INGLEWOOD, CA — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took a forceful stand against tanking in his NBA All-Star Weekend press conference, talking at length about the hot-button topic that’s ‘been part of this league for a long time.’
Earlier this week, the league fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and Indiana Pacers $100,000 for violations of its player participation policy and conduct detrimental to the league. They aren’t the only teams openly tanking, though, ahead of a 2026 draft that’s thought to be one of the strongest in recent years.
Silver’s response at the Intuit Dome on Saturday was just as blatant.
‘Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view,’ he said. ‘Which was what led to those fines, and not just those fines but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.’
In addition to more fines, Silver was asked if he would consider stripping draft picks from teams that continue to tank.
‘There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,’ he said.
Silver also mentioned that the league has had economists look at the draft lottery system and point out how the incentives — the worst-performing teams receiving the best odds for a pick and the teams that just miss out on the playoffs being stuck in the middle of the road — are backwards.
‘I think there was a more classical view of that in the old days, where it was just sort of an understanding among partners in terms of behavior,’ Silver said. ‘I think what we’re seeing is modern analytics where it’s so clear that the incentives are misaligned. … The worst place to be, for example, is to be a middle-of-the-road team. Either be great or be bad, because then that will help you with the draft.
‘In many cases, you have fans of those teams — remember, it’s not what they want to pay for to see poor performance on the floor, but they’re actually rooting for their teams in some cases to be bad to improve their draft chances.’
Silver added that the league is focused on both the short-term response — fines and putting teams on notice about tanking — while also looking for a long-term solution to a problem that has been ever-evolving.
Former Commissioner David Stern introduced the draft lottery in 1985, which Silver said the league has made adjustments to ‘about five times.’ Some in the media have begun calling for the draft to be abolished entirely and, while that’s an extreme end of the spectrum, Silver admitted Saturday that it might be time — past time, even — for the league to reassess.
‘It’s a bit of a conundrum,’ Silver said. ‘The All-Star is 75 years old. The league is 80 years old. It’s time to take a fresh look at this to see to whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it. Ultimately, we need a system to fairly, I think, distribute players. I think it’s in the players’ interest as well as the teams that you have a level of parity around the league. There’s only so many jobs and so many cities.
‘… What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now, is not working; there’s no question about it. Yes, is there more I can do? Have I attempted not only to respond to behavior we’ve seen but send a clear message that we’re going to be scrutinizing everything we see going forward? Absolutely.’
Adam Silver discusses prediction markets
With the news of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s recent investment in Kalshi, Silver took a moment to discuss where the league stands as far as prediction markets go.
‘We currently are looking at prediction markets essentially in the same way that we’re looking at sports betting markets or sports betting companies,’ Silver said. ‘We have a rule that was collectively bargained with the Players Association that players can make, I will call them, de minimis investments in sports betting companies, and we’re applying the same rule to prediction markets.’
The rule is that players cannot hold more than a 1% interest in sports betting — and now, by extension, prediction market — companies. To Silver’s knowledge, Antetokounmpo’s stake in Kalshi is ‘much smaller’ than that, so he is not in violation of any league rules.
But it’s still an issue that Silver is keeping a close eye on.
‘It’s rapidly evolving,’ he said. ‘Prediction markets have now come on the scene fairly recently as, I don’t know how else to say it, major sports betting marketplaces. Whether prediction markets are allowed to go forward in the form they’re in now will, I think, be ultimately an issue for the courts and for Congress.
‘But even if they go away, the league is now dealing with essentially 40 different jurisdictions that have legalized sports betting in the United States. Still a huge illegal market. I’d say one other category that I hardly ever hear people talk about is that the last I looked, there are probably 80 countries in the world outside of the United States that also have legalized betting on the NBA.’