Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is sickened by teams tanking games to try to improve their draft position, calling it “ridiculous,” “losing behavior done by losers” and “much worse than any prop bet scandal” in a social media post on Thursday.
Ishbia linked his tweet to a Yahoo Sports story posted on X about tanking in the league. While not new, the so-called strategy came back to the forefront when commissioner Adam Silver spoke last weekend about its prevalence after the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers were docked $100,000 last week.
“This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers,” Ishbia wrote on his X account. “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,” he continued. “If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of whole league. This is much worse than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically.”
Ishbia completed his purchase of the Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from Robert Sarver in February 2023 for $4 billion.
Phoenix does not control its own first-round draft pick until 2032 because of trades made since 2023, meaning the Suns cannot benefit from losing games intentionally.
“Horrible for fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team. And horrible for all the real teams that are competing for playoff spots,” wrote Ishbia, who played guard at Michigan State, appearing in 48 games (one start) from 1999-2002, including the 2000 national championship season
Silver said on Saturday during the All-Star Weekend in Inglewood, Calif., that teams’ blatant approach to tanking is worse than he’s seen in recent memory.
“Which was what led to those fines, and not just those fines but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice,” Silver said.
The Jazz were fined for limiting the court time of two of their best players, while the Pacers were penalized for roster manipulation that kept three starters from a recent game.
Silver says the league could impose additional penalties, up to and including the forfeiture of the teams’ draft picks.
“I think we’re coming at it in two ways,” Silver said. “One is, again, focusing on the here and now, the behavior we’re seeing from our teams and doing whatever we can to remind them of what their obligation is to the fans and to their partner teams. But No. 2 … the competition committee started earlier this year re-examining the whole approach to how the draft lottery works.”
Ishbia, in his post, said he is confident that Silver will fix the problem with massive changes.
“Those of us in a position of influence need to speak out,” Ishbia wrote. “… the only “strategy” is doing right by fans, players, and the NBA community.”
