The NBA knows it has a problem. There’s a built-in concession prize that increases in value the worse a team becomes, and it’s much easier to be bad in the NBA than good. Rebuilding used to come in cycles for every team. Then a few teams (okay, maybe just one) decided to game the system by gutting their teams of any veteran talent. Now, the only word anyone has for this phenomenon is ‘tanking.’
Even the mere notion of tanking is a fineable offense for owners and front office personnel. Most recently, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $600,000 for his comments on the “House Call with Dr.