Mark Cuban is adamant tanking is actually good for the NBA.
In a lengthy post on his X page on Tuesday morning, the Mavericks’ minority owner argued the league should “embrace” the act of intentionally losing in order to get better.
“Fans know their team can’t win every game,” said Cuban, who later apologized for the typos in his message. “They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team’s record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.
“The one way to get closer to that is via the draft. And trades. And cap room. You have a better chance of improving via all 3 , when you tank.”
He then stated the league should focus on making games more affordable — claiming that’s a far bigger problem for the NBA than tanking.
“The NBA should worry more about fan experience than tanking,” he said. “It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking. You know who cares the least about tanking , a parent who cant afford to bring their 3 kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player.
“Tanking isn’t the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are.”
Tanking has been a dilemma that’s plagued the Association for decades, but during a press conference at All-Star Weekend on Saturday in Inglewood, Adam Silver said it’s “worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory.”
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The commissioner already levied massive fines on the Jazz and Pacers for sitting their stars in games, and then he vowed to implement whatever he could further to slow it down, including potentially taking away draft picks.
But Cuban seemed certain Silver should be directing his energy elsewhere.
“We didn’t tank often,” the former Mavericks majority owner said. “Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it. And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get Luka (Doncic) and improve our team.”
Cuban made a compelling case, though given the way Silver sternly spoke about the matter over the weekend, it’s unlikely he and the NBA change course anytime soon.