The Utah Jazz most likely have one foot out the door this season and one eye on the NBA Draft Lottery, with hopes for a little luck with the ping pong balls to help them land Cooper Flagg. However, Adam Silver is still making sure the Jazz are doing their best to compete.
On Wednesday, the Jazz were fined $100,000 for violating the league’s Player Participation Policy. The violation came regarding a series of absences by star forward Lauri Markkanen over the last few weeks. The league released a statement on the incident, via Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints.
“The NBA announced today that the Utah Jazz organization has been fined $100,000 for violating the league’s Player Participation Policy,” the statement read. “The violation occurred when the Jazz failed to make Lauri Markkanen, a star player under the Policy, available for the team’s game against the Washington Wizards on March 5 at Capital One Arena, as well as other recent games. The Policy, which was adopted prior to the 2023-24 season, is intended to promote participation in the NBA’s regular season.”
Markkanen has missed the last nine games for Utah due to lower back injury management, but the NBA clearly isn’t buying it. The league clearly thinks that the Finnish star could have played in at least some of those games, specifically the contest against the Wizards last Wednesday.
Shortly after the fine was handed down, the Jazz announced that Markkanen will be available to play on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, so the Jazz are not ready to hand over any more money to the league office.
Of course, having Markkanen on the court does no favors for Utah’s draft hopes. The Arizona product leads the team with 19.3 points per game to go with 6.1 rebounds a night.
Entering Wednesday’s tilt, the Jazz have the worst record in the Western Conference at 15-50. Only the Wizards have a worse number at 13-51 as the race to the bottom continues over the final month of the season.
The post Jazz fined $100,000 for violating Player Participation Policy with Lauri Markkanen appeared first on ClutchPoints.
