OPINION:
I’ve often said that the NBA today is, for the most part, unwatchable.
I didn’t expect NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to agree with me during, of all times, the weekend of the league’s showcase event.
But that’s what Silver did during his annual All-Star press conference Saturday in Los Angeles, when he spoke the unspoken – teams are trying to lose NBA games.
“Tanking” — the practice of trying to lose — has gone public.
“If teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks even in a lottery, then the question becomes … are they really the worst-performing teams?” Silver told reporters. “It’s not clear to me, for example, that the 30th-performing team is that much measurably worse than the 22nd-performing team, particularly if you have incentive to perform poorly to get a better draft pick.”
Silver’s statements come on the heels of fining two teams — 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.
I’m guessing that he didn’t fine the Wizards because he might have forgotten they are in the league.
Maybe he’ll remember at some point in April, when he realizes that Washington’s two high-priced recent acquisitions, Trae Young and Anthony Davis, have yet to appear in a Wizards game.
“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.”
What Silver essentially said here was that on most nights, any game involving the Jazz and the Pacers — and any reasonable person can throw the Wizards into that group, all three are competing for losing records — are essentially unwatchable.
Can we agree that teams trying to lose are unwatchable?
The losing is part of the “process” of getting better for teams that have made poor decisions that leave them with little hope other than perhaps reaching the first round of the playoffs or maybe even winning a couple of NBA Cup games. But the distance to a conference championship round or the finals seems unattainable.
That has led to the race to the bottom of the standings, with Peters now issuing fines for losing so transparently.
But, at this point, the alternative is worse — trying to win enough games to honestly face the commissioner and say you are trying to win, however futile the purpose of winning may be. So fines are simply the cost of doing business.
Do you really think that the Wizards front office is going to risk their standing to lose their 2026 first-round pick, which is top-eight protected, for fear of being fined?
Owner Ted Leonsis didn’t go through these three years of trying to lose to build up to this key tanking moment only to forfeit a valued place in this year’s rich draft because of a few fines.
Anyway, Silver admitted he can’t keep fining the people who pay his salary.
“It will lead to very unhealthy relationships between us and our teams,” he said.
He said the league is looking for other ways to stop the flop.
“We got to look at some fresh thinking here,” Silver said. “What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now, is not working. There’s no question about it.”
What that is — changing draft odds in the lottery or doing away with the draft altogether and let everyone be a free agent — could create a set of new problems.
“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” he said.
I’m not sure there is a solution. So if they are truly looking at every possible remedy, here’s one that at least offers some protections to the customers paying outrageous ticket prices to watch their teams lose on purpose — losing teams should have to pay rebates to fans.
If your team is designated by the league at a certain point in the season as a tanker, then the fans for that team buying season tickets get a percentage of their money back, and game day tickets get reduced.
Because, let’s face it, the losing isn’t the problem — it’s the stealing out of the wallets of their customers.
“It’s part of my job to remind everybody. … I understand what your short-term interests may be, but we’d better not lose sight of our fans here,” Silver said. “We’d better not lose sight of the people who support this league day in and day out.”
I get that owners would rather stick needles in their eyes rather than give money back. But if Silver really wants to examine all remedies, this is one that might allow them to take money from fans without committing fraud.
Yes, your team is trying to purposely lose. But you’re no longer paying winning ticket prices. It’s a new pricing structure — the tanking tier.
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