Fans in the 2025-26 NBA Season noticed something that has been in the NBA for Years, but all of a sudden, the NBA has decided to crack down on some of the oldest problems the league has had, tanking and flopping. They have co-existed with ethical basketball for decades, but in 2026, the league is finally coming up with solutions.

In the 2025-26 NBA Season, they are no longer just subtle, occasional issues; they are quite literally destroying the NBA, not only the way the game is played, but the reputation of players, teams, and the league itself. This is no longer a small problem; they are becoming a part of the NBA, and Adam Silver has had enough.

Why Did The NBA Decide To Respond Now?

Tanking Stopped Looking Strategic and Started Looking Obvious

Back in the early and mid-2010s, teams were openly tanking to secure draft picks, a strategic move that looked completely random, like they were just having a terrible year, until the owners of the teams and the league started to come out about the truth, leading to fines, but you may be wondering, what is tanking?

Tanking is a form of strategic losing, usually to secure top draft picks in the upcoming draft, which is sometimes where teams begin to turn things around for their franchise. Teams start to rest healthy players, and play G-League, bench warmer rotations to guarantee losing, and they do a great job at just that.

Although this has been in the NBA for decades, no fans have complained about it in the volume that the 2025-26 NBA season did, because this season pushed things way too far. It was visible to fans that they could tell which teams were purposely trying to lose games.

The Draft Incentive System Still Rewards Losing

Generational superstar-like talent always enters through the lottery, and while it is still a gamble for teams to bet their future on a player who has not only not proven himself in the league, but could also be a generation bust, bad teams with no clear future are willing to take these bets.

With worse records, teams can get better odds for a top pick in the draft, but even with new rules made to stop tanking, bad records still create better odds, so it is a no-brainer for more teams to tank to just increase their odds. In loaded draft classes like the upcoming 2026 class, teams a druling over a top pick, and willing to do anything to get one.

Even after the great lottery reform of 2026, teams still believe and attempt to have the worst possible record, through hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Even though teams like the Mavericks in the 2017-18 season tanked for a better record and were fined $10,000,000 becuase of comments made by Mark Cuban.

Even though all the fines and warnings, they ended up drafting Luka Doncic, who eventually made them more than $10 Million is jersey sales alone. Teams that are losing are still winning, which is something the league needs to change, because there is a difference between forced losing and just being awful.

The NBA’s Product Quality Is Taking Damage

Teams and fans are not the only people suffering because of a product of tanking; the league itself is losing out on millions of viewers and dollars in revenue, all because of this one strategy.

With teams putting tanking into full effect at the end of the season, the late-season push before the playoffs starts to become meaningless, with stars sitting out and nearly no competitive intensity put in by the tanking teams. This reduces the average fan’s satisfaction rate, leading to lower ratings and loss of fans.

Especially in the social media era of sports, embarrassing basketball highlights and news spread almost instantly across all platforms, with fans specifically getting increasingly unhappier with the current state of the NBA. The league cares about tanking because viewers and engagement have been affected, and that is how they generate their revenue.

Flopping Became a Visibility Problem Too

Tanking is not the only issue that has fans so angry on social media; flopping, the act of selling contact for a foul call for an easy extra 1 point, has gotten out of control, even though it has existed for just as long as tanking has.

Even though players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant used to draw fouls at astronomical rates, they did so mostly ethically, with them actually getting hit on most plays. In the last 10 Years, basketball has increasingly become a softer sport, even on the biggest stages like the NBA and FIBA.

With slow motion replays, thousands of highlight-focused accounts, and the NBA boasting over 210 million followers across all of their platforms, their is always national debates and playoff outrage every single time there has been an exaggerated fall, turning everyone into a viral moment.

Even fans that do not study or know the ball as deeply as some analysts, or I can tell that this is not a competition, this is just manipulation of points and a mockery of how the game of basketball should be played.

Adam Silver Is Protecting League Credibility

One positive of the whole “unethical hoops” epidemic is that the leagues commisioner, Adam Silver, has vowed to stop both tanking and flopping, with new expanded lottery ideas, harsher anti-tanking punishments, real-time, in-game flopping technicals, and potential draft pick penalties.

The NBA is attempting to restore the feeling that every single regular-season game actually mattered, with competition, fairness, and the league’s reputation all at play right now. We will see what all these changes do to the league.

The Real Challenge Is Structural

The NBA can not fully eliminate tanking without changing how rebuilding works, and flopping might be against the rules, but it all remains subjective to the officiation, with some referees officiating differently, reducing consistency.

The league is stuck in an endless cycle of balancing competition between teams throughout the regular season and playoffs, entertaining fans and keeping them satisfied, and making sure that the rules are fair and that players all agree with the rules.

The NBA is not just fixing an error that just showed up, floppnng and tanking have been here for years., but it gets to a point where it is too hard to not react and fix it when it has become so easy and clear to see that they are breaking the rules, and when teams play like this, the NBA always steps in becuae of their own incentives, revenue.

There are some positives to tanking and flopping in the NBA, do not get me wrong, but when these positives start to affect ethical hoops being disregarded for fake stats and artificially inflated box scores because of unethical hoops, it makes you wonder, what would happen if the NBA was just competive, like it use to, with players just playing good without the need for foul baiting or flagerants to stop the other team from scoring.

Flopping is one of the biggest issues when reviewing players in today’s NBA, especially for a fan like myself who enjoys ethical hoop. Flopping starts to make me question a player; when a player starts flopping, their entire brand and image is tainted, and that player is forever associated with flopping, but maybe I am overreacting to the flopping epidemic.

When fans directly start questioning effort, legitimacy, and competitiveness, the league has no choice but to respond, and once the league starts to look fake, the NBA has an issue that stems far deeper than just the basketball court, because without fan satisfaction, the NBA is nothing, and without the NBA, we are nothing…

If you enjoyed this breakdown, then please check out our other article about tanking and the league’s prowess in stopping it. Also, if you want to stay updated and informed about NBA news, about tanking and flopping, then follow us on X for daily updates.