Finally! NBA Commissioner Adam Silver just said the words every fan who loves competitive basketball has been dying to hear: "We are going to fix it. Full stop."
He's talking about tanking, folks, and he's not messing around. At today's Board of Governors meeting, Silver announced unanimous support from owners to change the rules before the June draft. Not next year, not eventually - before this June's draft.
Let me tell you something: this is one of my biggest pet peeves in all of sports. Teams that don't play to win. Organizations that tell their fans, "Hey, we know you paid for tickets, but we're actively trying to lose games because it helps our draft position." That's not sports - that's a broken system.
According to Mike Vorkunov, there will be a special Board of Governors session in May dedicated entirely to solving this problem. Think about that - they're calling a special session because the situation has gotten so bad that it can't wait for the normal schedule.
Now, I don't know exactly what the fix will be. Maybe they flatten the lottery odds even more. Maybe they introduce penalties for teams that obviously tank. Maybe they get creative with some kind of tournament or play-in structure that incentivizes winning all the way through the season.
What I do know is this: when you have unanimous owner support and the commissioner using words like "full stop," things are about to change. And that's a good thing for basketball.
On a related note, Silver is also defending the league's 65-game rule for awards eligibility despite player complaints. And you know what? I'm with him on that too. If you want to win MVP, you should have to, I don't know, actually play most of the season. Revolutionary concept, right?
This is about protecting the integrity of the game. About making sure every team on the schedule is trying to win. About giving fans what they paid for: competitive basketball from October to April.
