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Suns owner Mat Ishbia calls tanking teams ‘losers’

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Matt Wadleigh | Last updated Feb 19, 2026 2:13 PM ET

With the 2025-26 NBA season coming closer to an end, some teams are benching players as they begin to tank for a better draft pick.

The NBA tanking “strategy” has been a popular discussion as of late, and now Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia joined in on the conversation. Ishbia called the teams that tank “losers” and said that tanking in general is “ridiculous.”

“This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a “strategy” is ridiculous,” Ishbia wrote at the beginning of a lengthy post on X.

This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a “strategy” is ridiculous.

If you are a bad team, you get a… https://t.co/VoUx3YEdB5
— Mat Ishbia (@Mishbia15) February 19, 2026

The Utah Jazz raised eyebrows when head coach Will Hardy rested some of the team’s best players in the fourth quarter recently.

The Indiana Pacers also have been subject to tanking rumblings, and the NBA fined the Jazz $500,000 and the Pacers $100,000 for a violation of the league’s Player Participation Policy.

During the NBA All-Star weekend, commissioner Adam Silver said the league is examining possible solutions to prevent tanking.

The NBA Draft Lottery system is different than how it works in other sports, such as the NFL and MLB. The teams with the three-worst records in the NBA all have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick, and the odds decrease from there.

At the end of the day, the lottery is based on how the ping-pong balls roll, but teams trying to tank want the best chances possible to land a high pick in the draft.

Whether or not the NBA does anything to prevent tanking remains to be seen, but Ishbia certainly is not happy about the latest development in the league.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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