The 65-game rule is suspect, at best. No one served as a better example of that than Luka Doncic.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar was under threat of having his incredible 2025-26 campaign forgotten in the grand scheme of things due to falling one game short of playing 65 this season. That arbitrary number did have an exception to fiddle around with for extraordinary circumstances. Doncic and his reps made their case, and the NBA gave way.
Shams Charania reported: "The NBA and NBPA have ruled in favor of Lakers' Luka Doncic and Pistons' Cade Cunningham on their Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge for the 65-game award rule, making both eligible for all 2025-26 season honors such as MVP and All-NBA teams."
Given how tight of an NBA MVP race it was, Doncic's injury will likely keep him from truly being in consideration for the award. However, the path has been reopened for Luka to claim his rightful spot on this year's All-NBA First Team.
Luka Doncic deserves his shot at award recognition this season
The All-NBA Teams exist to serve as a reflection of who the best players were in any given season. They will be the reminder for people in the future to look back on who told the league's story that year. Doncic being left out of that would have been criminal.
Simply put, there were not five better players than Doncic in the 2025-26 season. Him falling one game short of 65 due to a few games missed for the birth of a child should not have punished him from a rightful spot in history.
Doncic even cited his new daughter as a reason for him missing the threshold. It was a reminder to anyone who needs it that players have lives off the court.
Doncic said, "It was so important to me to be present for the birth of my daughter in December and I appreciate ... the entire Lakers organization for fully supporting me and allowing me to travel to be there."
Thanks to the NBA making the right call on the exception, that arbitrary number will not rob voters of being able to think critically about these honors here. The situation just goes to challenge why it even makes sense to have it in the first place.
Victor Wembanyama was going to be eligible for All-NBA Teams and MVP consideration because he hit 65 games (when including the In-Season Tournament). Despite that, and despite Luka appearing in just one less game, Doncic had significantly more minutes played than Wembanyama.
2025-26 was the second season in Luka's career where he claimed the NBA's scoring title. His 33.5 points per game comfortably led the league. Even with the time he missed, Doncic also scored the most total points at 2143 on the year.
Leaving that player off an All-NBA Team due to him having 64 and not 65 games played would have been ludicrous.
This all goes before even talking about the incredible job Doncic did to lift up the Lakers as a whole. His surge into the MVP debate was unmissable. Luka did more than enough to warrant a spot on the ballot, even if the award ultimately goes to someone else.
The NBA made the right call granting the exception. The next step basketball fans should hope for is revisiting the rule and either altering it to make more sense, or doing away with it altogether so a situation like Doncic's does not have to repeat itself in the future.
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