For years the NBA has made an effort to curb tanking, the practice of teams intentionally losing in order to gain advantages in the coming season, such as preferable draft picks. The league has expanded playoffs to incentivize strong late-season performance and, more recently, fined franchises as much $750,000 for intentionally losing late-season games.
Billionaire investor and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn’t see this deliberate underperformance as an issue. The NBA should “embrace tanking,” he said, and instead address the real reason holding the sport back: that more people can’t afford to go to games.
