"What is to be done about NBA tanking? Based on the pissy administrative response from the league to some recently and spectacularly egregious examples of Tank Mode, you might think it is the most pressing problem facing a league that has a few of those. Thankfully, the solution is easy: Book a fight in the schoolyard, where the people doing the fighting aren't the students but the teachers. Sign us up for that one every day."
"Commissioner Adam Silver took the bait on Thursday when he decided to fine the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for failing to meet even the subterranean standards for competitive dignity during the past week. The Jazz have been particularly noteworthy-which is a first for them on any front over the past decade or so-and so received five times the tsk-tsk-tsk that the Pacers did."
"So he did what any wounded rich guy would do-he went on antisocial media and used the delightful fifth-grade logic of "Yeah, but we don't do it all the time." Smith might have made a better case had he pointed out that the Jazz were not the first team to think of sitting out the healthy starters that had played the first three quarters of the game, but a billionaire scorned is a billionaire scorned. You have to grade these things on a curve."
The league issued fines: the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for recent noncompetitive behavior. The Jazz rested healthy starters late in games, prompting sharper criticism and a larger fine. Many owners treat fines as an acceptable business expense rather than a deterrent, and some teams would pay repeatedly if it improved draft positioning. Jazz owner Ryan Smith publicly downplayed the penalty on social media and argued selective culpability. A suggested remedy calls for tougher, more authoritative enforcement measures that shift accountability upward to ensure meaningful competitive integrity.
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