The NBA hates tanking, but it understands that some teams try to do it anyway. Two of those teams, the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers, have been fined. The league has plenty of anti-tanking measures, and not all of them work very well. This is why some teams still tank rather openly despite what the league wants. The Pacers and Jazz, however, didn’t really get away with their latest infractions.
NBA fines two teams in attempt to combat tanking
The NBA has hit the Utah Jazz with a $500,000 fine for improper player use. The Indiana Pacers were fined $100,000 for the same thing. The NBA cited the sitting of healthy players by both teams as a reason for the fines.
“Overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,” commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement via ESPN. “Additionally, we are working with our Competition Committee and Board of Governors to implement further measures to root out this type of conduct.”
The Jazz got more because they did this in two games, ironically only losing one of them. Against the Orlando Magic (an eventual loss) and Miami Heat (a win), the Jazz sat Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., now out for the year after surgery, in the fourth quarter of close games.
Jazz coach Will Hardy disagreed with the idea that this was tanking. “I sat Lauri because he was on a minutes restriction,” he said. “So if our medical team puts a minutes restriction on Lauri, I’ll try to keep Lauri healthy.”
Jazz owner Ryan Smith didn’t appreciate the fine, either. He complained on social media about being fined for player usage in a game they won.
Why is the league doing this?
The NBA has a tanking issue more than other sports. In baseball, teams do tank a little bit, but there’s such a huge talent disparity (more often than not) between the best and worst teams (partly due to the lack of a salary floor) that the worst teams lose without trying.
In the NBA, during the long regular season, some of the worst teams will absolutely try a little bit to lose games. Is this a major, troublesome issue? The league certainly thinks so, and it has gone to great lengths to prevent teams from doing this.
The main reason for this is that it reflects poorly. Other sports teams in other leagues are mostly trying to win every single game. When fans show up and spend money (a lot of it) to see a basketball game with their favorite team, they deserve, in the eyes of the league, to see a real effort at winning.
The problem is that with teams that are bad, it is better to lose. This is true in every single sport, but it’s perhaps especially true in basketball. There are only two rounds of draft picks, so finding good players to build around is hard. Being in the top 10 is like having a first-round pick in the NFL. Being anywhere else in the draft is like having a second or third-round NFL draft choice at best.
For the Jazz and Pacers, at least this year for Indiana, it behooves them to stay at the bottom of the leaderboard. Yes, the lottery does most often mean the worst team does not get the first pick (which is probably a little unfair, but is a story for another day). However, the worst team is guaranteed a top-five pick, which helps some.
The league has tossed around ideas to prevent this, like prohibiting a team from being in the top five two years in a row. These are drastic measures that may backfire, but when you consider those options, it’s easy to see why the league fined two teams for seemingly tanking. They want, at all costs, this to cease. Will it? That remains to be seen.
Related Posts
