Gilbert Arenas is glad the NBA was lenient with Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham
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Gilbert Arenas is glad the NBA was lenient with Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The 65-game award rule has been monumental for the past few seasons, but it has been most apparent this season. Many of the league's best players suffered major injuries that led them to miss games, taking them out of the 65-game limit.
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Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic and Detroit Pistons cornerstone Cade Cunningham were the two players most affected by the rule. Thankfully, the NBA has allowed them to be eligible due to their respective challenges.
Gilbert Arenas likes Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham's award eligibility
It would have been a shame if superstars like Doncic and Cunningham lost a chance at being rewarded for their efforts. They were both excellent in the 2025-26 season, individually and in how they led their teams.
The Lakers finished the season as the fourth seed, but they would not have been anywhere close to that if Doncic had not played. The same could be said about the Pistons because Cunningham was the player who led them to the number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
MORE: Why Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham are eligible, and Anthony Edwards is not
Now, they are eligible for the awards after challenging the NBA. They had unique circumstances because Doncic had to miss games due to a personal issue, while Cunningham had a unique injury with his collapsed lung.
"This is a first for the NBA in granting the Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge provision in this. The league and the Players' Union both agreed that Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham had circumstances that rose to the level of now being eligible for All-NBA teams and MVP," Shams Charania reported on ESPN's NBA Today show.
It is a good result for both players because they are ending the season with something they deserve. They will most likely earn rewards at the end of the season, which will be the All-NBA nods, but Luka could be a dark horse in the MVP race as well.
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