Charles Barkley gives terse message to NBA players complaining about 65-game eligibility rule

Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley ripped NBA players connected Sunday nighttime implicit subordinate complaints astir the 65-game eligibility regularisation to beryllium considered for awards and honors.

The NBA requires players to play astatine slightest 65 games successful bid to beryllium considered for the league’s highest accolades. The regularisation became a root of consternation this twelvemonth successful a hotly contested MVP contention arsenic immoderate players, who person been playing astatine a precocious level, person missed retired connected consideration.

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Former Phoenix Suns subordinate Charles Barkley sits courtside during an NBA Cup crippled against the Minnesota Timberwolves astatine Mortgage Matchup Center successful Phoenix, Ariz., connected Nov. 21, 2025. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)

But Barkley had nary clip for players’ complaints.

"I don’t deliberation 65 games is simply a batch to ask," helium said. "Man, unopen the hellhole up. Y’all voted connected that successful the corporate bargaining, present y’all privation to complain. If y’all wasn’t sitting connected your a-- fractional the time, sipping margaritas and stuff, they wouldn’t person enactment the 65-game threshold successful there. Shut the hellhole up."

San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic each came down to the ligament erstwhile it came to eligibility.

Wembanyama played 64 regular-season games with the NBA Cup Final counting toward his total. Jokic deed the 65-game minimum aft playing 18 minutes against the Spurs connected Sunday. Oklahoma City Thunder prima Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is besides successful contention, having played 68 games.

Former Phoenix Suns subordinate Charles Barkley attends an NBA Cup crippled against the Minnesota Timberwolves astatine Mortgage Matchup Center successful Phoenix, Ariz., connected Nov. 21, 2025. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images)

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But Detroit Pistons prima Cade Cunningham, who is having 1 of the champion seasons of his NBA career, volition not beryllium eligible aft lone playing 64 games and missing clip with a collapsed lung.

Cunningham’s wounded sparked a connection from the National Basketball Players Association past month.

"Cade Cunningham's imaginable ineligibility for postseason awards aft a career-defining play is simply a wide indictment of the 65-game regularisation and yet different illustration of wherefore it indispensable beryllium abolished oregon reformed to make an objection for important injuries," the national said. "Since its implementation, acold excessively galore deserving players person been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota."

Detroit Pistons defender Cade Cunningham dribbles the shot portion Indiana Pacers defender Ethan Thompson defends during the 2nd fractional astatine Gainbridge Fieldhouse successful Indianapolis, Ind., connected April 12, 2026. (Trevor Ruszkowski/Imagn Images)

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stood firmly down the rule.

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"I’m not acceptable to accidental it’s not working," Silver said successful March. "It is working. I’m not acceptable to accidental that due to the fact that determination is simply a consciousness of unfairness for 1 player, the regularisation doesn’t work."