Cleveland fined Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley $100,000 for vacations
The NBA punished Cleveland Cavaliers $100,000 to sit Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley in Miami last Wednesday. The league released a statement for that matter on Tuesday evening.
“The NBA announced today that the Cleveland Cavaliers have been fined $100,000 for violating the league’s Player Participation Policy. The violation occurred when the Cavaliers held Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, both of whom are star players under the policy, out of the team’s game against the Miami Heat, which was enacted on November 12 through the holiday. The 2023-24 season is intended to promote participation in the NBA regular season.
While it was likely disappointing for the fans in South Beach that night, it wasn’t surprising to see the Cavs rest two of their stars in the rematch against the Heat. First of all, they were coming down an overtime spectacle that ended on a buzzer-beating alley-oop from an inbounds pass. Mitchell played 41 minutes and Mobley recorded 39 minutes, both highs.
In addition, Cleveland had to return home the following night to host the Toronto Raptors; the team did not enter the city until 3 a.m. ET. It was a brutal turnaround for the second night of back-to-back road games when the Wine and Gold ended up going down while Mitchell and Mobley were active, anyway.
The Cavs have already played 15 games so far. Entering Tuesday, only the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder could say the same.
After Wednesday night’s game against the Houston Rockets, Cleveland will play its fifth game in seven days. After that, the Wine and Gold will have games on Friday and Sunday against the Indiana Pacers and LA Clippers to end their longest pre-Thanksgiving homestand of the year. There hasn’t been a single practice yet.
Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson spoke passionately about his stance on fewer games at the beginning of the season, and the head coach of the Warriors Steve Kerr brought it to light again on Tuesday. There is clearly a disconnect between teams and the league as to what constitutes a fair workload.
2025-11-19 04:37:00
