At times, it feels like the NBA is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. It’s frustrating because overall, the league is in a great place; there are awesome games on almost every single night, the marquee matchups usually deliver, the talent is at an all-time high, and well spread across the teams.
Yet, the focus seems entirely too much on the negative aspects of the league; the tanking issue, constant injuries to star players, betting scandals, salary cap manipulation, officiating and fault-baiting, and other things that seem to drive everyone crazy.
And sure enough, on the final day of the regular season, the league is taking a beating on social media as Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press pointed out that if you combined the salaries of the players sitting out on Sunday, it would come out to over $2.5 billion. And that was posted at 9:14 AM, before a number of other players were ruled out, only adding to the astounding figure.
$2,526,031,083.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) April 12, 2026
That's the combined salary this season of players who have already been ruled out of today's games in the NBA.
The Celtics are playing their part in this game of rest, as they’re sitting Jayson Tatum ($54.1 million), Jaylen Brown ($53.1m), Derrick White ($28.1m), Nikola Vucevic ($21.5m), Sam Hauser ($10.0m), Payton Pritchard ($7.2m), Hugo Gonzalez ($2.8m), and Neemias Queta ($2.3m). That’s almost $180 million from Boston alone.
Resting players is a necessary evil
But here’s the thing: the Celtics are making the right call. This happens in every major sports league, and it’s an obvious decision. They’ve locked up the 2-seed in the East and have nothing further to play for until the playoffs begin next week. They’ve had an amazing season, and they’ve earned an extra day of rest.
Hopefully, it will be a grueling playoff journey they are about to embark on, and they’ll be called upon for heavy minutes, almost every other night, possibly (and ideally)for two whole months. Playing any of those rotation players in a meaningless game, especially with all the guys dealing with legitimate injuries, would be borderline malpractice.
So, while it may seem kind of gross and come off as a bad look for the league, it’s really just a part of sports. There are some good, meaningful games on Sunday. Focus on those. Or focus on the exciting play-in tournament that starts on Tuesday. Or the awesome first round playoff matchups. Or the contentious and competitive awards to be decided. Or the eventual clashes of titans in the later rounds.
There are so many great things going on around the league, and they should be celebrated and appreciated by basketball fans. Too often, the focus is on the wrong thing, and somehow, some way, that has become the case yet again on the final day of the season.