Through no fault of his own, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown may have just fallen down the pecking order when it comes to trying to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award and trying to get on the All-NBA First Team.

Why? Because of a decision made by the league on Thursday.

Per Shams Charania of ESPN:

Just in: The NBA and NBPA have ruled in favor of Lakers' Luka Doncic and Pistons' Cade Cunningham on their Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge for the 65-game award rule, making both eligible for all 2025-26 season honors such as MVP and All-NBA teams, sources tell ESPN.

As noted by Charania, players need to play in 65 games or more to be eligible for postseason awards, but Doncic and Cunningham have won their appeals, which will impact Brown's individual award opportunities. 

The 29-year-old put up the best season of his career, averaging 28.7 ppg and 6.9 rebounds. Now a five-time All-Star, Brown is headed for a second All-NBA selection. But again, which team he will be on is potentially impacted by this decision.

Adam Kaufman of ESPN Radio noted that on social media as well:

There is a very real (even likely) chance this will cost Jaylen Brown first-team All-NBA, which is a bummer because he’s incredibly deserving

The former No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft (2016) out of Cal, Brown won the NBA Finals MVP in 2023-24 as the Celtics beat the Mavericks. He's averaging 20.0 ppg for his career, which is now in its 10th season.

Brown played in 71 games during this campaign.

Doncic played in 64 games this season, averaging 33.5 ppg for the Los Angeles Lakers. He also dished out 8.3 assists and had 7.7 rebounds per game while being one of the most heavily-utilized players in the entire league.

Part of the reason that his appeal was won is that he missed two games for the birth of his child overseas, which was also reported by Charania.

The 27-year-old native of Serbia is a six-time All-Star, a five-time All-NBA selection and a two-time scoring champion.

The 24-year-old led the Detroit Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs after averaging 23.9 ppg and 9.9 assists. He also played 64 games after suffering a collapsed lung at the end of the campaign. He was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2021 out of Oklahoma State.

The 65-game minimum rule is in place to incentivize players to actually play, rather than exhibit load management. Brown did that. The minute that the league starts to ease up on those rules, we start to question why they even exist in the first place.

If Brown falls down to the second or third-team in the All-NBA voting, that could impact him financially, which is something that no player likes. 

The Celtics open up the playoffs on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET against the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden. The schedule as we know it is here.

Remember to join our CELTICS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Celtics fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!