The NBA is moving forward with hopes of adopting new policies for next season that give teams far fewer reasons to intentionally add up to losses, two people with knowledge of the plans said Thursday.
Commissioner Adam Silver said last weekend during the league’s All-Star Game activities that “every possible solution … to stop this behavior” is on the table. Silver detailed several possible options to league general managers in a call Thursday, according to the people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league has not publicly announced any specific plans.
ESPN was the first outlet to report that Silver spoke with general managers about the league’s plans.
Nothing is defined and one of the people who spoke with the AP pointed out that there are already many ideas on the table. Among some of the proposals is to set the lottery odds from a certain date, which would leave teams with no reason not to seek victory in the final weeks of a season.
The issue is likely to be addressed further next month at a meeting of the Board of Governors.
Losing on purpose, a practice known as “tanking,” has been a topic of conversation throughout the NBA in recent weeks, and the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 “for conduct detrimental to the league” — specifically, for benching Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarters of two games.
The league said the Jazz did so “even though these players were otherwise able to remain on the court and the results of the games remained in doubt.”
The NBA also fined the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for violating the Player Participation Policy by not using certain members — including Pascal Siakam, who meets the definition of a “star” under that policy — in a game earlier this month against Utah.
The league has addressed the issue many times over the years, including changing the lottery format, adding the Player Participation Policy and imposing stiff fines — like the $750,000 fine levied on the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, when they left out most of their key players in a late-season game despite still having a chance to make the playoffs.
“I think we’re approaching it in two ways. One is, again, focusing on the here and now, on the behavior that we’re seeing from our teams and doing everything we can to remind them of their obligation to the fans and to their partner teams,” Silver said during All-Star weekend. “But secondly… the competition committee started earlier this year to reexamine the entire approach to how the draft lottery works.
“We want fair competition, we want fair systems and, above all, keep in mind the fans and their expectation that we are going to offer the best possible product,” he stated.
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