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Adam Silver Declares NBA Is 'Fixing' The Tanking Problem

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Mar 25, 2026 4:39 PM ET

With about 10 games left in the 2025-26 NBA season there are currently five teams that already have 50 losses and that number will probably reach seven or eight in short order. That's about a quarter of the entire league that will wind up being more than 25 games under .500. Some will wind up being 40 to 50 games below .500.

One of the many reasons that there are so many awful teams right now is that teams basically throw in the towel on the season and "tank" for the top overall draft picks. That is, after all, where most of the franchise-altering talent tends to be.

But just as NBA fans have long since gotten fed up with seeing teams tank, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has too.

According to David Aldridge of The Athletic, Silver announced that a special NBA Board of Governors meeting will take place in May to address proposed changes before the 2026 NBA Draft in June.

Adam Silver, on tanking: "we are going to fix it. Full stop." Says there will be a special Board of Governors meeting in May to vote on proposed changes, so that they are in place before the NBA draft in June.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) March 25, 2026

Seeds of Doubt

NBA fans aren't so sure that there is anything the league can or will actually do about the problem though:

"What a load of crap. You can’t fix something that’s entirely the result of your broken financial model. You can’t fix that without better ownership," one user on X declared.

"That's always easier said than done. It becomes very complicated. If you are a middle of the pack team, there's no place worse. What's the difference between tanking and starting over? Are teams that have made their run supposed to keep talent or trade to start over?" wrote another.

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"You wanna fix it? Make it so every team in the lottery gets the same amount of ping pong balls. Yup. All 32 teams. Make it an actually lottery of chance," a third proposed.

Can Silver and the NBA Board of Governors really solve the tanking problem?

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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