Getty Celtics star Jayson Tatum
Looking to attract the largest possible audience — or in the interest of interest, one might say — ESPN and the NBA have altered the national television schedule for next Wednesday and Thursday. The Oklahoma City at Boston game on April 3rd has been flexed into the national spotlight, with Memphis at Milwaukee relegated to local telecasts.
Sacramento at New York the next night has been picked up by TNT/truTV, pushing out the Atlanta at Dallas game.
Celtic fans reacted to my Twitter/X announcement by cracking jokes about ESPN getting to show the G-League Maine Celtics to the nation, assuming the Celts who regularly play in Boston will be sitting down a whole bunch of regulars, having already clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
ESPN calls an audible and picks up Oklahoma City at Boston on April 3rd. … Memphis at Milwaukee gets pulled from the national spotlight.
TNT/truTV makes a similar move the next night, taking Sacramento at New York national and jettisoning Atlanta at Dallas.
Celtics Seeking Top Overall Record
But league sources refuted that notion on a couple of grounds in discussions with Heavy Sports Monday afternoon.
The first point is that the Celtics may still be trying to lock down the best overall record in the league and the homecourt advantage that would bring, should they make it to the NBA Finals, as they certainly hope. But, with 11 games left and a 7-game lead on Denver, 7-and-a-half-game lead on Oklahoma City and 8-game lead on Minnesota entering Monday night’s action, it’s possible that goal could be virtually achieved by next Wednesday.
“But OKC will still be playing for something, with how tight things are in the Western Conference,” said an NBA coach. “That’s a mess over there, with how tight things are up at the top. There’s no way OKC or Minnesota or anyone out there wants to go into a series with Denver with (the Nuggets) having homecourt.”
But even if the Celtics don’t have a positioning goal on the line for the meeting with the Thunder, there’s the matter of a new NBA rule that will prevent the C’s from throwing the end of their roster at the visitors.
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown Must Play?
As part of its player participation initiative that saw things like the 65-game minimum set for players to be considered for season awards, the league has taken steps to try to ensure the best players are on the floor, particularly when the national TV cameras are focused on the game.
“Guys who are stars have to be playing, unless there’s a legitimate injury,” said one league source. “And stars is a defined term that includes players who’ve been an All-Star in the last three years. So unless there’s a real injury, (Jayson) Tatum, (Jaylen) Brown, Jrue (Holiday) and Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) have to be in the game. Those guys can’t be just resting.
“And if you list any of them as injured, it’s understood that the league will investigate to see if the injuries are real. You can’t just rest people and make something up. There can be fines if a team is sitting someone out of a national TV game without a legitimate injury.”
The participation rules also cover games that aren’t on ESPN, ABC or TNT, which is why you won’t see the Celtics sitting down Tatum and Brown on the same night unless both are injured.
“Look, these rules are for the best interest of the players, too,” one league exec told Heavy. “Everybody wants the TV people to be happy when it’s time to negotiate the big network contracts. The more money the league gets, the more that goes into the players’ cut. You see what happens to the salary cap every time the new TV deals kick in. That’s money in everyone’s pocket.”