The NBA has an effort epidemic. Tanking teams are opting against fielding competitive lineups while star players sleepwalk through the annual All-Star festivities.
League Commissioner Adam Silver said there’s no silver bullet for the issue, either.
The All-Star Game has become notorious for a lack of intensity, but a lackadaisical energy has moved from the exhibition and the Slam Dunk Contest, now infiltrating the day-to-day strategy of some franchises.
Silver told reporters during his annual All-Star press conference that the league is actively trying to encourage losing teams to start fielding NBA-worthy squads. The league fined the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers — two of the worst teams in the NBA — a combined $600,000 last week after they sat healthy players on the bench during games.
“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,” Silver said. “Which was what led to those fines. … We’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”
NBA teams have embraced tanking — a strategy that incentivizes losing to land higher draft picks — for years. Efforts to squash the practice have included shortening their lottery odds. It hasn’t worked.
Franchises aren’t playing for pride anymore, as the analytics revolution that brought an unparalleled focus on the three-pointer also lessened the impact of the 82-game regular season. Finishing near the bottom of the standings and landing a top draft pick is widely seen as more desirable than ending the year in the middle of the pack.
“We got to look at some fresh thinking here. What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now, is not working. There’s no question about it,” Silver said before referring to a “classical” time when teams didn’t need encouragement to try to win games. “What we’re seeing is modern analytics, where it’s so clear that the incentives are misaligned.”
The league’s competition committee could change the odds for the draft lottery, the commissioner said. He also threatened to revoke draft picks from teams committing egregious acts of tanking.
“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” Silver said.
The league can’t make players and teams care about anything other than the postseason, though. Even among competitive teams, load management has become the norm. Stars like LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama and Joel Embiid will often sit out the second game of a back-to-back to reduce wear and tear for potential postseason runs.
The league’s biggest strategy — removing players from end-of-year award consideration if they fail to play at least 65 games — hasn’t quashed the constant complaints of tanking from fans.
Disillusionment has seeped throughout the NBA calendar. The NBA’s All-Star weekend, once a beloved showcase for the sport’s biggest stars, is on life support due to similar concerns about players’ competitiveness.
The Dunk Contest is a shadow of itself. It’s been years since household names like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dwight Howard or Dominique Wilkins headlined the event.
G-League journeyman Mac McClung won the competition for three straight years, but the league didn’t invite him to Los Angeles for this weekend’s festivities.
Instead, the league relied on rotational NBA players like Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, Orlando Magic guard Jase Richardson and Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson.
The resulting competition was another dud. The most viral highlights showed an uneventful slam by Hayes that was widely maligned and a missed attempt by Richardson, which saw his head slam on the court.
“I think we can go ahead and cancel the dunk contest,” CBS Sports’ Mikey O’Brien — also known as Mikey Overs — wrote on X after Richardson’s whiff.
The lack of star power was evident.
“Some of the stars today don’t want to possibly lose, maybe, but it’s just competition, man. One person [has] got to win; go out there and just have fun and do it,” Larry Nance Sr., winner of the league’s first Dunk Contest, told The Action Network. “That’s one thing we did. You know, Dominique, Michael, all these guys showed up to do it.”
Sunday’s All-Star Game wasn’t expected to provide many fireworks of its own. The league changed the format — adopting a U.S. vs. the World concept — after years of declining intensity from players and shrugs from fans.
But players warned fans to temper their expectations in advance.
“It is what it is at this point,” Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards said of the player’s planned effort level before the All-Star Game.
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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