In the lead-up to the 2021 Sal's NBL season we'll take a look at some of the key rules in the League and explain how they work.
Let's take a look at Finals Qualification.
In season 2021, players must participate in a minimum of (5) games to qualify for the Sal’s NBL finals. The rules covering Finals Eligibility are as follows:
Finals Eligibility
• To be eligible to play in the Finals, a player must have played in a minimum of 25% of a team’s regular season games, that is to be suited up for the game, recorded on the score sheet and having participated on the court in that game. In the case of an uneven (number of games) in the regular season schedule, qualification will be based on 25% of games plus rounding up to the next whole number. For example in season 2021 in an 18 game regular season qualification would be five games.
• Any player that misses any League scheduled game(s) whilst representing New Zealand on official national basketball duties, including official training camps, will have the games missed due to this participation included in the calculations for Finals eligibility.
• A member of a team, who, by virtue of injury/illness, fails to qualify for the Finals, may apply in writing to the League General Manager prior to the start of the Finals for permission to play.
• Consideration of any injury/illness application by the League General Manager shall have regard only to written medical certification to state the extent and term of the injury/illness and when the player was not fit to play. Injuries suffered from playing in a game do not necessarily constitute a reason for consideration.
• Players can only register to participate in the League whilst a sufficient number of games are available to qualify for Finals with the team they are registering to play with.
• Should a player move between teams during the season, be it via a Trade or any other means, games played for any previous team does not count towards Finals eligibility with the player’s new team.
Coming up we'll take a look at how the MVP Voting system works, the League's Salary System for 2021, the rules around Media Timeouts, and the new Player Status Reports that will be introduced this season.
