EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsCount Mark Cuban as pro-NBA tanking.Cuban, the former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, says the fan experience is chief among the reasons the NBA should "embrace tanking." "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 said.Last week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000, with the NBA saying both teams sat healthy players in recent games while noting that moves that compromise the league's integrity won't be tolerated.Cuban, who still owns a share of the Mavericks, challenged that approach and says the league should be more transparent in tanking discussions."The worst s--- that the nba dishes out, is that if you don't lie to your fans about what you are doing , even though it's obvious to them , you get fined. And the threaten you with losing picks," he wrote. Cuban says tanking helped to get Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft. The Mavericks went 24-58 in 2017, the season before drafting Doncic, who was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025."We didn't tank often. Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it. And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get Luka and improve our team," he wrote.Cuban wrote that the team was fined $600,000 after that, saying "It's a joke."Fans make the league, Cuban wrote, and the NBA must embrace that and create better experiences for them."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," he said.To Cuban, a good fan experience also includes affordability."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," he wrote. "[The NBA] should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking."Tanking also proves to fans that teams are looking ahead to next season, Cuban wrote."Fans know their team can't win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team's record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring."Over the All-Star weekend, commissioner Adam Silver addressed questions about tanking, acknowledging that tanking has been "worse this year than we've seen in recent memory" and he is considering "every possible remedy," including taking away draft picks, to stop it.
