The NBA is set to return today from an all-star break that provided reporters an opportunity to hear Adam Silver’s thoughts on some of the egregious tanking that took place the first half of the season. Fresh off the league doling out fines to the Jazz and Pacers, it was the first topic Silver was asked about during his annual all-star press conference, and he admitted tanking has been worse this year.
There was a caveat, though. Silver also said teams are in a difficult place, because while fans don’t want their teams to be bad, they often have to root for them to lose to improve draft position. Reading into his two-sided response, it was clear those fines weren’t simply because the Jazz and Pacers were tanking. It was about how they were tanking.
The league has let plenty cases of tanking slide in the past. In the case of Utah and Indiana, it was the ‘overt’ nature of how they did it, as the NBA said in its announcement. And let’s be honest, that overt tanking only bothered one community of people: bettors.
On his Greatest Of All Talk podcast, NBA writer Ben Golliver pointed directly at gambling for the fines: ‘If coaches are just willy-nilly not playing guys the entire game and they’re not letting people know in advance that they plan to do that, you’re going to have a lot of angry gamblers and a lot of angry gambling companies as well,’ he said.
Tom Haberstroh echoed a similar sentiment on The Big Number podcast, saying ‘I think a lot of the partnerships they’ve made, they’re having trouble being able to say, yeah we have these injury reports and you can 100 percent trust them.’
Fans across social media are bristling at the mere thought of gambling companies dictating the NBA’s decision-making, but the time for purse-clutching about the impact of having sportsbook partners passed the moment the league got into bed with them. Today, those relationships are absolutely things the NBA has to consider in its decision-making.
Gamblers and gambling operators shouldn’t be the only priority when it comes to fixing the tanking issue, but in 2026, they have to be among them. Right there with non-gambling fans, TV partners and even the teams doing the tanking that don’t always get rewarded in the lottery.
So how do you fix the problem? Silver seemed open to the idea of a radical change, saying ‘what we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now is not working.’ One solution thrown around a lot over the last week that I 100 percent support is to get rid of the draft. Whatever the solution, the NBA needs to find it for all parties involved.
The real NBA title contenders
Now, to the basketball. As the NBA season enters the stretch run before the playoffs, our guy Robert Zeglinski indentified every team that has a realistic shot at winning the championship. That list came down to nine actual contenders, and it’s surprisingly balanced between the East and West.
Brining in the bottom of that list? The Houston Rockets:
‘The Houston Rockets entered this season with reasonable aspirations of winning their third title in franchise history. For good reason. … But it’s evident the Rockets have desperately missed the presence of starting and steadying point guard Fred VanVleet, who is out for the year with a torn ACL. And recent chemistry issues have bubbled to the surface amid a troubling 7-5 stretch before the All-Star break.’
I loved Houston coming into the season, but I can’t lie, those Kevin Durant burner rumors don’t make me feel good about them right now.
Quick hits: Bears stadium plans … near-hockey scandal … and more
There’s been a new development in the Bears’ apparent interest in moving to Indiana. Here’s Wajih AlBaroudi with everything we know about the team’s stadium plans.
Good thing Canada pulled out the win in Wednesday’s men’s Olympic hockey quarters, because refs missing a blatant penalty during Czechia’s go-ahead goal in the third would’ve been a big scandal.
Bill Self seems to be done defending Darryn Peterson after the talented but inconsistent fresman apparently pulled himself from Kansas’ win over Oklahoma State.
Is Jacob Elordi set to become the next James Bond? Cory Woodroof has the details about that rumor.
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