The modern NBA is more powerful, more profitable, and more globally visible than ever before. Yet beneath the surface of $14.3 billion in projected revenue and historic media deals lies a flaw that threatens the league’s competitive credibility: tanking.
When teams start tanking to improve draft position, the foundation of professional sport, competitive integrity, begins to fracture. In an era defined by legalized sports betting, streaming expansion, and player empowerment, the stakes are too high for the NBA to tolerate strategic losing disguised as “rebuilding.” The central question is no longer whether tanking exists. It is whether the league will decisively confront it.
Adam Silver and the Tanking Problem…
Commissioner Adam Silver has openly acknowledged that tanking behaviour during the 2025-26 season is worse than in recent memory. His language has been unusually direct, warning that overt lineup manipulation and benching of healthy players “undermine the foundation of NBA competition.” Fines have proven insufficient, the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000, and the Indiana Pacers $100,000, for what the league deemed blatant tanking tactics.
Yet financial penalties barely dent franchise valuations worth billions. The issue is no longer subtle; it is visible to fans, bettors, and media partners alike. In a gambling-integrated ecosystem, manipulation erodes trust. When outcomes appear influenced by draft positioning rather than competition, the league’s authenticity, its most valuable asset, weakens, and tanking becomes a way for teams to get better.
Has the NBA Tried to Stop Tanking Before?
The NBA already attempted to stop tanking before. The 2019 lottery odds flattening, reducing the top three worst teams to equal 14% odds for the No. 1 pick , was designed to discourage bottoming out. Instead, it unintentionally widened tanking behaviour. Since the reform, 11 of 28 top-four selections have gone to teams with seventh-or-worse odds, incentivizing mid-lottery manoeuvring. Rather than eliminating tanking, the system redistributed it. Approximately one-third of the league at times now operates without full competitive intent late in seasons. Mathematically, the structure still rewards losing: for non-playoff teams, late-season victories can carry “negative value” by reducing lottery odds without providing postseason upside. Wins become liabilities. That inversion of incentives directly contradicts the ethos of professional sport.
What Could The NBA Do To Stop Tanking?
Beyond integrity and mathematics lies the business and fan impact. Owners such as Phoenix Suns governor Mat Ishbia have labeled tanking a “disgrace” that harms authenticity. When teams sit healthy stars or prioritize draft positioning over effort, ticket value declines, television ratings soften, and arena atmospheres suffer. Fans are paying premium prices for genuine competition, not developmental exhibitions disguised as NBA contests.
In a revenue environment driven by national media contracts and betting partnerships, even the perception of compromised competition threatens long-term growth. The draft was designed to help struggling teams restock talent, not to institutionalize losing as a strategic pathway. Proposed reforms, such as prohibiting consecutive top-four picks, locking lottery odds earlier in the season, or restricting mid-lottery pick protections, would reduce multi-year tanking cycles and eliminate protection-driven losses like those seen in previous cases involving the Dallas Mavericks. These changes would realign incentives toward nightly competition without dismantling parity.
My position is firm: the NBA should implement stricter anti-tanking rules. Rebuilding is legitimate; deliberate competitive compromise is not. The league’s competitive integrity, financial stability, and cultural credibility depend on ensuring that every game carries authentic intent. If the NBA wishes to preserve its growth trajectory and protect the emotional investment of its fans, it must evolve the draft system so that losing is never strategically superior to winning.
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