NBA Hands Nets Hefty Fine for Violating Player Participation Policy

Brooklyn got slapped with a fine for violating a relatively new rule.

The Brooklyn Nets are being fined $100,000 for violating the NBA’s player participation policy in their Dec. 27 game against the Milwaukee Bucks, per Shams Charania.

The league’s investigation into the Nets’ actions determined that four Nets rotation players, who did not play against the Bucks, in fact could have “under the medical standard in the Player Participation Policy.”

In the 144–122 loss to the Bucks, which was the second game of a back-to-back, Cameron Johnson, Nic Claxton, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Spencer Dinwiddie were all held out; Brooklyn also gave a few other starters minimal playing time.

The NBA released the following statement on Thursday.

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/lAmgjUwxZt

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 4, 2024

Instituted at the start of the 2023–24 season, the player participation policy essentially functions as a set of load management rules to discourage teams from resting multiple healthy players in the same game. The policy primarily targets star players, defined by the league as any player who has been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons.

In the loss to Milwaukee, Ben Simmons was the only player on Brooklyn’s roster who met that criteria. However, the Nets reportedly violated other rules related to resting healthy players, leading to the hefty fine.