NBA investigating Thunder for player participation violation
Today at 10:19 PM
Though the Oklahoma City Thunder are the furthest thing from tanking during the 2024-25 NBA season, as they are in a hunt to finish out the regular season with the top seed in the Western Conference, that hasn’t stopped the Association from placing a keen eye on March 7th and their game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Why? Well, because the game, which the Thunder actually won, saw OKC play without all five of their typical starters, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Discussing the move on social media in relation to other similar NBA fines for violations of the player participation policy, ESPN’s Shams Charania explained the situation and how it fits into this larger trend.
“The NBA is investigating the Oklahoma City Thunder for potentially violating league’s player participation policy, sources tell ESPN. Game under review is OKC's March 7 win over Portland in which Thunder starting 5 (Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren, Dort, Hartenstein) sat,” Charania wrote.
“This continues the NBA closely monitoring potentially improper absences around the league. The Utah Jazz received a $100,000 fine this week and, as reported earlier today on the Pat McAfee Show, the NBA is also looking into the Philadelphia 76ers for recent players sidelined.”
Goodness, potentially fining a team for winning a game without five of their top players? Goodness, that is one heck of a bizarre situation.
Now granted, there are multiple teams that are straight-up tanking to close out the 2024-25 season, with the 76ers, Jazz, and Brandon Ingram-less Toronto Raptors all looking for any realistic ailment to put one of their better players on the bench, but the Thunder? If anything, this was a rest game chosen because of how bad their opponent was, not because they wanted to lose. Does it fly in the face of the letter of the law? Maybe so, but gosh, if a team pulls out the win in a game without five usual starters, that usually gets celebrated, not fined.
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