Indiana Pacers & Utah Jazz Have Both Been Fined For "Undermining The Foundation of NBA Competition" (i.e. They've Been Fined For Tanking)
I don't like when teams tank for draft picks (unless it's my own). But I've always felt like fining teams for it is kinda dumb too. I think team's should be entitled to do whatever they feel is in their best interest. And if the rules of your league give teams an incentive to lose, you shouldn't blame them for taking advantage. You should look deeper and fix the rules to take that incentive away. As opposed to just doing this once a year to make it look like you're being proactive.
Another reason I don't like fining teams for tanking – who's to say it's not in the Pacers best interest to get their young players some real NBA regular season minutes? Pretend tanking for draft picks isn't even a thing. If the Pacers reach a point in the season where they don't believe they can make the playoffs, wouldn't it be beneficial for them to occasionally see what some of their bench players are made of? Couldn't it theoretically help the Jazz to see which of their role players will step up in crunch time when their "stars" aren't available?
I'm not saying that's what the Pacers and Jazz were doing. I'm just saying there can be a grey area when it comes to defining tanking. That grey area/lack of "definitive proof" is probably why the fines are so weak. $100k is nothing for the Pacers. It's barely a fraction of what they would pay to guarantee themselves a top 3 pick in the upcoming draft.
Fining teams for tanking just puts a band-aid on the problem. But regardless, you always hate to hear the story of a young Pacers fan whose dad bought him tickets to his first game for Christmas, and when that day finally came, this is who his beloved Pacers put on the court.
What the Jazz did was even more blatant. They pulled their two leading scorers (Lauri Markkanen & Jaren Jackson Jr.) heading into the 4th quarter in back-to-back close games. It was hilariously obvious. Except for they actually ended up winning the first game.
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So the NBA is now fining the Jazz for winning wrong. I suppose that's what they get for robbing the fans of watching the dynamite duo of Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. shut the door on the Miami Heat. Guess they should have stuck with what had them at 16-37 heading into that game.
Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, along with plenty of other people, certainly disagree with that sentiment.
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Fining NBA teams for tanking opens up a whole stupid can of worms. I just wish the NBA would try to come up with a fair way to determine draft order that didn't incentive losing. But apparently that's fucking impossible. Fans have been complaining about tanking for forever, yet nobody ever seems to be able to come up with a better solution.
People like to throw out the possibility of holding an end of the season tournament for non-playoff teams where the winner gets the #1 pick (or most lottery balls). Apparently this is actually being considered now. Greenie has a blog about it that's about to be posted. But even with that, we'd end up having teams tanking to miss the NBA Playoffs, because they'd rather have a chance to win the Draft Pick Playoffs. We'd also get the fun little wrinkle of asking NBA players to win games so their team can draft a better player to replace them.
So until someone comes up with a better solution, or unless the NBA wants to abolish the draft entirely and take the European soccer route where it's all free agency and the best young player goes to the highest bidder… maybe mitigating the problem with slaps on the wrist every now and then is really the best way.
But if anybody can come up with a better solution, I know for a fact that Adam Silver is all ears. Literally and figuratively. The man will take ideas from anyone.
Laura Cavanaugh. Getty Images.