only played half the games versus someone who played 70, 68, or 72 games. That's a big difference.”
The rule does allow for players who have played most of the season to be up for awards, but it's unfortunate when someone like Cunningham goes down late in the season and can't win an award that he rightfully deserves. It's uncertain if the league will make any changes to the rule, but it wouldn't be a surprise.
