NEW YORK – Almost at the same time NBA commissioner Adam Silver was meeting with reporters Wednesday afternoon to summarize the agenda and developments at the league’s two-day Board of Governors meeting, the Philadelphia 76ers were updating their injury list in advance of Thursday night’s game in Toronto.
On the list was this mention: “Matisse Thybulle (ineligible).”
The immediate reaction around the NBA to “ineligible” was a presumption that Thybulle, the Sixers’ on-ball lockdown defender, had run afoul of Canada’s rules against unvaccinated visiting players. Those rules could force Raptors playoff opponents to participate without key members of their rotations, up to and including stars for as many as three or four games in a best-of-7 series.
A recent story on ESPN.com reported that Philadelphia and Boston declined to respond when asked about the vaccinated status of their rosters. Miami and Milwaukee told ESPN that their teams are fully vaccinated.
It isn’t expected that Canada will lift its restrictions by the start of the NBA postseason. And Silver addressed the topic as if that status quo will hold:
“We have no choice but to operate under the laws of the jurisdictions in which we play. Those rules are well known to all players, and for any player who chooses not to get vaccinated, they know they are at risk of not being allowed to play in Toronto. That’s the facts that we’re all going to have to operate under.”
Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving gained international attention with his decision not to get a COVID-19 vaccination, which ran afoul of a New York City ordinance. That prevented him from playing home games in Brooklyn or as a visiting player at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, as well as in Toronto. New York lifted that restriction last month, enabling Irving to finally play at Barclays Center on March 27 — his first home game (and 23rd overall), but his team’s 75th of the season.
The Board of Governors meetings took place in person for a change, a relative return to normalcy after two years of virus protocols and remote-meeting software. Silver and other NBA executives who stuck around for the news conference seemed to enjoy the face-to-face element, at what already — with the playoffs soon to begin — is an upbeat time for the league.
As a matter of fact, next week’s Play-In Tournament was one of several topics the commissioner touched on Wednesday:
• After a taste last season and a second edition quickly approaching, the Play-In apparently is here to stay. Not only does it offer a playoff berth to two more teams in each conference, but also seems to have hushed talk of tanking for better draft-lottery odds while energizing teams to climb at least to sixth place just to avoid a 1- or 2-game elimination.
“What we’re seeing is a far greater impact essentially on the last month of the season,” Silver said, “where teams are either jockeying to get into the Play-In Tournament itself or jockeying to get out of [it].”
• Among the basketball topics the Governors discussed was the controversial “take” fouls that have become common, spoiling fast breaks and potential dunks, the very plays many ans show up or tune in to see. Silver noted an increase across the league, adding, “We don’t think it’s a great part of our game.” Look for the NBA’s Competition Committee to tackle the pertinent rules when they meet with the BOG in July at the annual Las Vegas Summer League.
• Silver was asked several questions about the 2023 NBA All-Star Game scheduled for Salt Lake City, in light of state legislation there focused on LGBTQ involvement in women’s sports. In particular, he said the league did not plan to move that showcase weekend to another market the way it shifted the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte when a “bathroom bill” stirred controversy there.
“At least our initial view, working with the Utah Jazz,” the commissioner said, “is that we’re going to have to find a way to … create an inclusive environment for our game rather than take the position that we have somehow an independent ability to change the minds of the voters of Utah in this.”
• No updates were provided about the ongoing investigation into Phoenix owner Robert Sarver and the Suns’ workplace culture. Silver said the league has no position on a current Dallas Mavericks’ front-office issue in which former GM Donnie Nelson has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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