NBA mulling ‘every possible remedy’ as ‘tanking’ worsens

LOS ANGELES – Nothing is worse than a sore loser, except maybe an intentional one.

National Basketball Association (NBA) teams are increasingly losing games on purpose to improve their draft prospects and basketball must consider every possible remedy to stamp out deliberate “tanking”, the league’s chief said on Feb 14.

Speaking at his annual news conference before the NBA All-Star Game, commissioner Adam Silver warned that current punishments to prevent teams from gaming the system that allocates top new players are “not working”.

“Are we seeing behaviour that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,” said Silver.

“Which was what led to those fines, and not just those fines but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behaviour, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”

The NBA Draft system means the teams that finish lowest in the standings have the best chances of landing the top prospects.

But it has long contributed to “tanking” – lowly teams throwing in the towel long before the regular season ends in hopes of landing a franchise-altering player in the draft.

This week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers over “management of their rosters”.

The Jazz were fined US$500,000 (S$631,000) for conduct detrimental to the league in games against the Orlando Magic on Feb 7 and the Miami Heat on Feb 9.

The Pacers were fined US$100,000 for violating the player participation policy in connection with a Feb 3 game against the Jazz.

Asked if the league might consider taking draft picks away from teams that deliberately underperform, rather than simply fining them, Silver said discussions are ongoing “about every possible remedy now to stop this behaviour”.

“I mean, what we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now, is not working. There’s no question about it,” he said.

The Jazz, 13th in the Western Conference and eight games out of the play-in, were up by three points going into the fourth quarter of their Feb 9 game against Miami and were dominating in the paint.

But Jazz coach Will Hardy benched his top players – a similar move to what he had done in their game against Orlando two days earlier.

“It has been part of this league for a long time,” said Silver.

“At some point, I think it was in the 1980s, we moved to a lottery. That lottery has been changed roughly five times over the years to try to stay ahead of some of the behaviour of our teams.”

Speaking on a wide range of topics ahead of the Feb 15 (Feb 16, Singapore time) All-Star Game, Silver also said talks will take place in March on expanding the NBA with new franchises.

Potential teams in Las Vegas and Seattle have been rumoured, but Silver said no vote is imminent on the matter, which requires talks with possible new owners and discussions about conference realignment.

Relocating an NBA team is not on the table currently, he added.

He said: “My sense is at the March board of governors meetings we’ll be having further discussions around an expansion process. We won’t be voting at the March meeting, but we will likely come out of those meetings ready, prepared to take a next step in terms of potentially talking to interested parties.”

And Silver reiterated that a planned NBA Europe basketball league featuring teams tied to the continent’s football giants like Real Madrid is still due to launch in 2027.

Dozens of organisations have indicated strong interest in potentially being franchise owners and have signed non-disclosure agreements in order to access the league’s projections and models.

“Do I think it’s doable for 2027-28? Yes,” he told reporters.

“How we launch the league won’t look like it will several years later,” said Silver, citing the need for significant new arena construction. AFP, REUTERS