Nba Rules In Favor Of Luka Dončić To Make Him Eligible For Mvp, Award Voting

There’s at least one bit of bright light at the end of the Lakers’ season.

On Thursday, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that Luka Dončić, as well as Cade Cunningham, both would be eligible for awards after winning their respective Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge cases in regards to the 65-game rule.

Luka’s case centered around him flying home to Slovenia for the birth of his daughter in December. Cade’s case revolved around him suffering a collapsed lung to finish just shy of the 65-game minimum requirement. Both cases were advanced to an independent arbitrator with the players winning.

Interestingly, Anthony Edwards also submitted an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge but did not win his case.

Shortly after the ruling came out, Luka tweeted out a statement of gratitude.

After suffering his regular-season-ending hamstring strain, Luka’s agent, Bill Duffy, immediately made it clear that they would be submitting an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge. Whether others were already intending on doing the same or not is not known, but for just about everyone, it’s the first time they’d heard of this rule in the CBA and certainly the first time one, let alone two, players won their cases.

As a result of these Extraordinary Circumstances Challenges, the NBA delayed awards voting until Friday of this week. Typically, ballots go out the night after the final regular season game of the season.

It would have been impossible to tell the story of this NBA season without including Luka in numerous awards. He finished the season as the league’s leading scorer, averaging 33.5 points per game. He won Player of the Month twice and had one of the greatest scoring months in league history in March.

Behind his brilliance, the Lakers soared soared up the standings and became a legitimate contender. Luka was squarely in the conversation for MVP, let alone a shoo-in for First Team All-NBA. His injury could not have been more untimely, but the silver lining is that he will at least be properly recognized for his incredible campaign.

Many of the criticisms around Luka’s appeal included bringing up Cunningham’s situation and noting that, if Luka gets the appeal, he should as well. In the end, both players were rightly ruled eligible.

Sorry, Ant, I guess.

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