Luka Doncic is ineligible to win any end-of-season awards after suffering a hamstring injury on Thursday against the OKC Thunder. The Lakers announced on Friday that Doncic is dealing with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which will force him to sit out the rest of the season stuck at 64 games. Under the 65-game minimum requirement, the Slovenian is out of the MVP race and other individual awards.
Doncic’s team isn’t going to give up on the superstar point guard claiming well-deserved honors. NBA insider Shams Charania tweeted a statement from Bill Duffy, the All-Star point guard’s agent:
“To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” to the 65-game rule.”
Duffy added:
“Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4 on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6. Luka has done great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night’s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances.”
Injuries have been the biggest reason players such as Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo have been eliminated from end-of-season awards. Luka Doncic is in that list unless Bill Duffy’s “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” is honored by the NBA.
Luka Doncic’s End-Of-Season Awards Case Rests on Proving 3 Points in Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge
The NBA’s Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge allows a player to prove he deserves end-of-season awards consideration despite failing to meet the 65-game requirement.
Under the league’s handbook, the player must prove that:
- It was impracticable for the player to play in one or more game (s) that he missed due to extraordinary circumstances.
- The player would have at least played 65 Regular Season games if he played in every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances.
- As a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and taking into account the totality of the circumstances (including whether the player did not play in other Regular Season games in which he could have played), it would be unjust to exclude the player from award eligibility.
Luka Doncic sat out the Lakers’ Dec. 4 game against the Toronto Raptors and Dec. 5 showdown against the Boston Celtics for the birth of his second daughter in Slovenia. Had he played one of those two games, he would have been eligible for end-of-season awards. If the NBA considers those “personal reasons” as “extraordinary circumstances,” Doncic and Co. will likely succeed with their challenge.
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