The NBA’s Tanking Problem is More of a Perception than Reality and Relegation Can’t Fix That

This past weekend, during NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s apology tour meeting with the troubled Phoenix Suns staff, he was presented with a new issue. Governor Robert Sarver of the suspended team received an apology from Silver, who was also bombarded with inquiries concerning the issue of tanking.
This season, pious large market franchises have portrayed teams that are strengthening their position to select the legendary talent Victor Wembanyama as mortal sinners. As old as the modern draught is that mentality. Naturally, Silver concurred and said that the league has warned teams about the major problem of widespread tanking. In addition to opposing the idea of relegation as a punishment, according to reports, Silver also invoked European soccer as the deus ex machina for the league’s woes.
More than any other league, the NBA turns to Europe when it faces a challenge. Do you have an answer for the middle third of the season’s declining concern? The solution is in Europe’s football cup model. To replace the hole left by LeBron, do you need to advertise for an interesting fresh superstar? Consider France.
The NBA has long since abandoned any thought of demotion. When the league did not anticipate the long-term commercial logic of having the ABA around as a B-League instead of dissolving the teams they didn’t take, they mishandled that prospect in the middle of the 1970s. We’re left with the Magic adhering to the NBA floor rather than the Pittsburgh Condors and Virginia Squires competing for advancement.
At the start of the season, the NBA community has been preoccupied with the upcoming Tank Wars. “Tanking” has been portrayed by Silver as an infraction against paying customers. The majority of fans believe it to be more buzz than a real issue. In Indiana, Oklahoma City, or Orlando, fugazi worries about tanking wouldn’t even be on their minds if Silver’s meeting had taken place there. Even while large-market clubs find tanking annoying, it is unquestionably not a practice that justifies reshaping the NBA’s whole business model.
Dog-eat-dog culture There are always haves and have-nots in the NBA. Usually, those organizations in tiny markets are those that have trouble luring top-tier free-agent talent. There has never been a small market dynasty; this is not a mistake.
The Knicks appear rational given that losing teams are more likely to keep terrible contracts on their payroll than trade them away for young, inexpensive players. Do NBA fans really want to live in that kind of environment? Do you think the San Antonio Spurs will later regret passing up on David Robinson who was rehabilitated in order to select Tim Duncan in the 1997 draught?
The top player on a bottom-five club is less likely to take a break than stars on championship-contending squads like the Splash Brothers of Golden State or Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers. Few teams intentionally spend several years scraping the bottom of the barrel, but cellar dwellers like Oklahoma City, which plays in the third-smallest market in the NBA, have done so for the past three seasons.
In addition, the evident issue of no viable second-tier league for teams creates conflicting messages when the Commish even mentions relegation when expansion rumors are rampant. Overt tanking is more of a perception than it is a reality.