NBA plans to add anti-tanking rules next season: Reports
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Lauri Markkanen, one of the Utah Jazz's best players, was benched for the fourth quarter of back-to-back winnable games against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LOS ANGELES – To deter teams from tanking, or losing on purpose, for better lottery odds in the draft, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is considering options such as not allowing a franchise to make a top-four pick in consecutive years or after consecutive bottom-three finishes, reported ESPN and The Athletic.
Other options include flattening the spread of the odds for all lottery teams and freezing those odds at the trade deadline or another date in-season. In the current draft system, lower-ranked teams in the standings have the best chances of landing the top prospects.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver told all 30 general managers that the league will make rule changes to combat the practice starting from the 2026-27 season, multiple media outlets reported on Feb 19.
The Utah Jazz were fined US$500,000 (S$635,000) while the Indiana Pacers received a US$100,000 penalty earlier in February for conduct detrimental to the league, regarding its player-participation policy.
Utah, in particular, benched their two best players, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr, for the entire fourth quarter of back-to-back games against Orlando Magic and Miami Heat.
They lost 120-117 to the Magic, but beat the Heat 115-111.
The league has owned up to the tanking issue, with Silver saying at a press conference during the All-Star weekend that the problem is “worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory”.
“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,” Silver said.
As the NBA resumed play after the All-Star break, no team are mathematically eliminated from play-off contention, but five teams (Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Indiana, New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings) have winning percentages below 29 per cent.
Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia said in a social media post on Feb 19 that tanking is “ridiculous” and “losing behaviour done by losers”.
Ishbia linked his tweet to a story posted on X about tanking in the league.
“Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organisations,” he wrote.
“And the talk about this as a ‘strategy’ is ridiculous. If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of whole league. This is much worse than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically.”
Ishbia completed his purchase of the Suns and the Phoenix Mercury, who play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, from Robert Sarver in February 2023 for US$4 billion.
Phoenix do not control their own first-round draft pick until 2032 because of trades made since 2023, meaning the Suns cannot benefit from losing games intentionally.
“Those of us in a position of influence need to speak out,” added Ishbia, who played guard at Michigan State, appearing in 48 games (one start) from 1999 to 2002.
“The only ‘strategy’ is doing right by fans, players and the NBA community.” REUTERS
