The NBA delivered big fines to two teams for sitting players and affecting the integrity of games. Another concern may be the integrity of NBA bets.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league was considering “every possible remedy” for tanking at his All-Star Saturday news conference. An NBA insider suggested that the league’s concern wasn’t simply due to issues of competitiveness, but a result of pressure from the league’s gambling partners, FanDuel and DraftKings.
Tanking and gambling are both rampant in the NBA
Silver told reporters that tanking, meaning overt behavior by teams to lose games to improve draft position, was “worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory.” That was the stated reason that the league fined the Utah Jazz $500K for repeatedly benching star Lauri Markkanen in the fourth quarter, and why the Indiana Pacers drew a $100K fine for sitting starters, albeit on a back-to-back game.
NBA insider Ben Golliver, formerly of the Washington Post, claimed that one reason the commissioner acted was that when teams are tanking, “you’re going to have a lot of angry gamblers and a lot of gambling companies.”
