The Cleveland Cavaliers have been slapped with a $100,000 fine from the NBA after sitting both Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley during their November 12 road game against the Miami Heat.
The league determined this violated their player participation policy, which was designed to keep star players on the court during regular season games.
This new policy, introduced before the 2023-24 season, has specific rules about resting top players. Under these guidelines, a “star” is any player who made an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three years – a category both Mitchell and Mobley fall into.
Teams can’t sit more than one star player for the same game. It’s that simple.
The NBA does make some exceptions, though. Players who are 35 or older on opening night can get pre-approved passes to sit out certain back-to-back games.
Veterans with over 34,000 regular-season minutes or 1,000 combined regular and playoff games also get some flexibility.
The league also allows players to miss games for legitimate injuries, personal reasons, or what they call “rare and unusual circumstances.”
But the Cavs listed both Mitchell and Mobley as out for “rest” on their injury report. That’s what triggered the fine.
What makes this interesting is the timing. Cleveland was in the middle of a grueling stretch – six games in just eight days.
Both stars had played just two days earlier in an overtime loss to the same Miami team. And both were back in action the very next night, November 13, for a home game.
The fine structure shows the NBA means business with this policy. A first violation costs $100,000, which is what hit the Cavs. If they do it again, they’ll face a $250,000 penalty.
A third violation jumps dramatically to $1.25 million.
And it gets worse from there – each additional violation adds another million dollars to the previous fine amount.
The Cavaliers are currently in the middle of a six-game homestand and will face the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
