Victor Wembanyama’s NBA Cup Finals’ appearance saved the day. Otherwise, award nominations with just 64 games? You really think Adam Silver & Co. would be that flexible? No. However, the San Antonio Spurs’ phenom has been complaining about the 65-game rule. And something doesn’t sit right. Because you can’t support a rule when it benefits you and then complain when it hurts you.
So, NFL legend Shannon Sharpe grilled the French big man on the Night Cap. “Voting or not voting has consequences. Don’t get to complain about something that you voted for, and it turns around and bites you in the butt. See, you cannot purchase a lion and then get mad if it attacks you,” Sharpe said.
In simple terms, Shannon Sharpe is calling out Victor Wembanyama for complaining about the 65-game rule, saying players only have themselves to blame. He added, “There’s 82 games in the regular season. The threshold that you must meet in order to be eligible for postseason awards is 65. Yes, sir. Now, a rule that you voted on comes back to bite you. It’s unfair. Oh, it wasn’t unfair if you didn’t think it was going to impact you, or was it when it wasn’t impacting you?”
According to Sharpe, people only start complaining when a problem personally affects them. Something ignored before suddenly feels unbearable once it hits close to home. Issues seem minor at a distance but overwhelming up close. Essentially, he’s calling out Wemby’s selective outrage.
Last Friday, the 22-year-old returned to the floor against the Dallas Mavericks after missing a game due to a rib injury. After a 26-minute outing secured his eligibility, Victor Wembanyama pushed back on the 65-game rule, crunching numbers himself and suggesting a 75% threshold—roughly 62 games—might make more sense.
“If a guy plays 50 games, 35 minutes a game, that’s 50 times 35 — that’s 1,750, right? Am I right?” he asked the media. “If a guy plays 75 games at 20 minutes, it’s 1,500. So it’s a good view, in my opinion, to not have a limit. It’s one opinion. Seventy-five percent of the games, in my opinion, would be a logical thing, and that would be 61.5 games, right? So, 62 games.”
Interestingly enough, Shannon Sharpe isn’t the only one who feels Victor Wembanyama’s comments made little sense. And that is because Charles Barkley has also called out the players for complaining about the 65-game rule.
Charles Barkley lashed out at the likes of Victor Wembanyama
Barkley argues that expecting players to appear in 79.2% of the regular season is fair, especially for athletes earning tens of millions annually. Moreover, he stresses it was several players themselves who approved. Therefore, he believes the 65-game rule debate lacks sympathy. Accountability matters, and agreed-upon rules must be honored without complaint later.
“I don’t think 65 games is a lot to ask, man. Shut the hell up. Y’all voted on that in the collective bargaining, and now y’all want to complain,” Charles Barkley said on Sunday’s ESPN Tip-Off Show. “If’ y’all weren’t sitting on your a— half the time sipping margaritas and stuff, they wouldn’t have put the 65-game threshold in there. Shut the hell up.”
The NBA’s 65-game rule arrived with the 2022–23 season as part of a bigger shift in the league’s player participation policy. Previously, under the 2017 player resting policy, healthy stars were restricted from sitting out nationally televised games, or teams faced fines of at least $100,000. Now, things are stricter and sharper.
To qualify for MVP, DPOY, MIP, and All-NBA or All-Defensive honors, a player must appear in at least 65 regular-season games, with a minimum of 20 minutes counting as one full game. Therefore, availability has become just as valuable as performance, turning attendance into a core metric of greatness.
Since this rule sits inside the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), it was approved by both the league and the players’ union. Therefore, Charles Barkley points directly at that agreement and questions the backlash. In his view, players cannot approve rules through their representatives and later reject them when consequences hit.
The message is simple and firm. Players helped shape the 65-game rule through the collective agreement, so the backlash feels inconsistent. Moreover, Shannon Sharpe and Charles Barkley both stress accountability and ownership. Therefore, complaining after approval weakens credibility. So, Victor Wembanyama’s debate only reignites a bigger truth about responsibility, consequences, and respecting rules once they are set in motion.
