Tanking has been a major issue in the NBA over the last few years. Specifically with the Philadelphia 76ers openly being bad in order to nab a high draft pick. This, in the league’s eyes, was supremely damaging to the NBA. Competition is the base of sports and one team choosing to abandon it is a clear breach of that norm. Even though the players on the floor are maybe playing just as hard as normal, the talent purposely being drained is a net negative.
To combat this, Adam Silver has looked everywhere to find a possible fix. In an interview with ESPN’s Mike and Mike, he said he even looked at the European League’s relegation system.
“We are gonna have to react and change incentives a bit. I do think it’s frustrating,”
“I was talking to my European soccer men a few minutes ago, I’m not saying we are gonna do it in the NBA, but they have the best incentives of all because teams actually get relegated from the league. Think of the consequences there, they lose their television money, they lose their big ticket revenue by not playing the top teams. So teams have every incentive not to fall to the bottom.”
This would be an extremely bold move by the NBA to stop tanking altogether. It would unlikely pass but it is interesting to see how hard Adam Silver is pushing to find a fix for bad basketball.
