Mark Cuban Takes Controversial Side In NBA's Tanking Debate

Mark Cuban says NBA should 'embrace' tanking

In a lengthy social media post shared to his X account, Cuban sounded off on what he believes the NBA should do when it comes its tanking epidemic:

"The NBA [has] been misguided thinking that fans want to see their teams compete every night with a chance to win. It’s never been [that way]," the multibillionaire began. "When I got into the nba, they thought they were in the basketball business. They aren’t. They are in the business of creating experiences for fans."

"Few can remember the score from the last game they saw or went to. They can’t remember the dunks or shots. What they remember is who they were with. Their family, friends, a date. That’s what makes the experience special," Cuban argued.

"The nba should worry more about fan experience than tanking. It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking," he concluded. "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."

Adam Silver considering 'every possible remedy' to NBA teams tanking

Speaking ahead of Saturday's All-Star events, Adam Silver addressed what he sees as the league's biggest issue right now.

"In the old days, 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. ... Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view."

"If teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks even in a lottery, then the question becomes ... are they really the worst-performing teams?" the commissioner added. "It's a bit of a conundrum. ... 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."

"It's part of my job to remind everybody. ... I understand what your short-term interests may be, but we'd better not lose sight of our fans here. We'd better not lose sight of the people who support this league day in and day out."

There are certainly valid points to be made on both sides. And there should also be a way for the league to have both competitive integrity and affordability for its millions of fans.