Commissioner Adam Silver has finally had enough. And honestly? It's about time.
According to Shams Charania, Silver informed all 30 general managers on Thursday that the NBA plans to implement anti-tanking rule changes for the 2026-27 season. The league is done watching teams race to the bottom.
And look, we all know which teams we're talking about here. The Kings. The Jazz. The Wizards. The Pacers. The Nets. All of them facing accusations of tanking - sitting healthy players, making "coaching decisions" that just happen to help them lose games, playing guys who have no business seeing NBA minutes.
It's killing the integrity of the game, and Silver finally has the backbone to do something about it.
"Stakeholders have intensified dialogue about combatting tanking," the report says. Translation: The owners, the players, and the fans are all sick of watching teams intentionally lose.
Here's what drives me crazy about tanking: Fans deserve better. These people are paying hundreds of dollars for tickets, buying jerseys, watching every game - and the team is actively trying to lose? That's not just bad business. That's a betrayal of trust.
I get the incentive structure. The draft lottery rewards losing. If you're at the bottom, you get the best odds at a franchise player. But that system has created a perverse incentive where teams are rewarded for being terrible instead of rewarded for trying to win.
Some teams have taken it to absurd levels. We've seen healthy All-Stars sitting out for "load management" when their team is fighting for lottery position. We've seen coaches mysteriously benching their best players in the fourth quarter. We've seen rosters constructed to .
