The NBA has decided to once and for all take advantage of “tanking”, that practice of losing on purpose to improve positions in the Draft that has been established in the competition for years. It’s not new, but the growing media noise and the feeling that some teams have taken the strategy too far have pushed the league to react. Adam Silver wants to intervene now that the debate is louder than ever and is studying changes to limit deliberate defeats that, although common in the past, threaten to erode the credibility of the championship and the value of the spectacle.
The offensive began to take shape this Thursday in a key meeting between Silver and the general directors of the franchises. According to the chain ESPNthe plan that will be put to a vote next month seeks to dynamite the incentives for defeat through a revolutionary reform: setting the draft lottery odds at a certain date of the calendar. With this move, the benefit of stringing defeats in the last weeks of the regular phase would be eliminated in one fell swoop, a strategy that distorts the classification and adulterates the product that is exported to the entire planet.
Millionaire fines against laziness
This firmness is not just rhetoric, but is accompanied by sanctions that are already bleeding the teams’ coffers dry. The league has already recently fined the Utah Jazz con $500,000 for setting up their key pieces in decisive moments of even matches. It is not an isolated case: the Indiana Pacers they have had to pay $100,000 for not aligning the stars like Pascal Siakamadding to the corrective of $750,000 who have already suffered Dallas Mavericks last year for a similar sports engineering maneuver.
Silver himself has been categorical in ensuring that any remedy to stop this behavior is on the table for debate. The priority is to guarantee fair competition and meet the expectations of fans who demand to see the best possible level every day. Although there is already Player Participation Policydesigned to prevent figures from resting in televised matches, in the offices of New York There is a feeling that it is still not enough to eradicate the mischief in the offices.
The American league is risking its credibility in this fight against managers who prefer future profits to respect for the present. By toughening punishments and eliminating rewards for mediocrity, the NBA seeks to recover the competitive essence that made it a global benchmark. The message is direct and does not allow interpretation: deliberate defeat will cease to be a profitable strategy and will become a prohibitive luxury for any pocket.
