The NBA has fined the Atlanta Hawks $100,000 for violating the league’s player participation policy in a Nov. 12 game in Boston.
Following an investigation, the league found that the Hawks held All-NBA point guard Trae Young out of the game, which “he could have played in under the medical standard in the policy.”
Atlanta is in violation of the player participation policy, which was implemented before the 2023-24 season, because Young was an All-Star last year. The policy applies to several scheduling circumstances, but in this case Atlanta withheld Young for an NBA or “in-season tournament” game.
Young has played every game this season besides the NBA Cup game in Boston, which he missed with what the Hawks called “right Achilles tendinitis.” Likely because Young has been healthy throughout the rest of the year, the NBA looked into the absence.
We can’t know for sure what goes into an NBA investigation for the player participation policy, but we can see now that Young was not truly injured for that game. To make matters worse for Atlanta, the Nov. 12 contest was not a back-to-back, and even had three days of rest on either side for the Hawks.
If Atlanta was trying to punt the game, though, it failed. Without Young and several other rotation players, the Hawks somehow pulled off a 1-point upset win in Boston.
That doesn’t matter to the NBA. They fined the Hawks $100,000 as a first-time offender. The next infraction will result in a $250,000 penalty, followed by upwards of $1 million for each subsequent break of the policy.
The policy is “intended to promote participation in the NBA’s regular season,” the league wrote in its statement.
NBA viewership is down early in the season as injuries to key players like Joel Embiid and Zion Williamson have once again become key storylines for the league.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.