NEW YORK — After 20 years in the NBA, Dirk Nowitzki can’t be fooled.
He knows when teams aren’t giving an honest effort, when they are out there playing but not playing to win.
“It’s pretty obvious,” Nowitzki said.
While easy to spot, tanking is not so easy to stop, the NBA is finding.
It’s a problem for the league office, which has fined owners, chastised teams and sent out league-wide memos on the topic. And with big brother watching, teams are abiding by the letter of the law, but arguably not the spirit of its intent.