Something close to the worst-case scenario was confirmed on Friday as the Lakers announced Luka Dončić suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain against the Thunder on Thursday and would be out at least the rest of the regular season.
While there are many ramifications of that injury, particularly when it comes to the Lakers’ postseason hopes, the injury coming in Luka’s 64th game this season leaves him just one game shy of being eligible for postseason awards. While he likely wasn’t going to win MVP —
though he would definitely have finished in the top five — he was a near lock to be named All-NBA First Team.
As things stand right now, he would not be eligible to be selected. However, Shams Charania of ESPN also relayed a statement from Luka’s agent, Bill Duffy, in which he noted that they would be applying for an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge for the 65-game rule.
Here is the full statement:
“This season, Luka Dončić has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory. To ensure that Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honored and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” to the 65-game rule. Luka missed two games this season for the birth of his second child in Slovenia. His daughter was born on Dec. 4 on another continent, and yet he was back in the United States competing with his team on Dec. 6. Luka has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season. His record-breaking season deserves to be noted in the history books, despite last night’s unfortunate injury and other extraordinary circumstances. We look forward to working with the NBAPA and the league office to ensure a fair outcome in this matter.”
Luka missed the team’s games in Toronto on Dec. 4 and Boston on Dec. 5 for the birth of his daughter in Slovenia. He rejoined the team on Dec. 6 and played against the Sixers on Dec. 7.
In the CBA, here is a snippet of how the Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge is explained
- (i) To prevail in an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge in respect of a Season, the player bears the burden of proving that:
- (A) Due to extraordinary circumstances, it was impracticable for him to play in one (1) or more of the Regular Season game(s) that he missed during such Season;
- (B) He would have satisfied the Award Eligibility Criterion set forth in Section 6(a)(1) above if he had played in every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances (i.e., assuming that he would have played twenty (20) minutes in each such missed game);
Effectively, the argument will be that because Luka had to fly to another continent to be at his child’s birth, he missed multiple games he might otherwise have played. And considering he is just one game short of being eligible and he missed two games, it would likely strengthen his argument.
Front office insider Bobby Marks of ESPN also shares the belief that Luka could have a good case here.
This does not ultimately change the impact the team is going to feel in the postseason without Luka. However, it would allow Luka to be properly recognized for his brilliance.
You can not tell the story of the 2025-26 NBA season without including Luka and hopefully this route will allow him to be rightfully included in award voting.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
