Mat Ishbia calls NBA tanking an embarrassment on The Pat McAfee Show

When Mat Ishbia went on The Pat McAfee Show and called tanking “an embarrassment” and “horrible,” it wasn’t idle rhetoric. It was an owner publicly drawing a line in a league still wrestling with competitive ethics.

Mat Ishbia appears on The Pat McAfee Show:

Ishbia didn’t just criticize the concept. He revived his earlier support of Adam Silver’s crackdown on teams manipulating outcomes for lottery position. Nationally, his comments land at a pressure point. Small-market teams argue that tanking is the only viable path to contention. But the data shows that player development infrastructure, cap management, and organizational stability outperform deliberate losing over time. Sustained relevance builds equity; tanking mortgages it.

For Suns fans, this isn’t theoretical. In a Western Conference arms race, waving the white flag would fracture trust in a market that just invested emotionally and financially. Ishbia’s message is simple: wanting to compete now, no matter what the cost is. Ownership philosophy is becoming a competitive advantage. Ishbia understands that in an era of player empowerment and fan transparency, intent matters. Winning culture isn’t accidental. It’s built and demanded internally. In Phoenix, that declaration just echoed across the league.