The NBA sent a memo to teams last week making clear its stance on anti-tanking efforts, this coming on the heels of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban being fined $600,000 for his comments on the matter.
“Look, losing is our best option,” Cuban recalled telling people during a dinner service.
Despite Cuban’s comment, multiple Mavericks personnel told Def Pen Hoops they were unaware of his remarks. From an ownership and management perspective, tanking has become popularized around the league in recent years. But you’d be hard-pressed to discover it within a coaching or playing prospective.
“Over the past several seasons, discussions about so-called ‘tanking’ in the NBA have occurred with some frequency, both in the public discourse and within our league, and you as governors have taken steps to address the underlying incentive issues by adopting changes to our draft lottery system that will go into effect next year,” Silver wrote in the letter, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports. “Throughout this period, we have been careful to distinguish between efforts teams may make to rebuild their rosters, including through personnel changes over the course of several seasons, and circumstances in which players or coaches on the floor take steps to lose games.
“The former can be a legitimate strategy to construct a successful team within the confines of league rules; the latter — which we have not found and hope never to see in the NBA — has no place in our game. If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office.”
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“The integrity of the competition on the playing court is the cornerstone of our league,” Silver continued. “It is our pact with the fans and with each other, the fundamental reason we exist as a preeminent sporting organization, the very product that we sell. With everything else changing around us, it is the one thing in our league that can never change. We must do everything in our power to protect the actual and perceived integrity of the game.”
The NBA’s investigation revealed Cuban deserved a fine for his public comments, but unsurprisingly, the league failed to find anything aside from what was stated that day.
“We have no basis at this time to conclude that the Mavericks team is giving anything less than its best effort on the court, and Mark has assured us that this is not the case,” Adam Silver concluded in the memo. “But even a suggestion that such conduct could be occurring is obviously damaging to our game, as it creates a perception of impropriety. It is also extraordinarily unfair to the players and coaches who are, in fact, competing at their highest possible level every night. You are therefore advised to avoid such statements, and to pass along this admonition to all other key personnel in your organizations. We will continue to monitor closely the play of all teams during the remainder of the season.”
The Mavericks currently sit 12th in the Western Conference with a 19-42 record.
